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

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What we heard—and learned—at the India AI Impact Summit

Our team had a whirlwind week at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 last month, the largest annual global gathering on AI. We hosted an official, day-long seminar: AI for Social Good: Impact that Works. We shared how measuring real-world impact is essential to realizing AI’s potential while avoiding...
A group of J-PAL LAC staff and trainees pose in a group on grass

J-PAL LAC’s government partnerships: Córdoba and the path toward a culture of evidence use

By
Integrating evidence into public sector decision-making is a practical challenge. It requires technical capacity, usable data, and management routines that make it possible to prioritize, learn, and adjust policies in a sustained way. In this context, the Ministry of Economy and Public Management of...
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African Scholar Spotlight: Nathaniel Olutegbe

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 Nathaniel Olutegbe of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
SALDRU newsletter

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.
A group of people working on Pursuit projects

Randomization’s capacity for flexibility: How to build randomization into a competitive, multi-step application process

This post discusses an evaluation design by researchers at J-PAL North America and Pursuit to measure the impact of the Pursuit's sectoral employment program, showing how randomization can be integrated into the application process without compromising enrollment preferences.
Woman sitting on the ground with farming tools on smart phone

An AI evaluation framework for the development sector

By
  • Farhan Abrol
  • Han Sheng Chia
  • Temina Madon
  • Robert On
  • James Walsh
  • Zezhen Wu
This is the first blog post in a series designed to help implementers, policymakers, and funders unpack the different types of evaluations relevant for “AI for Good” applications. Stay tuned for forthcoming posts providing a deeper dive on each of the evaluation levels.
 A child plays with colorful wooden blocks in a GSED assessment session.

Four lessons from using a growth measurement tool for early childhood development in Indonesia

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Stunting, defined as having a substantial below-average height for one’s age, indicates a significant risk to a child's physical and developmental potential. To explore practical and effective strategies for addressing stunting in Indonesia, J-PAL Southeast Asia (SEA) collaborated with J-PAL invited...
Two individuals looking at a chalk board with formulas and notes written on it.

Nurturing the null: Preparing for null results to bolster evidence use

Null results—finding no impact—can be particularly difficult for researchers, policymakers, and service providers to act on. In this blog post, we share three key considerations for successfully designing studies and acting on null results.