About Policy Innovation Labs
J-PAL’s Policy Innovation Labs are strategic partnerships with governments across regions that aim to systematically integrate innovation and experimentation into policymaking processes. Governments are the biggest spenders on social programs, and often need to find pragmatic solutions that could have exponential impact in the lives of millions of people. Over the past two decades, J-PAL has worked with governments worldwide to co-design, test, inform, and scale innovative solutions to address urgent and persistent policy problems.
J-PAL has significantly expanded its portfolio of Policy Innovation Labs, worldwide with the support of a joint foundational grant from Community Jameel, a international organization advancing science to help communities thrive in a rapidly changing world, and Co-Impact, a global organization focused on building just and equitable systems in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Evidence co-creation and use
Facilitate the co-creation, and catalyze the use, of timely, relevant, high-quality evidence and data to understand local challenges and to inform the design and implementation of locally-grounded policies and programs to address them.
Capacity-building
Build the capacity of government officials at all levels to generate and use evidence and to leverage administrative data to improve program and policy design and implementation.
Systems-strengthening
Support governments in strengthening processes, structures, policies, and systems to enable and incentivize evidence- and data-driven policymaking throughout their institutions.
Recently in the News
Government of South Africa partners with J-PAL Africa to support evidence-informed policymaking
On May 27, 2026, J-PAL Africa entered into a formal, five-year partnership with South Africa’s Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) to strengthen the evaluation
Government of Odisha Partners with J-PAL South Asia to Strengthen Evidence-based Policymaking Across State Departments
A three-year partnership, anchored in the Planning & Convergence Department, will support Odisha Vision 2036 and 2047 through rigorous research, policy support and capacity
Building effective social protection programs through government and researcher partnerships: Reflections from a MENA-SEA South-South Learning Journey
In a critical moment for global social protection systems, policymakers from Egypt and Indonesia recently came together in Jakarta for the groundbreaking event, South-South
Egyptian and Indonesian Governments Exchange Best Practices for Evidence-Based Policymaking
A high-level Egyptian delegation of 15 representatives from various government entities participated in a learning exchange visit in Jakarta, Indonesia from 27-31 May 2024. The
Evidence Co-creation and Use
We facilitate the co-creation, and catalyze the use, of timely, relevant, high-quality evidence and data to understand local challenges and to inform the design and implementation of locally-grounded policies and programs to address them.
Growing network of researchers
J-PAL’s growing research network—over 600 affiliated researchers—anchors the production and application of policy-relevant evidence. Members of this network support E2P Partnerships in a variety of important ways—engaging in dialogues with policymakers to determine how existing evidence may help them solve their policy challenges and brainstorming new evidence-informed policy innovations; collaborating with government partners to co-create evidence; and providing scientific advice to governments as they plan for and adopt an evidence-based intervention at scale.
Evidence summaries and syntheses across 10 sectors
We develop digestible, policymaker-friendly summaries and syntheses, such as our Evaluation Summaries; our Policy Insights that highlight lessons emerging across multiple evaluations and the mechanisms that help explain the results.
Capacity Building
We build the capacity of government officials at all levels to generate and use evidence and to leverage administrative data to improve program and policy design and implementation.
Flagship training programs
Evaluating Social Programs (ESP) and a variety of customized trainings and live and self-paced online courses on topics, such as Measuring Health Outcomes in Field Surveys. Although several of our trainings are offered globally, we adapt them regionally by creating new case studies that can speak to the concerns of policymakers in specific regions, translate materials into local languages to reach a wider audience of trainees, and adjust the timing, delivery, and location of the course to the partner’s needs.
Broader suite of capacity-building approaches through partnerships
Our partnership in Morocco with Harvard’s Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) leverages EPoD’s Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence (BCURE) approach. Likewise, our partnership with the CLEAR Initiative in India engages in broader capacity-building on monitoring and evaluation.
Building effective social protection programs through government and researcher partnerships: Reflections from a MENA-SEA South-South Learning Journey
In a critical moment for global social protection systems, policymakers from Egypt and Indonesia recently came together in Jakarta for the groundbreaking event, South-South
Tailoring training modules to strengthen evaluation partnerships: J-PAL’s custom courses
This is the second blog in a series illustrating stories of how J-PAL’s training courses have built new policy and research partnerships and strengthened existing ones to advance
Building skills to advance impact evaluation: J-PAL’s Evaluating Social Programs course
In this blog, we highlight two notable examples of how Evaluating Social Programs courses led to high-impact research and policy partnerships, while recognizing the impressive
Systems Strengthening
We support governments in strengthening processes, structures, policies, and systems to enable and incentivize evidence- and data-driven policymaking throughout their institutions. Learn more about institutionalizing evidence use.
What does it take to sustain a government-researcher partnership? Lessons from Tamil Nadu
J-PAL South Asia has been working with the Government of Tamil Nadu, India for many years to inform policy decisions with rigorous research. One of our longest-standing research
A government innovation lab to improve education
With support from J-PAL and IPA, the Ministry of Education in Peru created a dedicated unit to identify, test, and scale low-cost interventions to improve educational outcomes.
Institutionalizing a culture of evidence-informed policymaking in Tamil Nadu
A long-standing partnership between the Government of Tamil Nadu and J-PAL in India has helped institutionalize the use of evidence in decision making and build a culture of
Evidence to Policy Partnerships Worldwide
We are expanding our Evidence to Policy partnerships with governments across regions: South Asia (India), Southeast Asia (Indonesia), Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Brazil), and the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan). Learn more about pathways from evidence to policy change.