The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Pratham, a prominent education non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in India, recently co-hosted a platform in Tokyo on promoting education and health, especially in Africa.

The centrepiece event was a public forum held Wednesday at JICA headquarters featuring John Floretta, J-PAL director of Policy and Communication, Pascaline Dupas, co-chair of J-PAL’s health sector group and Associate Professor at Stanford University, Eiji Kozuka, JICA director of Basic Education, and Rukmini Banerji, chief executive officer of Pratham, which presented an opportunity for 160 attendees from Japanese academic institutions, government agencies and NGOs to learn about J-PAL and Pratham’s recent research, particularly in the education sector.

J-PAL and Pratham also convened a series of meetings and workshops with the JICA leadership and education and health sector teams, and Professor Dupas delivered an academic seminar at Tokyo University.

The culmination of the meetings was the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between J-PAL, JICA and Pratham for a partnership on education. Through this collaboration, the organisations will work to scale up effective and efficient approaches to the learning crisis, such as the “teaching at the right level” (TaRL) and the “School for All” programmes, to promote quality and equitable learning, especially in Africa.

J-PAL and Pratham recently collaborated on a major nationwide scale-up of TaRL in Zambia. TaRL was pioneered by Pratham in India and its effectiveness has been evaluated and enhanced in collaboration with J-PAL’s rigorous scientific approach. JICA is also currently conducting pilot activities to integrate TaRL in the “School for All” programme, which aims at improving basic literacy and numeracy through remedial education with community involvement, in Madagascar and Niger.

With the support and partnership of Community Jameel, the social enterprise organisation, J-PAL was established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 to tackle the root causes of poverty, including issues related to health, education, youth employment, conflict and governance.

“J-PAL’s pioneering education research with Pratham in India, the ‘teaching at the right level’ programme and now its scale-up in India, Zambia, and other countries are helping to improve learning outcomes for millions of children around the world,” said Fady Jameel, president of Community Jameel International.

“Through cooperation with JICA, with its outstanding record of development work in Africa and beyond, the impact of J-PAL’s research and Pratham’s education work is set to achieve an impact at an even greater scale.”

J-PAL has a track record of leveraging insights gained from its research to support policymaking around the world, including in the Middle East, where J-PAL has active and completed research projects and local partnerships to support policymaking in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco.

To date, J-PAL affiliated researchers have conducted more than 900 evaluations in 80 countries, and more than 300 million people have been reached by programmes tested and found to be effective through J-PAL evaluations. The organisation has been instrumental in increasing the number and quality of randomised evaluations on development interventions. – TradeArabia News Service