Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA)

🔍 Ghana's Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) program is designed to support the most vulnerable by providing bimonthly cash transfers and health insurance. However, recent research by Carly Trachtman and Ethan Ligon suggests that the program's current method of determining who qualifies for aid—primarily based on asset ownership and household demographics—may not be effectively targeting the truly needy.

The study introduces a novel welfare metric, evaluating what families spend on rather than what they own, to better identify households that would benefit most from additional resources.

👉 For a more detailed look at the alternatives proposed and their potential impacts, check out the full study: https://buff.ly/4b2sYHQ

🚀 Reminder: Join our CIDR Opportunity Hub webinar tomorrow!

Explore CO-Hub, a comprehensive database of 100+ opportunities for African scholars. Learn how it can boost your research & career in global development!

📅 May 13
⏰ 3 PM GMT
🔗 RSVP below

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Launching An Open Access Airtable of Opportunities for African Scholars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. CEGA and NIERA have created an Airtable, which comprises of a comprehensive list of funding, networking, fellowships, as well as training and mentorship opportunities specifically tailored for African scholars. Members of CIDR iteratively updated the Airtable with new opportunities shared by respond...

🌟 & present: the CIDR Opportunity Hub webinar!

Join us on May 13 at 3 PM GMT for a 45-minute webinar unveiling our newly launched CO-Hub, a comprehensive + open-access database of opportunities for African scholars.

🔗 Sign up here:

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Launching An Open Access Airtable of Opportunities for African Scholars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. CEGA and NIERA have created an Airtable, which comprises of a comprehensive list of funding, networking, fellowships, as well as training and mentorship opportunities specifically tailored for African scholars. Members of CIDR iteratively updated the Airtable with new opportunities shared by respond...

Universal health coverage is a key objective in many lower-income countries. But simply providing insurance is not enough without ensuring that the public can access and utilize the services properly.

🔎Alessandra Voena and coauthors conducted a 4-year study on India's first national public hospital insurance program, RSBY, which tested different premiums and subsidies. Despite increased usage driven by seeing neighbors use the service, the overall impact of the program on health outcomes was minimal.

📖Read their full study to understand the policy implications:

Evaluating and Pricing Health Insurance in Lower-income Countries: A Field Experiment in India Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

🎉 We're thrilled to announce the launch of the CIDR Opportunity Hub (CO-Hub), a platform dedicated to enhancing global development research by supporting African scholars.

Developed by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA), CO-Hub serves as a comprehensive, open-access resource where scholars can find opportunities for training, mentorship, networking, and funding.

The CO-Hub is a product of the Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR), established by CEGA and NIERA in 2022 to generate new insights on how to make the evidence ecosystem more inclusive of African scholars and advocate for promising strategies.

🌐 Join us for an informative 45-minute webinar on May 13 at 3:00 PM GMT/8:00 AM PST, where we'll explore the features of CO-Hub and discover how to make the most of this resource.

🔗Learn more here:

CO-Hub launches to advance African Scholarship in Global Development Research - CEGA CEGA Global Fellows gather at UC Berkeley. | Photo credit: Diego Garcia-Serna BERKELEY, CA (1 May, 2024) – The CIDR Opportunity Hub (CO-Hub), a new resource that advances inclusion in global development research by promoting opportunities for African scholars, launched today. Developed by the Cent...

⚡How can technology-driven solutions address gaps in health education, especially in low- and middle-income settings where traditional teaching methods may fall short?

The CyberRwanda project, a digital health initiative developed by Stefano Bertozzi and team, has shown promising results in improving the understanding and use of family planning and reproductive health services among Rwandan adolescents. After a year of implementation, students are showing:

✅ Increased knowledge of emergency contraception
✅ Greater confidence in accessing health services
✅ More positive attitudes toward family planning and safe s*x practices

🔎Learn more about CyberRwanda’s impact in their study: https://buff.ly/49ZWxbF

🏥In India, despite policy efforts, gender disparities in the use of government health insurance persist, particularly in hospital usage. In this VoxDev article, Pascaline Dupas and Radhika Jain explore the underlying causes and potential solutions to this issue.

Indian women represent a smaller percentage of hospital visits compared to men, and this underrepresentation increases with the cost of care and distance to hospitals. The researchers estimate about 225,000 missing female visits for critical care between 2017 and 2019 due to these disparities.

An administrative reform that reduced the distance to hospitals by enrolling more hospitals resulted in increased hospital visits for both genders, but did not reduce the gender gap. While gender-neutral solutions like lowering costs increases overall access, gender-targeted policies, such as political reservations for women in local councils, can be more effective.

🔍Learn more in this article:

Gender disparities in the use of government health insurance in India There are stark gender disparities in hospital usage in India which increase with the cost of care. Social subsidies are unlikely to close disparities without gender-targeted efforts

🚨 Last chance to submit 🚨 Today is the deadline for poster submissions for the 2024 Annual Africa Evidence Summit in Dar es Salaam!

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) invite posters of impact evaluation studies or programs that advance evidence-informed policy and capacity strengthening in the region.

Apply today to join us in Dar es Salaam July 10-11:

2024 Africa Evidence Summit: Call for Posters Please note that we do not have funding to support travel and accommodation costs for selected poster sessions and presenters–please only apply if you or your organization will support your travel. The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Af...

🌳 Join the Geo4Dev Workshop on Woody Cover Estimation with SAR Data in Brazil! 🛰️
Geo4Dev is a joint initiative between CEGA, New Light Technologies, and 3ie. The Geo4Dev Workshop series features novel applications of geospatial analysis and how they can help inform social science and public policy-related questions.

🧑‍🏫Led by Xiaoxuan (Shawn) Li from New Light Technologies, this hands-on workshop will teach you to utilize LiDAR and SAR data to analyze Brazil's woody regions. Ideal for students, researchers, and professionals looking to integrate cutting-edge geospatial tools into their work.

📊 Bring your own laptop and learn data preprocessing, model selection, prediction visualization, and more!

🗓️ May 3
📍 Washington, DC

Spaces are limited—reserve yours today: /buff.ly/4dejrPz

Workshop: Woody Cover Estimation in Brazil using Synthetic Aperture Radar The Geo4Dev Workshop series features novel applications of geospatial analysis and how they can help inform social science and public policy

🌟 Tomorrow's the day! Don't miss MeasureDev 2024: AI, The Next Generation, where scholars, practitioners, and policymakers will discuss:

🌍Building ethical AI frameworks for global equity
💲AI’s transformative potential for poverty alleviation
🚀Leveraging data analytics for social good

RSVP to join CEGA, the World Bank, & University of Chicago: https://buff.ly/3UkuLlH

Measuring Development 2024 | AI, the Next Generation (Virtual) Join us virtually on May 2nd to explore how GenAI is being used for social impact at our 10th annual MeasureDev Conference!

🌟 We're proud to announce that CEGA Faculty Co-Director Ted Miguel, Staff Scientist Michael Walker, and their team have been awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal by the Econometrics Society for their paper, "General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya."

This CEGA-supported study showcased the broad economic benefits of cash transfers, not just for recipients but for entire communities. The research highlights the powerful ripple effects of cash transfers, with every dollar distributed boosting local GDP by a factor of 2.4. Learn more here: https://buff.ly/3QgdG7v

🎉Congratulations to Ted, Michael, and all those involved in this impactful work!

Cash Transfers Can Improve Lives — Even for Those Who Don’t Receive Them The General Equilibrium project is the first study to trace the impact of cash transfers on entire communities by studying…