Training at J-PAL Africa

The training team at J-PAL Africa holds training events to build researcher capacity to conduct randomized evaluations and policymaker capacity to use evidence from randomized evaluations effectively.

This page refers to capacity building activities undertaken by the J-PAL Africa office. To learn about J-PAL courses elsewhere in the world, as well as online course offerings, please visit our Global training page. 

Building Research Capacity

Evaluating Social Programs

This five-day, in-person training provides an in-depth look at why and when randomized evaluations can be used to rigorously measure social impact, methods and considerations for their design and implementation, and how findings can inform evidence-based policies and programs.

Taught by J-PAL affiliated professors and senior staff, the course is tailored to the needs of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from NGOs, governments, international organizations, private sector companies, and foundations from around the world. View lectures and materials from past Cape Town courses in 2016 and 2017. 

 

MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP)

The DEDP MicroMasters program is a collaboration between J-PAL, MIT Economics, and MITx. Through a series of online graduate-level courses, the content combines tools in program evaluation and policy design with a deep understanding of the economics and mathematical principles behind them. The program is unique in its focus on designing and running randomized evaluations to assess the effectiveness of social programs and its emphasis on hands-on skills in data analysis. Learners who receive the MicroMasters credential are eligible to apply to an accelerated Master's program at MIT. Learn more about the DEDP MicroMasters program here and MIT’s new DEDP Master’s here.

Leveraging the MicroMasters in DEDP course content

Universities may be interested in leveraging the DEDP MicroMasters online content. If you are a representative of a university and interested in learning more about how this could be structured, please contact Clare Hofmeyr. 

Building Policymaker Capacity

Evidence to Policy Courses

These customised courses aim to build the ability of policymakers and practitioners to decipher between good and bad evidence and share structured ways of thinking about when and how to use evidence from one context to inform policy in another. The courses include interactive case studies based on research from the J-PAL network in which participants work though how to apply global evidence to local challenges. View lectures and materials from our 2015 Impact Evaluation Course for Zambian policymakers and practitioners. 

Theory of Change workshops 

These customised workshops are developed for government partners with whom we are working on evidence-informed scale ups. The workshops aim to build the skills of these partners in developing theories of change and using them to inform their subsequent evaluation strategies.

For more information on training at J-PAL Africa, please contact Clare Hofmeyr.