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AUC Home to Newly Established Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab in the Middle East and North Africa

The American University in Cairo (AUC), together with The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Community Jameel, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has announced the launch of The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab in the Middle East and North Africa (J-PAL MENA). Based at AUC’s School of Business, the new regional research center in the Middle East and North Africa focuses on alleviating poverty and improving lives through evidence-informed policymaking. Launched in collaboration with global philanthropy Community Jameel, J-PAL MENA becomes J-PAL’s seventh regional center. Since J-PAL launched at MIT in 2003, it has founded flagship research centers in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia.

J-PAL’s rigorous, scientific approach to evaluating social programs and policies helps shed light on the most effective approaches to reducing poverty. J-PAL MENA will bring this approach to the region, leading on three main activities:

  1. Using the Nobel Prize-winning experimental approach to inform high-level decision-making.
  2. Working with governments, NGOs, foundations, and other organizations to bridge the gap between research and policy.
  3. Leading training and workshops for policy professionals and researchers to help build a culture of evidence-informed policymaking across the region. 

Through these core activities, J-PAL MENA will address some of the most complex and interconnected challenges causing poverty in the region, which have been exacerbated in recent months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children in MENA have among the lowest learning outcomes, youth and women struggle to find quality employment, women’s agency is among the lowest in the world, environmental and energy resources are strained, and conflict has left many communities facing displacement and in need of humanitarian assistance.

Speaking on behalf of J-PAL, Iqbal Dhaliwal, Global Executive Director of J-PAL, said: "J-PAL’s regional offices are locally-grounded hubs for innovation, evaluation, and scaling. For almost fifteen years, our regional offices have forged close partnerships with governments, NGOs, and foundations and have supported the use of evidence in decision-making to improve the lives of tens of millions. With the launch of J-PAL MENA, I am thrilled that J-PAL will have a permanent home in the region and deepen our work with committed partners in Egypt and across MENA.”


Dean of AUC’s School of Business, Sherif Kamel, said: “We are proud to be the home of J-PAL MENA, leveraging AUC’s long history of engaging in cutting-edge policy-relevant research. With J-PAL MENA, we aim to build an ecosystem for evidence-based policy, crowding in regional academics and training future development researchers, forging partnerships with policymakers, and bridging the gap between academic research and policymakers in the region.”

Speaking on behalf of Community Jameel, the global philanthropy that has worked in partnership and supported J-PAL since 2005, President, International Fady Jameel, said: “The concept of supporting communities has been in the family’s heritage for 75 years and this same concept has been key to J-PAL’s work around the world since it was founded in 2003. The announcement of the new office in Cairo will be instrumental in bringing J-PAL’s evidence-informed approach to our home region, which uses randomized evaluations to identify programs that can have the biggest positive impact on the most vulnerable communities in MENA.”

The launch of J-PAL MENA builds on several years of collaboration among J-PAL and AUC. J-PAL MENA will be led by Scientific Directors Bruno Crépon, Professor of Economics and Econometrics at ENSAE and École Polytechnique, and Adam Osman, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

J-PAL MENA will seek talented development economists and policy professionals to further expand its team. This team, together with J-PAL’s professional staff, regional academics, and policymakers, will generate timely and useful research to improve policy and reduce poverty across the MENA region.

 

For regular updates from the University during coronavirus visit www.aucegypt.edu/coronavirus 

 

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Founded in 1919, The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a leading English-language, American-accredited institution of higher education and center of the intellectual, social, and cultural life of the Arab world. It is a vital bridge between East and West, linking Egypt and the region to the world through scholarly research, partnerships with academic and research institutions and study abroad programs. 

The University offers 39 undergraduate, 52 master’s and two PhD programs rooted in a liberal arts education that encourages students to think critically and find creative solutions to conflicts and challenges facing both the region and the world. 

An independent, nonprofit, politically non-partisan, non-sectarian and equal opportunity institution, AUC is fully accredited in Egypt and the United States.