BlogNews

News, ideas, and analysis from J-PAL staff and affiliated professors. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly email updates.

Opening doors for refugee learners: Meet Ruba

Friday, December 7, 2018, by Lauren Benner

This is a guest post from Lauren Benner of the MIT Refugee Action Hub.

More than 68.5 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety and stability. A majority of these refugees face long-term displacement. Most will not have the opportunity to return home for 7-20 years.

For many, this is an entire childhood or young adulthood spent in... Read More

Recap of Financial Inclusion Week Twitter chat: Getting digital inclusion right

Friday, December 7, 2018, by Mikaela Rabb

Globally, 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked without an account at a financial institution or mobile money provider according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2017 report. Yet, two thirds of these unbanked adults have a mobile phone, making digital technology a great opportunity to broaden financial inclusion.

On October 31st, J-PAL’s Finance sector and the Center for Effective Global Action’s Digital Credit Observatory hosted a Twitter chat... Read More

How do we achieve affordable, quality health care? Follow the evidence.

Thursday, December 6, 2018, by Darshak Sanghavi, MD

This is a guest post from Darshak Sanghavi of OptumLabs.

As a pediatrician, a health policy director, and now as a chief medical officer, I’ve dedicated my career to improving health outcomes. Through this journey, I’ve been continually inspired by new ways to improve health at scale, and by the important role that rigorous evidence and partnerships can play to improve population health. 

In 2016 I worked within the... Read More

Moving from evidence to policy change

Thursday, November 8, 2018, by Iqbal Dhaliwal and Benjamin Olken

Today we launch an expanded section of our website called Evidence to Policy, which explores how J-PAL affiliated researchers and staff, along with government and NGO partners, have drawn on evidence produced by randomized evaluations to inform policy changes around the world.

The new section includes 17 case studies from J-PAL’s broad body of experience learning how evidence can be applied. We think these examples are particularly illustrative of... Read More

Presentation at conference

Translating global evidence on violence prevention to the Mexican context

Friday, November 2, 2018, by Isabel Mejía Fontanot and Max Mendez-Beck

The Latin America region suffers disproportionately from criminal violence. According to the Igarapé Institute’s Homicide Monitor, 16 out of the 20 countries with the highest homicide rates worldwide are located in the region. This includes Mexico, which has one of the highest homicide counts in the world—recording over 30,000 murders in 2017.

While much of this violence has been attributed to the rise of organized crime... Read More

Preparing for 2018 elections in the "Year of the Woman": Lessons from India

Wednesday, October 31, 2018, by Mikaela Rabb

More women are running for local, state, and national office in the United States than ever before—and winning. Although women currently make up only around 20 percent of the US Congress, more than 500 women filed to run for Congressional positions in this year’s election, and 257 have advanced in primary elections. Come election day on November 6, a record-breaking number of women will be on... Read More

Participants at the Teaching at the Right Level conference in Johannesburg.

Bringing together an inspired and motivated community for our Teaching at the Right Level Conference

Friday, October 26, 2018, by Ashleigh Morrell and Kim Tichmann

“Finding people with a common vision has helped make this a movement around the world.”
– Usha Rane, Pratham

Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL), an education approach pioneered by education NGO Pratham, is designed to help ensure that all children learn the basics of reading and mathematics in primary school. The approach, developed and strengthened in India, is now taking root in Africa.

African organizations and governments inspired by the... Read More

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