Putting science in the service of society

What began in 2007 as a small group of development economists with unorthodox ideas to fight poverty has today grown into a team of over 200 leading the evidence-based policymaking movement in India. But our mission has remained unchanged: Helping governments adopt evidence-based policies to make better decisions and deliver transformative impact.

Group of men and women sitting on the floor working through surveys

Photo credit: Gautam Patel | J-PAL South Asia

J-PAL South Asia’s success lies in its deep commitment to understand the various ways people across India — especially the most vulnerable — live, work, and overcome challenges life throws at them. Our research owes its impact to the people we serve.

We work with a thriving community of academics, grassroots civil society organizations, forward-thinking policymakers, and committed funders to inform decisions at the highest levels of governments.

We have:

Completed more than 250 evaluations across 11 sectors to tackle some of India’s most urgent policy challenges

Developed robust systems with our government and civil society partners for turning academic research insights into concrete and actionable policies

Helped debunk several ideas that had become conventional wisdom in policymaking circles

The result: policies informed by our evidence are reaching 360 million people in India today.

In 2011, J-PAL South Asia was selected to host the South Asia Center for CLEAR, a global initiative by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group. CLEAR South Asia supports governments and partner organizations in strengthening their monitoring and evaluation systems and capacities. With evidence-informed policymaking gathering global momentum, J-PAL South Asia continues to find creative and innovative ways to bring meaningful and enduring changes in the lives of millions of people in India.

Our national footprint

Map of India highlight states with government partners

Research: We work with governments, implementation partners and leading academics to identify urgent policy challenges as well as co-design and evaluate potential solutions to them

Policy outreach and scale-ups: We work with policymakers to integrate evidence into their decision-making and provide the technical and knowledge support needed to implement and scale up effective programs nationwide

Capacity building: We collaborate with governments and ecosystem stakeholders at all levels so they become proficient users and consumers of scientific evidence and data for policy making