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

Four women group around a counter at a small shop. One woman is performing a transaction on a digital card reader.

Meningkatkan kemampuan digital perempuan untuk inklusi keuangan

Agar pertumbuhan setara gender terus berlanjut, upaya inklusi keuangan di Indonesia harus memenuhi kebutuhan perempuan, terutama kelompok berpendapatan rendah dan kemampuan digital yang terbatas. Bagaimana wawasan dari pengalaman inklusi keuangan Indonesia dapat menginformasikan kebijakan untuk...
Four women group around a counter at a small shop. One woman is performing a transaction on a digital card reader.

Improving women’s digital literacy as an avenue for financial inclusion

To ensure Indonesia continues to experience gender-equitable growth, efforts geared towards financial inclusion must take into consideration women’s needs, in particular among poor and digitally illiterate populations. How can insights from Indonesia’s past financial inclusion experiences inform...
A woman wearing a hijab sits typing at a computer

Improving female labor force participation in MENA

Female labor force participation in MENA is the lowest globally. Evidence from recent randomized evaluations conducted in MENA help shed light on some reasons why participation rates are so low and what types of policies could help increase them.
A smiling women speaks on a cell phone in front of an Mpesa stand.

Building back better: Catalyzing digital financial services for women across Africa

The G7 partnership on women's digital financial inclusion in Africa, of which J-PAL Africa’s Digital Identification and Finance Initiative is a participant, recently held its first annual event focused on Catalyzing Digital Financial Services for Women Across Africa: Supporting Recovery, Resilience...
Six women sit in a row with their backs to a wall

Addressing inequalities in women’s work: J-PAL launches Gender and Economic Agency Initiative

Women face even greater challenges to labor force participation than usual due to the pandemic. J-PAL’s new Gender and Economic Agency Initiative (GEA) launches to support innovative research on strategies to promote women’s work and enhance women’s economic agency.
Two women wearing uniforms talking to each other

#DayoftheGirlChild: Preventing the surge in teenage pregnancies due to COVID-19

In this blog, we highlight key interventions that policymakers and practitioners may wish to consider to urgently reduce child marriages and teenage pregnancies in light of the pandemic.
The image pictures a women's hand with the palm facing out.

Evidence-based approaches to tackling recent increases in gender-based violence

By
Many countries have witnessed a surge in cases of domestic violence due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders. This phenomenon is especially concerning in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia, where rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) are...
Two girls are pictured sitting side by side.

Measuring social attitudes and norms in impact evaluations: Examples from India

Social norms also often persist despite economic growth, and can negatively impact development outcomes. Evaluating the impact of interventions targeting social norms can be useful to understand how they might be changed.