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Six years of the African Scholars Program: Advancing experimental research capacity across Africa

Through the African Scholars Program, J-PAL Africa is creating more opportunities for African researchers to advance the research agenda on the continent through randomized evaluations.
Cape Town, South Africa, 2025

Turning data into insights: How Cape Town is building a smarter, more equitable city

By
Cape Town’s 2017 water crisis prompted the City government to look at its data differently. Behind the millions of meter readings and billing records lay unanswered questions: How successful were the water conservation efforts across different areas in Cape Town? What does equitable water pricing...
Click from CGIAR gender conference

Closing gender gaps in agriculture: Insights from the CGIAR conference in Cape Town

In October 2025, Cape Town hosted the CGIAR Gender in Food, Land, and Water Systems Conference, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and donors to chart actions for closing gender gaps in agriculture. J-PAL staff attended and presented in one of the key plenaries over the three days.
A woman sits at a table with a boy looking at a sheet of paper.

Twelve iterative A/B tests to optimize tutoring for scale

By
  • Noam Angrist
  • Elle Brooks
  • Colin Crossley
  • Claire Cullen
In a series of 12 iterative A/B tests, researchers compared two versions of our tutoring program in Botswana to see which performed better. At the end of each test, results were compared and whichever version delivered the most impact for the least amount of money was generally adopted as the new...
A collage of headshots of the researchers

Advancing agricultural transformation through locally-led research

The UM6P-J-PAL Applied Lab for Agirculture (UJALA) announced its first cohort of UJALA African Scholars.
Students before classes at a primary school in the village of El Arr in northern Sudan

Building girls’ agency at scale: Lessons from life skills programs in Africa

Last year, J-PAL published a policy brief and implementation guide synthesizing evidence from sixteen randomized evaluations of life skills programs for adolescent girls. The findings show that such approaches can be particularly effective in boosting self-efficacy (confidence in achieving certain...
Dr. Oluwaremilekun Adebisi

African Scholar Spotlight: Oluwaremilekun Adebisi

Through our African Scholars Program, we hope to help create more opportunities for African researchers to advance the research agenda on the continent through randomized evaluations. In this spotlight, we speak with Oluwaremilekun Adebisi of the University of Ilorin in Nigeria.
PhD students and faculty gather to mark the launch of the UM6P-J-PAL Applied Lab for Agriculture’s African Scholars Program

Creating partnership opportunities for early-career researchers in Africa

On September 17, 2025, the UM6P-J-PAL Applied Lab for Agriculture (UJALA) unveiled its new African Scholars Program at the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P)’s campus in Rabat. The program will support early‑career African researchers to become leaders in rigorous, policy‑relevant randomized...