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Cairo, Egypt: The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Middle East and North Africa at The American University in Cairo (J-PAL MENA at AUC), represented by Dr. Ahmed S. Dallal, and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MPED), represented by H.E. Hala El Said, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday March 17, 2022 to launch the Egypt Impact Lab to strengthen evidence-informed policy and improve development outcomes in Egypt. The signing of the MoU took place at The American University in Cairo.
The Egypt Impact Lab is a collaboration between MPED and J-PAL MENA at AUC that aims to strengthen the effectiveness of Egypt’s poverty reduction policies by rigorously evaluating promising and innovative government programs and using results to inform scale decisions. The Lab will build a culture of evidence-informed decision making across government by building partners’ capacity to use evidence in program design and delivery, and using administrative data to facilitate evidence-generation.
The Egypt Impact Lab’s work will revolve around top government priorities: reducing poverty in rural Egypt, improving the effectiveness of social protection, promoting microenterprise development, and increasing access to economic opportunities and family planning to empower females. The Lab will work with strategic partners; the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, the National Council for Women, and the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development to strengthen the impact of major national programs and initiatives, including Hayah Karima and the Family Development Fund to improve development outcomes for Egyptians.
The Egypt Impact Lab is made possible with generous support from founding partners Sawiris Foundation for Social Development and Community Jameel, with additional support from UNICEF Egypt.
The launch event contained two in-depth panel discussions that focused on the poverty alleviation, and family development and women’s empowerment themes of the lab; highlighting innovative government initiatives and sharing relevant insights from J-PAL’s existing evidence base.
Speaking on behalf of J-PAL MENA at AUC, Alison Fahey, J-PAL MENA Executive Director, said:
The Government of Egypt is embarking on many major poverty reduction and human development initiatives, and J-PAL MENA at AUC is excited to be partnering with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and other government strategic partners to generate rigorous evidence about the most effective ways to improve development outcomes for Egyptians. The Egypt Impact Lab is an innovative collaboration; while it builds on J-PAL’s global experience, we are together doing something really bold and new, which puts the Government of Egypt at the forefront of integrating evidence in policy..
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, H.E. Hala El Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said: “In Egypt, the government is firmly committed to ensure an enlightened future for Egyptians, and place the country at the forefront of economic, social, and technological advancement…. We believe that promoting the utilization of evidence-based policy is our way forward to augment and complement such efforts, ultimately translating our broad aspirations into tangible outcomes for Egyptians. In this regard, the Egypt Impact Lab plays a vital role in addressing the government development priorities and reinforcing the impact of national initiatives.”
Speaking on behalf of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, Noura Selim, Executive Director, reflected on how Sawiris Foundation has evolved over the last 20 years to invest in evidence and the production of knowledge. She expressed that the foundation is honored to be part of this vital national initiative to produce rigorous evidence.
Speaking on behalf of Community Jameel, George Richards, Director, said: “Supporting evidence-based policymaking is a priority for Community Jameel, and we are honored to be joining J-PAL MENA and a consortium of strategic partners, in government and beyond, to launch this Egypt Impact Lab. From the Jameel Management Centre at AUC’s Downtown campus (now the Greek Campus), to the Jameel House of Traditional Arts in Fustat, to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh later this year, Community Jameel is proud to be working with Egyptian institutions, researchers and creative communities to strengthen systems of science and traditional knowledge in a common effort to tackle global challenges.”
Speaking on behalf of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Egypt, Jeremy Hopkins, Representative in Egypt “The launch of the Egypt Impact Lab is a critical foundation block for better development outcomes for children, especially when impact evaluation is focused on the considerable government investment in ensuring the achievement of the SDGs and Egypt 2030 Vision. At UNICEF, we use evidence to drive change, to identify issues affecting children and to understand the scale of the challenges which children and their families face. We are very pleased to support the Egypt Impact Lab and we are committed to channeling additional resources to support the government in its design and scale-up of effective programs for the wellbeing of all children in Egypt.”
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About J-PAL MENA at AUC
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Middle East and North Africa (J-PAL MENA) at The American University in Cairo’s School of Business is a regional office established in July 2020, as a part of a larger network of research centers worldwide working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of more than 260 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL MENA draws on results from randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. We build partnerships with governments, NGOs, donors, and others to share this knowledge, scale up effective programs, and advance evidence-informed decision-making.
J-PAL was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and has regional centers in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. For more information, visit povertyactionlab.org.
About Community Jameel
Community Jameel is an international organisation advancing science to help communities adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Founded by Mohammed Jameel KBE – a graduate of MIT and engineer by training – Community Jameel employs a new approach to creating impact by driving new scientific and technological breakthroughs and innovations in the fields of education, health and climate.
Community Jameel supports programmes, projects and ideas that unlock the power of data, research, AI and other digital tools to understand and address pressing human challenges.
The work enabled and supported by Community Jameel has led to significant new breakthroughs and achievements, including the discovery of the new antibiotic Halicin, critical modeling on the spread of COVID-19 and a Nobel-Prize-winning approach to global poverty alleviation.
About the American University in Cairo School of Business
Boasting an unrivaled reputation as the top private business school in Egypt and one of the best in Africa and the Arab world, AUC School of Business is dedicated to transforming the eager and innovative minds of today to become the responsible change agents of tomorrow, all while developing relevance and leadership in an evolving ecosystem.
Situated within AUC and enjoying nearly seven decades’ worth of history, the School offers a wide range of programs and activities that extend beyond the classroom to provide a holistic and engaging experiential learning approach. The School’s seal of excellence is the Triple Crown accreditation, which places it among the top 1 percent of educational institutions worldwide to achieve the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Association of MBAs and the European Quality Improvement System accreditations.
For more information, visit business.aucegypt.edu/
About MPED
The Ministry plays the leading role in achieving sustainable development & formulating impact based policies via effective planning, monitoring & evaluation of government performance to implement the sustainable development agenda besides efficient management of public investments towards a knowledge-based and competitive economy in partnership with the private sector & civil society through attracting & raising the capabilities of distinguished human assets using a scientific methodology in line with global best practices. Ministry of Planning and Economic Development aims to develop sustainable development plans and achieve consistency between the implementation of the strategic vision of the state and development plans in various areas. The Ministry is also developing a guide to educate citizens about the objectives and policies of the development plan, with the aim of highlighting priority areas. The
