J-PAL announces new, multi-year training partnership in Côte d’Ivoire to increase use of rigorous evidence in national policies and programmes
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The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Europe and the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics of Abidjan (ENSEA) have announced plans to collaborate on a capacity-building initiative in Côte d’Ivoire. Backed by the Ivorian government and the French Development Agency, the collaboration will provide training programmes, including a master’s degree and in-service training for civil servants. This collaboration sets the stage for the formal launch of ADEPT (Alliance for Data, Evaluation, and Policy Training) later this year, which will empower individuals and organisations worldwide to innovate, test and scale poverty-fighting policies and programmes.
“ADEPT represents a new vision to scale our capacity building work beyond the limits of what we can achieve alone, creating a global ecosystem of evidence-informed policymaking that will help transform how decisions are made and improve countless lives," said Esther Duflo, co-founder and co-director of J-PAL, about the initiative.
George Richards, director of Community Jameel, said: “ADEPT is a powerful new way for J-PAL to massively scale up its support for the worldwide movement of researchers and practitioners working to alleviate poverty through scientific evidence. With the need to expand this work as great as ever—in the face of climate change, conflict and other challenges—Community Jameel is supporting J-PAL to launch ADEPT later this year, and we are excited to see the ground laid for an ADEPT programme in Côte d’Ivoire.”
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Europe office, based at the Paris School of Economics (PSE), announced its plans to collaborate with the National School of Statistics and Applied Economics of Abidjan (ENSEA) on an ambitious capacity building effort in Côte d’Ivoire. This collaboration, supported by the Ivorian government and the French Development Agency (AFD), will target students and in-service civil servants through a range of training programs, including a master’s degree program in rigorous policy impact evaluation and an in-service training for civil servants blending in-person events and online courses from MIT Open Learning. On January 15, J-PAL and ENSEA co-launched a civil servants training that will equip 40–60 civil servants per year with the tools for rigorous impact evaluation.
The partnership in Côte d’Ivoire marks the beginning of a broader collaboration between J-PAL and Community Jameel, an international organisation advancing science and learning for communities to thrive, which will see the formal launch of a new Alliance for Data, Evaluation, and Policy Training, ADEPT, later this year. ADEPT will equip individuals and organizations around the world with the tools to innovate, test, and scale policies and programs designed to fight poverty. This expansion of J-PAL’s capacity building work worldwide will empower a new generation with the capacity, ambition, and opportunity to improve the lives of billions of people experiencing poverty.