Linking Research to Action: Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab’s Evidence-to-Policy Conference
The Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab (MEL) and the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P) hosted an evidence-to-policy conference in Rabat on June 25, 2025. The one-day conference, titled “Toward Evidence-Based Development: Climate Change, Education and Employment in Morocco,” offered a platform for Moroccan decision-makers and international researchers to jointly discuss how rigorous impact evaluations can drive effective policy.
The conference opened with remarks from Hicham El Habti, President of UM6P, Nader I. Diab, Head of Programmes at Community Jameel, and a presentation by MEL scientific directors Rema Hanna and Bruno Crépon, and MEL project director Florencia Devoto. The opening remarks were followed by a presentation on Morocco’s approach to evidence use in ongoing education reforms from Mohamed Saad Berrada, Minister of National Education, Preschool, and Sports.
J-PAL co-founder and Nobel laureate in Economics Esther Duflo delivered the event’s keynote speech on the challenges of climate change adaptation highlighting the “need to start developing a toolkit for policymakers on what works today and what will work when the climate actually changes, as very few studies have been conducted on this topic so far. It’s also essential to include local communities, who are key actors in building resilience to climate change” emphasizing that “the impacts of climate change are felt most by those living in poverty.”
Throughout the event, attendees engaged in a series of panels on recent developments in the sectors of climate change and sustainable agriculture, education, and labor in Morocco. Speakers shared their insights from ongoing efforts to integrate the use of evidence into their institutions’ work and entered into dialogue with researchers from several distinguished universities.
Photo credit: MEL
The MEL is a collaboration between UM6P, J-PAL, the Harvard Center for International Development and Community Jameel. Based at UM6P in Rabat, MEL works to foster development in Morocco by translating scientific evidence into impactful policies. It was launched in 2024, emerging from the Morocco Employment Lab.
The MEL is additionally part of J-PAL’s Evidence to Policy programme, which was launched in 2022, in collaboration with Co-Impact and Community Jameel. J-PAL is partnering with governments to advance their common goal of improving the lives of people living in poverty through mobilising governments’ adoption at scale of specific evidence-based policies and programmes, as well as institutionalizing a broader culture of evidence and data-driven policymaking in government systems. To date, the Evidence to Policy programme has impacted the lives of over six million people.