In December 2022, the government of Côte d’Ivoire passed a new law mandating the evaluation of public policies. The Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPD), tasked with implementing the law, sought to build internal capacity on rigorous impact evaluation. J-PAL Europe and ENSEA, Côte d’Ivoire’s National School of Statistics and Applied Economics, seized this opportunity to launch an ambitious collaboration targeting students and civil servants. The partnership includes:
The partnership aims to foster evidence-informed policymaking and promote research collaborations aligned with government priorities. In October 2024, ENSEA was officially welcomed as a founding member of ADEPT.
| PILLAR 1: Supporting ENSEA students in taking DEDP classesWe offer targeted support to ENSEA students in taking DEDP MicroMasters classes. To remove learning barriers, we translate subtitles into French, offer tutoring sessions and provide scholarships. Through this effort ENSEA and ADEPT aim to offer students a powerful academic and professional signaling tool in the development space, an opportunity for credit recognition at pathway universities that can accelerate their progress towards earning an in-person degree and exposure to graduate-level courses taught in English by MIT faculty and J-PAL affiliates and staff. |
PILLAR 2: Launching a Civil Servants CertificateEvery year ~60 civil servants from 10+ ministries are trained at ENSEA on impact evaluation, with a focus on RCT. The program combines three in-person events and an online semester-long DEDP course allowing civil servants to earn certification from ENSEA, J-PAL, and a course certificate from MITx. One event is an incubator where learners receive hands-on advice to workshop evaluation priorities from their ministries. This upgrades the skills of practitioners and contributes to the emergence of promising collaborations between researchers and policymakers. Training events are co-led by J-PAL and ENSEA faculty for mutual learning and eventual transfer of ownership. | |
PILLAR 3: Creating a Blended Master’s at ENSEAADEPT is supporting ENSEA in the development of a blended master’s program in impact evaluation. The program will leverage ENSEA’s existing courses and content from the DEDP MicroMasters and is currently being designed. |
Home to J-PAL LAC’s office in Brazil, Insper Learning Institution (Insper) in São Paulo is known for its strong academic programs, including a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) and a rich set of online and in-person course offerings through its Executive Education program.
In collaboration with ADEPT and J-PAL LAC, Insper will offer courses from the MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP) in a “flipped classroom” format starting in October 2025. In this model, students watch the online lectures independently and attend weekly in-person sessions taught by Insper faculty. These sessions focus on applying course concepts through practical exercises and examples tailored to the Brazilian context.
As with all DEDP MicroMasters learners, Insper students who complete the online coursework and pass a final proctored exam will receive course certificates from MITx. Upon successful completion of five courses (three core and two electives), they will earn the DEDP MicroMasters credential. Students who also meet Insper-specific requirements– such as participation in the weekly in-person “flipped classroom” sessions– will receive a separate credential and course credit from Insper.
Courses will be offered through Insper’s Executive Education platform and therefore be available to MPP students, who may take DEDP x Insper courses as electives; professionals enrolled in Insper’s Executive Education programs; and in a specialization-level graduate program.
Leveraging the expertise of Insper faculty, the rigor of DEDP MicroMasters coursework, and Insper’s digital learning infrastructure, this innovative model aims to build a strong pipeline of locally trained policy professionals in Brazil.
