Partnership is at the core of CEGA.
Leaders are hungry for better data and evidence to inform their decisions. Too often, they must make important choices without fully understanding the realities of people’s lives or how to design approaches for maximum impact. CEGA works with leaders in government, multilateral and bilateral agencies, private philanthropy, technology companies, and nonprofit organizations to identify where rigorous research about social and economic development programs is needed. Engaging with partners is essential for everything we do—from collecting surveys in the field to translating insights into action.
How to Partner
- We work directly with policymakers and development leaders. Our professional staff and scholars work directly with policymakers in government agencies and ministries around the world to better understand what they need to know and when, and where more evidence is needed and the next “big questions” CEGA researchers should tackle.
- We design and conduct research together. CEGA’s team members and partners in government, NGOs, private companies, and philanthropy design and implement research together, based on what decision-makers need and where new research, data science, and technology can unlock new insights. If you are part of a government, NGO, or other service delivery organization, let’s explore how to embed rigorous field research into your programs and operations. Together, we can design and evaluate new approaches to boost equitable growth and reduce poverty.
- We connect researchers, policymakers, and implementing partners across our network. Our network includes scholars from across academic disciplines—including economics, psychology, public health, business, and computer science—and across the globe. We conduct careful matchmaking between researchers and policymakers and help build communities of practice around related questions, research needs, and interventions. If you lead an economic or social development program, and are interested in scaling evidence-driven innovations, we can help integrate field-tested approaches into your operations and management. We also offer executive education, through UC Berkeley, that equips decision-makers with the latest social and economic research.
- We leverage new data and technology. If you are a tech developer, or your organization generates new kinds of data, we can collaborate on innovative use cases that harness your technology for public good. Our researchers work with a range of data sources and techniques—from remote sensing, IoT and machine learning, to call detail records and administrative data—to better understand the process of human development. We also bring deep field experience and a network of on-the-ground partners to help deploy prototype technologies in the field.
- We share questions and insights. We share both research questions and insights openly, transparently, and proactively across our network and beyond. We do this to elevate the questions that matter and share new evidence and insights that could benefit others. We’ve seen these efforts inform new programs and policies, inform budget allocations and funder perspectives, inspire new research ideas, and drive the expansion of promising approaches.
We’re proud our research is demand-driven. It’s based on the needs of partner governments and civil society counterparts—shared through deep, trusted relationships cultivated over many years—and draws on scholarship from a variety of disciplines. The results of CEGA’s collaborative efforts ensure that the research we support is useful and used by policymakers and others to benefit workers, farmers, and families.
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CEGA collaborates with scholars interested in rigorous, inclusive, and innovative research that addresses global poverty.
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CEGA researchers partner with governments, non-profits, implementing organizations and industry to answer key policy questions and drive impact.
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Resources for journalists and outlets interested in speaking to an expert or learning more about a research domain.
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CEGA works with funders to identify the most impactful, cost-effective solutions to complex economic and social challenges.
Research contributes to legislation that helps citizens navigate Mexico City’s Labor Court
Mexico City’s Labor Court is one of the largest in Latin America. It also has extreme backlogs and inefficiencies. Trials can drag on for years: 30 percent of trials started in 2011 had not finished by December 2015, and 76 percent of judgments resulted in zero payments to workers for lost time, even when those workers won their court cases.
Researchers Joyce Sadka and Enrique Seira, both at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, and Christopher Woodruff at Oxford University, developed a randomized evaluation to test whether informing workers about their rights and the legal process—along with a machine learning “calculator” that compiled past case data to predict whether the worker was likely to win their case—would speed up cases and improve outcomes.
With support from CEGA, the team established an information booth on the steps of randomly selected courts to provide this free information. Telling workers about the probability of winning their case led to higher rates of resolution (a settlement out of court or being reinstated at one’s job) and setting up a meeting with the employer increased the rate of conflict resolution. In short, informing individuals about their rights changed their decision-making and eased strain on the court system.
Sadka was invited to write parts of a labor reform bill, using lessons from the research. The bill was passed in 2019 as part of one of the biggest labor law reforms in Mexican history. The Labor Court kept a permanent booth in front of the court, and the research team is helping the court hire and train staff to run it.