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FranciscoMarques | Shutterstock.com
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Growing the Evidence Base on Digital Technologies for Farmers:
Introducing DAISI
CEGA and J-PAL have launched the new Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI) to support novel, policy-relevant research on the availability, quality, and reach of bundled digital agricultural solutions and services for small-scale agricultural producers. DAISI will partner with commercial providers, private sector technology, fintech, telecommunications firms, governments, and NGOs to evaluate the impact of their services, while generating original research on the impact of digital tools that seek to improve farmer’s outcomes, resilience to climate change, market linkages, and more, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. DAISI also includes a new Regional Scholars program, which will offer funding and capacity building opportunities to researchers based in African and South Asian universities.
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China Invests in Africa
CEGA Faculty Co-Director Edward Miguel talks to VOA News about Chinese infrastructure projects in Africa. He shares that unlike other international donors, the terms of China’s investment in African development lack transparency and may leave African countries vulnerable to mounting levels of debt.
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Photo: VOA News
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Countering Youth Unemployment
Youth unemployment has sharply increased in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. CEGA Fellow Narayan Das (Fall 2012) and coauthors explain in The Financial Express how important vocational training programs are for increasing labor market participation and future earnings.
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Photo: The Financial Express
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Community Policing Doesn’t Reduce Crime
CEGA affiliated faculty Graeme Blair, Jeremy Weinstein, and coauthors conduct randomized interventions in six low- and middle-income countries to assess the impact of community policing. Writing for Foreign Policy and covered in Nature, they explain how community policing does not build citizen trust in police or reduce crime.
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Photo: Evidence in Governance and Politics
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Photo: Adam Barclay
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Raising Rice Yields in India
Unpredictable weather conditions like droughts and floods threaten agricultural production. With funding from the CEGA co-managed Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), CEGA faculty Alain de Janvry, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and coauthors studied the survival of a stress-resistant strain of rice during flooding and found that the novel rice variety outperformed traditional varieties of rice. This led to farmers doubling gains, as they increased yields and invested more into their farms when floods were no longer a threat. Importantly, farmers from marginalized castes and tribes who are often relegated to flood-prone lands benefited most from this technology. This research informed the Government of India's decision to scale improved rice varieties.
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Neglecting the Null
Null results are less likely to be published than research with statistically significant results. In a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) publication, CEGA Faculty Co-Director Edward Miguel, CEGA Program Manager Aleksandar Bogdanoski, affiliated faculty Cecilia Mo, Jeremy Weinstein, and coauthors introduce the Reporting All Results Efficiently (RARE) framework and share how it can reduce publication bias and strengthen the credibility of social science research through systematic reporting of results.
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Photo: BITSS
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Global Micro-Estimates of Wealth
CEGA Faculty Co-Director Joshua Blumenstock and coauthors at Facebook release 'poverty maps' that construct wealth and population at 2.4km granularity for all 135 low- and middle-income countries. The maps, which could enable more targeted and responsible policymaking, were built by applying machine learning algorithms to data from satellites, mobile phone networks, and topographic maps, as well as aggregated, de-identified connectivity data from Facebook.
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Photo: CEGA
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Testing the Test
CEGA Fellow Vedaste Ndahindwa (Fall 2014) and coauthors analyze the accuracy of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) conducted by community health workers in Rwanda as compared to microscopy-based diagnosis. They find that mRDTs remain an effective way of diagnosing malaria.
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Photo: Victoria Nthenge
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Streamlining HIV Care
CEGA affiliated professor Maya Petersen and coauthors interview patients and providers about Streamlined Care, a multicomponent strategy including rapid linkage to antiretroviral therapy, to inform future care innovations. They suggest patient-centered HIV care models should expand Streamlined Care and while addressing persistent barriers. |
Photo: Pediatric AIDS Foundation
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Working Papers
- Alessandra Cassar and Jane Zhang analyze women’s behavior across five countries and find that the gender gap in competitiveness is largely eliminated when gender-stereotypical goods are presented as incentives.
- Bruce Wydick and Sahiba Chopra assess the relationship between political ideology and COVID-19 behavior and case levels, finding support for Trump in the 2020 election is associated with decreased COVID-19 safety.
