Learning Across Borders
There is high and growing global demand for the capacity to design effective policies, implement and run high-quality impact evaluations, and rigorously interpret and apply their results. Yet investment in the education and institutional capacity required to meet this demand has not kept pace.
ADEPT addresses this gap by strengthening teaching institutions and advancing education in data, economics, and policy evaluation, making evidence much more accessible to policymakers, practitioners and researchers. Improving how governments and large institutions make decisions has outsized returns: even modest improvements in how evidence informs policy can translate into better health, education, and social protection outcomes at scale.
Importantly, by training civil servants, professionals, and researchers around the world, it reduces reliance on a small set of external experts and strengthens local ownership of policy design, testing, and scale-up.
ADEPT, convened by J-PAL, Community Jameel, and institutional members, takes a simple but transformative approach:
- Alliance members co-create innovative academic pathways for policy evaluation and data analysis, based on curriculum from J-PAL and MIT’s Data, Evaluation, and Design of Policy (DEDP) MicroMasters and master’s degree programs.
- Courses are accessible online and complemented by faculty-led, locally-grounded programs at member universities like ENSEA in Cote d’Ivoire, Insper in Brazil, Princeton, and the University of Zurich.
- Courses are customized to meet the needs of local learners and flexible to enable participation from working professionals.
- Learners form a local community of peers, and contribute to a network of evidence-informed policy professionals driving change around the world.
By connecting partners in a shared network, ADEPT enables collaboration, exchange, and innovation at a scale no single organization could achieve alone.
How does the Alliance work?
Institutional partnerships
We build partnerships with higher education institutions to support them in their mission to form new leaders in data, evaluation, and policy design.
Expanding reach
We serve undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, practitioners and civil servants.
Network building
We cultivate a network of evidence-informed policy professionals to drive change globally.
Reinforce evidence-to-policy systems
We strengthen local evidence-to-policy ecosystems by enriching the systems that sustain them.
A year of growth and momentum
In 2025, ADEPT made significant progress toward our vision.
Creating learning opportunities for talented students
Cost, location, and entry requirements make advanced degrees in economics out of reach for many learners. ADEPT is expanding graduate degree pathways for learners who have completed J‑PAL/MITx online MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), opening doors for talented students who may be overlooked in traditional admissions processes.
Through their ADEPT partnership, Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs will recognize DEDP credentials for applicants to its MPA and MPP programs, joining the Paris School of Economics Public Policy and Development (PDD) Program. Princeton’s full financial support to admitted students holds promise for learners with less financial or university resources. In 2026, the Bordeaux School of Economics will also begin offering credit for DEDP coursework.
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| MPA and MPP programs | PPD programs | DEDP coursework credit |
Building locally grounded on-campus programs
We’re working closely with universities to develop flexible, on‑campus programs that combine the rigor of the DEDP content with local academic and policy expertise.
In Brazil, Insper plans to integrate all eight DEDP courses into its Master of Public Policy program following a successful pilot. Faculty will adapt the online course material to Brazilian policy priorities through in-person classes grounded in case studies. In Chile, ADEPT is partnering with PUC Chile to integrate ADEPT programming in their Diploma in Impact Evaluation of Public Policy and Social Programs, reaching more learners across Latin America.
In Côte d’Ivoire, we’re working with The National School of Statistics and Applied Economics (ENSEA) to co-develop a new master’s program in impact evaluation. In Switzerland, ADEPT and the University of Zurich are establishing a new professional diploma and master’s program based on the DEDP curriculum.
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| MPP program | Diploma in Impact Evaluation | New master's program in impact evaluation | Diploma and master’s program |
Introducing the ADEPT Professional Diploma
The ADEPT Professional Diploma draws on established MIT and J-PAL curricula to create a rigorous yet flexible training program specially designed for policy professionals and researchers. The program combines master’s-level coursework and hands-on, applied training adapted to local contexts and languages.
The first pilot was launched in Côte d'Ivoire in partnership with the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics in 2024, and in 2026 a second pilot will be launched in partnership with the American University in Cairo, targeting participants across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Serving displaced learners
The structure of the DEDP program—flexible, online, and accessible—makes it well-suited for displaced students and refugees without consistent access to traditional higher education. We’re working to expand access to high-quality training for these learners, with an early focus on displaced learners in the MENA region, including Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon. By creating programming that is responsive to the unique needs of these students, we’re laying the groundwork for more regional pilots and scholarship opportunities.
Looking ahead
Through ADEPT, we’re cultivating a global cohort of evidence champions who can institutionalize rigorous research and set new standards for decision-making in their work.
ADEPT will work to actively connect institutions across the network by facilitating structured opportunities for partners to share out and learn from one another, adapt teaching approaches, and collaborate on training opportunities. This shift, from building partnerships to activating them, is essential to strengthening long-term institutional capacity and establishing a shared foundation for evidence-informed policymaking across regions.
We will continue to grow the Alliance by expanding the number and types of partners around the world, with emphasis on collaborations on the African continent and in India.
Contact us to learn more [email protected].
Lead photo credit: ©Clic Event