Innovation in Government Initiative

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Photo: Paul Smith | J-PAL/IPA
J-PAL’s Innovation in Government Initiative (IGI) funds technical assistance to governments to adapt, pilot, and scale evidence-informed innovations with a strong potential to improve the lives of millions of people living in poverty.

Overview

Many governments around the world are eager to use evidence to improve the effectiveness of their social programs and policies, especially when it comes to essential services like education, health, and social assistance. Meanwhile, universities and research organizations are producing and synthesizing evidence from rigorous impact evaluations that can be used to design and improve these programs. However, demand from governments and good research are not enough to change lives. Using evidence to inform change at scale also requires a deep understanding of context and systems, coupled with political will, a policy window, and implementation capacity. Identifying these opportunities and building strong partnerships to apply evidence takes time and resources.

For more than a decade, the J-PAL network and our partners have built long-term partnerships with governments around the world to increase the use of evidence in policy, and adapt, pilot and scale programs informed by evidence. Together we work with government partners on their policy priorities, helping to determine whether and how evidence is relevant to their context, supporting them in piloting programs leveraging this evidence, and building systems for data-enabled program delivery and monitoring at scale. We believe supporting governments during this middle phase is critical to bridge the gap between the generation of promising evidence and the effective delivery of evidence-informed programs at scale.

IGI builds on the success of its predecessor initiative, the Government Partnership Initiative (GPI).

Informações chave

Escritório:
J-PAL Global
Líderes acadêmicos:
Status:
  • Partner RFP: Closed
Elegibilidade:
Open to all J-PAL affiliated researchers and eligible invited researchers (see RFP for detailed eligibility conditions) working with a government partner.

Funders

  • Manglaben Chimanbhai Patel Family Foundation
Request for Proposals

IGI’s Spring 2025 RFP will be open in late February 2025. Short expressions of interest are due on 11:59 AM (noon) US ET on Thursday, March 13th, 2025  Applicants who receive invitations to apply will need to submit full proposals by 11:59 AM (noon) US ET on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025

  • All J-PAL affiliates, invited researchers, post-docs, and offices are eligible to apply in collaboration with their government partners and other collaborators. J-PAL offices that are applying to IGI are required to have a J-PAL affiliate or invited researcher involved in the project as a scientific advisor. All proposals may include collaborators outside of this network including other researchers and NGO partners. 
  • IGI will consider three types of proposals that can be used to provide technical assistance to policy partners at various stages in the scaling process: adapt grants (up to $75,000), policy pilot grants (up to $100,000 - $200,000), and scale grants (up to $300,000)
  • Each proposal is reviewed by at least two members of the IGI Review Board. The Review Board makes final funding decisions.

Please write to [email protected] for any questions. 

Initiative Staff

Varsha Hari Prasad, Senior Evidence to Scale Associate
Matthew Edmundson, Evidence to Scale Lead
Richard Ssempagama, Senior Finance and Operations Associate
 

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