- Pascaline Dupas, Valentina Brailovskaya, and Jonathan Robinson investigate the impact of a financial literacy program on interest in digital credit in Malawi. Consumer financial literacy interventions increase loan demand, even while loans tend to be high-interest.
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- Aleksandar Bogdanoski explores how the Reporting All Results Efficiently (RARE) framework can reduce publication bias and strengthen the credibility of social science research.
- Dan Cassara interviews Alain Shema about his work on changing the credit limits on small, digital loans for low-income borrowers, and how researchers can work with financial service providers.
- Hannah Reed, Tavneet Suri, and Emily Sylvia introduce the Digital Agricultural Innovations and Services Initiative (DAISI), newly launched by CEGA and J-PAL.
- Stephanie Bonds shares how parent-student meetings in Kenya bridge information gaps and lead to students applying for better suited schools.
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Visit CEGA's event page or our YouTube channel to watch videos of past events. Videos are typically posted within one week of the event date.
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Photo: BITSS
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February 10-11: 10th BITSS Annual Meeting
The CEGA-managed Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences ( BITSS) will host its annual meeting, bringing together academics, publishers, and policymakers to share research and discuss efforts to improve the credibility of social science by advancing research rigor, transparency, reproducibility, and ethics. The program will feature a keynote by 2021 Economics Nobel Laureate, David Card, and presentations of meta-scientific work. For more information and to register, see the event page. |
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Photo: Unsplash
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February 23: Cultivating Capacity: Building Data Science and Data Centers Across Africa
How can greater data science capacity across Africa increase the effectiveness of NGO’s and governments serving local populations? Join CEGA and data.org for a roundtable discussion exploring the building blocks required to build robust localized data science capacity that can accelerate social impact projects on the ground. For more information and to register, see the event page.
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Photo: ILO/Minette Rimando
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March 5: Pacific Conference for Development Economics (PacDev) 2022
As one of the major annual conferences dedicated to development economics, PacDev brings together researchers and practitioners to present work that enhances our understanding of economic development, advances theoretical and empirical methods, and improves programming and policy. The University of San Francisco is hosting PacDev 2022 in person on USF’s campus (with logistical support from CEGA). For more information, to submit a paper, and to register, see the event page. |
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Photo: Mega Caesaria
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April 1: Psychology and Economics of Poverty Convening 2022
New, interdisciplinary research is uncovering how facets of our psychology impact decision-making, with downstream consequences for health, economic outcomes, and well-being. This work is especially important in the context of poverty and resource scarcity, where findings can be used to design programs that improve lives. This convening will bring together researchers, implementing partners, and policymakers to share original work in this space. For more information and to register, see the event page. |
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Hiring Associate, Operations and People
We’re seeking an associate to lead general office management activities and help cultivate a culture of workplace safety, camaraderie, and fun. The associate will also support and implement CEGA’s talent management strategy, including recruitment, DEI, student services, and onboarding. To apply, see the listing.
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Hiring Associate Director, Communications and Policy Engagement
We’re seeking a creative, ambitious, and mission-driven communications professional to develop and implement a new communications and policy engagement strategy for CEGA. This full-time role will lead the Center’s communications and external engagement. Communications is critical to CEGA’s mission, ensuring that our research is used by policymakers and others to improve lives, while amplifying our credibility and visibility among key audiences. To apply, see the listing.
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Hiring WordPress Developer
The Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), co-managed by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), is seeking a WordPress developer to upgrade and redesign portions of ATAI’s website. This is a remote, part-time position. To apply, see the listing.
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Hiring Full-Stack Web Developer
We’re seeking a web developer to build out a data platform for ATAI-funded research. This work will build a platform so that researchers can access and visualize novel geolocated datasets. The data platform will allow researchers to download customized datasets and serve as a repository for harmonized datasets. This is a remote, part-time position. To apply, see the listing.
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About CEGA
Research. Inspire. Change.
CEGA is the West Coast hub for research on global development. Headquartered at UC Berkeley, CEGA’s large, interdisciplinary research network—including a growing number of scholars from low- and middle-income countries—identifies and tests innovations designed to reduce poverty and promote development. Our researchers use rigorous methods as well as novel measurement tools—including wireless sensors, mobile data, and analytics—to evaluate complex programs. Through careful matchmaking, competitive grantmaking, and research dissemination activities, CEGA ensures that the research we produce is relevant, timely, and actionable to policymakers.
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