Pharo Foundation & CEGA Invest in Research in the Horn of Africa
A new partnership between Pharo Foundation & CEGA will invest $100,000 in research collaborations in the Horn of Africa to generate rigorous evidence about critical issues facing the region. With generous support from Pharo Foundation, CEGA will competitively award grants through its Development Economics Challenge to researchers whose projects focus on early childhood education, access to water and sanitation, and employment and productivity outcomes in Somaliland, Ethiopia, Rwanda, or Kenya.
The Development Economics Challenge, founded in 2016 as a research competition for Economics PhD students at the University of California, Berkeley, has evolved over the years. What began as a way to enable junior researchers to take a leadership role in designing and implementing field studies has become a tool for seeding rigorous research in under-studied areas critical to improving the lives of those living in poverty. Awardees now include PhD candidates at Berkeley and other CEGA-affiliated universities as well as faculty within the CEGA network.
What has remained consistent is the Challenge’s focus on rigorous evaluation of programs or policies designed to alleviate poverty and that promote social or economic development in low- and middle- income countries. Researchers can build upon existing research, but often explore entirely new opportunities that bring innovation to the field of global development. The Challenge also incentivizes early-career economics researchers to carefully consider and plan for the impact of their findings on policy and decision-making, which is also a major focus of Pharo Foundation, allowing the visions of CEGA and Pharo Foundation to meet.
Through its work, Pharo Foundation focuses on three main missions:
- Education: to ensure that all students have an opportunity to access a high-quality and affordable education and become productive citizens in a rapidly changing world.
- Water: to ensure that people and communities across Africa have access to a safe and affordable source of water.
- Productivity: to eliminate health, financial, and structural barriers to employment and productivity for working people.
The first grants from the new partnership with Pharo Foundation are expected to be disbursed in the fall of 2024.
