Planning Ministry cooperates with The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab to establish the Egyptian Laboratory for Impact Measurement
28 April 2021
Dr. Hala El-Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, met recently with officials of The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab to discuss the implementation of the bilateral cooperation agreement between the Ministry and the laboratory to establish the Egyptian Laboratory for Impact Measurement.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Reham Rizk, Head of Modeling Unit at the Ministry, Dr. Adam Osman, Associate Scientific President (J-PAL), Mrs. Alison Fahy, Interim Executive Director (J-PAL), Ms. Lubna Qasim, Director of Policy at the Abdul Latif Jameel Laboratories for the Middle East at the American University. Ms. Noha Fadl, Research Director (J-PAL).
During the meeting, El-Said asserted the ministry's keenness on evidence-based planning, by making use of databases and performance measurement indicators in all development fields.El-Said explained that the establishment of the Egyptian Laboratory for Impact Measurement aims to promote evidence-based policies and improve development results in three areas, namely the "A Decent Life" initiative (1500 villages with the greatest need) by evaluating the developmental impact of the initiative, particularly concerning reducing poverty rates.
Concerning the second field which is family planning, it aims to achieve a balance between resources and the requirements of population growth, and its impact on improving the quality of life of citizens, ensuring the sustainability of the development process, controlling population growth, and upgrading population characteristics.
On her part, Dr. Reham Rizk indicated that the agreement with the Foundation includes reaching those goals through assessing the impact and determining the programs to be evaluated to reach positive results from the interventions proposed by the government, in addition to strengthening the capacities of the Ministry of Planning's work team in the field of policy-making, as well as using Local / government data to improve decision-making.
During the meeting, the experiences of the International Corporation in the field of projects and how to apply them to the Egyptian context, and the ongoing projects that JPAL is working on, whether with government agencies or with private sector institutions, were discussed.