Why we did we launch an Instagram account? Hear directly from our co-founder, Nobel laureate Esther Duflo ⬆️
From all of us at J-PAL, we're glad you're here. Stick around—there’s more to come in 2026.
🌍 Meet J-PAL.
We’re a global research center working to reduce poverty by equipping decision-makers with rigorous evidence on what works.
From classrooms in India to health clinics in Kenya and youth centers in the United States, we partner with governments and organizations to generate data, translate evidence, and scale proven solutions.
Follow us for real-world stories and insights on how data and research are shaping policies that improve people’s lives around the world.
#EvidenceToPolicy #JPAL #EvidenceMatters #GlobalDevelopment
“Learning is most powerful when it serves people and communities.” 🌐
Hear firsthand from people who have completed the Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP) MicroMasters program. The online graduate-level courses build your skills in data analysis, development economics, and policy design.
💻 Audit courses for free, or upgrade to earn a certificate.
🗓️ Enroll today in summer courses that started earlier this week on May 12.
"How much of AI is real and how much is hype?"
Iqbal Dhaliwal, our Global Executive Director, posed this at the India AI Impact Summit.
If deployed correctly, AI has tremendous potential to improve targeting, reduce bias, and boost productivity in health, education, agriculture, and climate.
🎥 Watch the conversation.
Impact at scale: How do you modernize a social safety net for nearly 19 million families?🌏🏠
In Indonesia 🇮🇩, the answer was found in digitization 📲
By moving from physical rice distribution to the e-voucher system, the government could reach more people more efficiently.
Today, this evidence-backed program serves 18.8 million households. Learn how digital tools are reducing poverty at scale.
🔗Link in bio.
🇦🇲 Armenia is quickly becoming a champion of evidence-informed policymaking. Last week, J-PAL Europe hosted a five-day training on economic analysis of policy with the country’s Central Bank, bringing together Armenian policymakers and representatives from UNICEF and UNDP.
Attendees learned how to determine a program’s costs and effectiveness. Drawing on real-world examples, our experts highlighted opportunities for evaluations in Armenia.
Through this partnership, Armenian leaders are strengthening their ability to design, measure, and implement successful programs. Link in bio for more reflections.
Across Africa, entrepreneurs, farmers, and investors still lack access to the financial tools they need to grow.
So what's actually standing in the way? And what could fix it?
We got researchers, banks, and investors together in Nairobi to dig into exactly that. The conversations turned into a five-part blog series covering everything from how AI is changing who can get a loan, to why currency risk quietly shapes who gets funded, to the real challenge of financing a farm.
Link in bio.
#FinancialInclusion #Africa #InclusiveFinance #FutureOfFinance #AfricaTech #GlobalDevelopment
What happens when you give people cash and let them decide?
In Chelsea, Massachusetts during COVID, city officials decided to distribute cash grants via lottery to help people survive. With the cash, families had flexibility to make choices about where to spend money based on what they needed most.
J-PAL researchers Jeffrey Liebman and Sumit Agarwal studied the program to learn how it would affect people’s eating, nutrition, and health care. They found that not only did people eat more, but they ate healthier. Cash also reduced people’s visits to the emergency department and improved their access to outpatient care.
Small-scale farmers face real financial challenges, but what actually works to help them overcome these?
Agriculture Policy Manager Leonie Rauls unpacks J-PAL’s new policy insight, drawing from 23 studies, on how financial tools like credit, cash transfers, and subsidies can enable farmers to invest, and when bundled with services like timely information, help unlock the constraints holding them back. Full insight linked in our bio.
¡Sexta panelista internacional confirmada!
María Paz Monge es Senior Policy and Communications Manager en J-PAL LAC, donde trabaja para que las decisiones en política pública se basen en evidencia: construyendo alianzas, acompañando la implementación de intervenciones y liderando estrategias de comunicación con impacto.
Antes de unirse a J-PAL en 2021, trabajó en el sector educativo del Gobierno de Chile y como investigadora en la Universidad de Kassel, en Alemania.
Su experiencia conecta investigación, política pública y acción real para transformar la educación.
Este 25 de abril estará con nosotros en researchED Colombia.
¡Nos vemos el sábado!
AI breakthroughs aren’t only happening in labs anymore. We’re seeing them in the field every day as AI tools are being rolled out in health, education, climate, and government services. The potential is enormous—but real breakthroughs can only come with measurement.
At the India AI Impact Summit earlier this year, we convened government leaders, researchers, funders, and technology partners for one purpose: turning AI ambition into real, accountable impact.
Across governance, health, education, and climate, one theme echoed through every session: AI must be tested, evaluated, and deployed with care in order to maximize impact and reduce potential harms.
This is easy to say, but harder—not impossible—to do. These conversations are already shaping what comes next. Dive deeper via the link in bio.
What makes AI tools different from other tech "solutions" that showed great promise, but didn't deliver in practice?
In a new devex podcast, Global Executive Director Iqbal Dhaliwal unpacks how we are thinking about using AI to fight poverty.
Link in bio to learn more.
