From the Executive Director

Like others in Indonesia and around the world, J-PAL Southeast Asia has adapted to the difficult conditions of the pandemic. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected during this devastating time. While this past year has been challenging, we also learned and achieved many things thanks to the dedication and hard work of our staff and support from our network of researchers.

In 2021, we helped policymakers use existing evidence to inform Indonesia’s emergency relief programs and evaluated a government program addressing unemployment worsened by the pandemic. We conducted surveys to help policymakers understand the social and economic impact of the pandemic on Indonesians and recommended evidence-based approaches to help schools in Indonesia reopen safely during the pandemic while minimizing learning loss.

We also trained fellow researchers on remote data collection to help them adapt and explore new opportunities in research. While moving to virtual operations was challenging, we were able to reach a new international audience with our first virtual training for researchers and development practitioners in Thailand.

As we gradually recover from the pandemic, we look forward to building on our innovations in evidence generation over the past year and deepening our collaborations with government partners, donors, and local researchers to explore research in new sectors. We are forever grateful for the commitment and resilience of our staff and others whose support has been essential to our work.

@JPAL_SEA

J-PAL Southeast Asia Leadership

The Year in Review

Influenced social protection and education policy formulation during Covid-19

Informing regulatory changes and nationwide adoption of community-based targeting. A decade before the onset of the pandemic, a randomized evaluation in Indonesia conducted by J-PAL affiliates found that using community members to identify the poorest households, known as community-based targeting, greatly improved local satisfaction and led to smoother disbursal processes. In 2020, these results informed the Indonesian Ministry of Villages’ decision to adopt community-based targeting for the rollout of its Covid-19 relief program to protect over eight million individuals not covered under existing social safety net programs. In May 2021, community-based targeting and self-targeting were included in national regulations as methods to update social welfare databases.

Addressing learning loss and preparing for school reopening in Indonesia. The Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology and the Ministry of Religious Affairs included recommendations from J-PAL Southeast Asia in their 2021 National Guidebook on post-pandemic school reopening. These included implementing periodic low-stakes assessments to identify students' learning loss, applying Teaching at the Right Level pedagogy, and training counselors to recognize signs of psychological pressure in both teachers and students.

Expanded our capacity building efforts to Thailand

To further expand the network of Southeast Asian researchers and policymakers committed to evidence-based policy, we collaborated with Equitable Education Fund Thailand to conduct our first impact evaluation workshop for researchers, NGOs, and government staff in Thailand’s education sector.

Launched the Research Ethics Committee at our host university

We supported the establishment of an institutional review board, the Research Ethics Committee (Komite Etika Penelitian), at J-PAL Southeast Asia’s host institution, LPEM FEB at the University of Indonesia. The committee's goal is to ensure that social science research involving human subjects minimizes potential risks and protects the autonomy of research participants.

The Year Ahead

Deepen government partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking

We will build on our partnership with the Government of Indonesia, pushing forward research and policy advances in priority sectors of education, health, and social protection. We look forward to developing a new collaboration with the government to support evidence-informed policymaking around women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Strengthen our capacity building efforts

We will continue to grow our network of local researchers through our Indonesian Scholars Program and build the evaluation and evidence use capacity of our policy partners through tailored learning programs. We look forward to continuing to provide a collaborative and supportive academic environment for Indonesian scholars and development practitioners interested in social policy research.

Grow our Indonesia RCT Fund Initiative

We aim to identify new funding partners to expand our Indonesia RCT Fund, which provides catalytic support for new research to meet rising evidence demands in priority sectors of education, health, social protection, and gender.

Learn more about J-PAL Southeast Asia