We invest in building the capacity of government officials, social policy practitioners, and researchers worldwide to catalyze data-driven decision-making, equipping professionals with practical tools to become better users and producers of scientific evidence.

Our suite of virtual and in-person courses range from half-day custom sessions to semester-long graduate-level classes, all designed to meet the practical needs of our participants—and to keep pace with the evolving challenges of the last year.

Building on our rapid transition to fully virtual training in 2020, in 2021 we delivered courses in new formats and for new regional audiences to increase accessibility and reach, further expanding the global evidence-informed policymaking and research community.

Training Snapshots

Conducting Experimental Research course: J-PAL Africa piloted a new training for 45 African researchers, providing research advice, tools, and technical resources on randomized evaluation methods.

J-PAL Europe "Summer School": J-PAL Europe partnered with the French Development Agency to host a seven-day course for nearly fifty participants from the implementer, policy, and research space, building skills for designing, testing and scaling innovations for development.

Morocco Employment Lab’s (MEL) Executive Education course: This seven-day online training program introduced MEL’s current and prospective research partners to why, how, and when to measure program impact through randomized evaluation.

Government capacity building and monitoring and evaluation support: As part of its long-term partnership with the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office of NITI Aayog, the Government of India's public policy think tank, J-PAL South Asia organized trainings on M&E topics for staff; provided input on training strategy, toolkits, and curriculum; collaborated on knowledge sharing events; and more.

Expanding Access to Knowledge in Data, Economics, and Public Policy (DEDP)

Welcoming a new faculty director

We welcomed ​​Sara Fisher Ellison, a senior lecturer in MIT’s Department of Economics, as the new faculty director of our Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP) program.

"We are absolutely delighted to have Sara Fisher Ellison lead the Data, Economics, and Development Policy program into the future. Her dedication to educating the next generation of leaders is apparent in her mentorship of DEDP students, thoughtful teaching, and advisory work. She will be a fantastic leader for the program."

The second cohort graduated from the J-PAL/MIT Master’s in Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP) program

Having already earned the five-course DEDP MicroMasters credential online before arriving at MIT, students in the second cohort of the J-PAL/MIT DEDP Master’s program received their diplomas this past September. During the course of the program, the students engaged in challenging coursework, grew friendships within their cohort, and settled into MIT. MIT’s vaccination requirements, regular Covid testing, and campus safety policies allowed students to attend some of their classes in-person, giving them as much of a traditional campus experience as possible.

This hybrid remote and in-person model allowed students the opportunity to connect with classmates and professors while maintaining flexibility as pandemic precautions shifted. Each student also engaged in a summer capstone internship project, building research and analytical skills across a range of issues from social policy to pandemic response to climate action.

DEDP summer capstone snapshots: From the classroom to real-world applications

Pictured above, from left to right:

• Juan Carlos Cisneros; Capstone host: J-PAL’s King Climate Action Initiative
• Michelle Han; Capstone host: Evidence for Policy Design, Harvard Kennedy School
• Adrienne Luczkow; Capstone host: World Bank Bureaucracy Lab
• Andrés Parrado; Capstone host: GiveDirectly

DEDP by the numbers:

• 47,044 learners enrolled in DEDP MicroMasters courses
• 666 learners from 93 countries completed the MicroMasters credential, with 62 percent coming from low- and middle-income countries
• 35 students from 22 countries graduated from the DEDP Master’s program; 18 are from low- and middle-income countries

Key Partnership Opportunities

• Support learners in low- and middle-income countries through scholarships in the Data, Economics, and Development Policy MicroMasters and Master's programs.

• Fund development of new training modules and resources to meet the needs of generators and users of evidence, and fund scholarships for practitioners at NGOs and other organizations to participate in J-PAL courses.

• Create pathways for researchers underrepresented in economics to gain experience running randomized evaluations, including through J-PAL's regional scholars programs, predoctoral research assistantships, high school programs, and more.