Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)’s Post

J-PAL Europe was thrilled to join as a partner to the UNICEF Evaluation and World Food Programme Global Impact Evaluation Forum at the United Nations to share our work in funding and generating impact evaluations in humanitarian and fragile settings. On day 1, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)’s Aprille Knox and Pierre Hodel shared our funding opportunities for rigorous impact evaluations and highlighted our goal to support UN agencies to develop collaborations with researchers. On day 2, J-PAL hosted a clinic on tailoring evaluation designs for the humanitarian sector. Sara Merner presented the takeaways from our learning agenda on how to responsibly randomise in humanitarian settings. The session featured: WFP’s Felipe A. Dunsch on innovative anticipatory action programme evaluation in Nepal; UNICEF’s Miguel Almanzar on an adaptive social protection project in Yemen; and Uplift Afghanistan’s Hila-Nawa Alam shared RCT evidence on direct aid to Afghan women. Together, we explored strategies for overcoming challenges of conducting evaluations in crisis and fragile settings. On day 3,  Ana Garcia-Hernandez, J-PAL Europe’s Associate Director of Policy, shared insights on ethics in the context of fragile settings to ensure humanitarian principles are followed in research.  Aprille Knox and Pierre Hodel shared insights on the value of evidence synthesis to inform humanitarian efforts. This forum reinforced the importance of using the existing evidence, and generating new knowledge and learnings where there are gaps, to make informed cost-effective decisions in fragile settings. It was inspiring to exchange with organisations dedicated to advancing impact evaluations, and we are eager to continue building together.