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From left to right: CEGA Fellow Solomon Walelign (Spring 2020), Abdulrazzak Tamim (PhD candidate, UC Berkeley), and CEGA Research Manager Sarah Stillman during a panel session at E2A 2022 | Matt Krupoff
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Evidence to Action 2022 Convenes Experts on Conflict & Displacement
On October 13, CEGA’s flagship event, Evidence to Action (E2A), returned in-person in Berkeley, CA. This year’s symposium, Confronting Conflict and Displacement in a Changed World, addressed the causes and consequences of conflict and discussed strategies for post-conflict recovery and resilience. Featuring a keynote address from Nancy Lindborg, the President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, E2A 2022 also gathered leading decision-makers, donors, and researchers to share their personal experiences with conflict and displacement. As the number of globally displaced people rises, CEGA remains committed to generating evidence to aid policymakers and improve outcomes for communities most affected.
Check out the full agenda and slides from the presenters.
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Financial Inclusion Done Smarter?
Globally, many women are excluded from the accelerated access to financial services that mobile money can provide. CEGA affiliated professor Tanu Kumar and coauthors compare smartphone ownership and training to cash transfers in Malawi, finding that despite improved mobile money fluency, smartphone recipients did not apply these capabilities.
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BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
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NIERA: Network Effects of CEGA’s Fellowships
The Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) was formed in 2018 by alumni of CEGA’s East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) fellowship to scale learnings from their fellowship and increase the scope, rigor, and influence of impact evaluations in East Africa. In a recent interview, Samuel Oji Oti, the founding Secretary-General of the network and CEGA Fellow, reflects on NIERA’s mission to place demand and relevance at the heart of evidence generation and use.
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NIERA
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Investing in Indigenous Crops
CEGA Fellow Remidius Ruhinduka and coauthors analyze case studies on genetically modified orphan crops and find substantial economic benefits to farmers and consumers. They argue for greater investment in understudied indigenous orphan crops, especially as they are well-suited for local diets and environments.
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Brian Stauffer
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Precision Agriculture for Development
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Feeding Farmers Focused Advice
Traditional assistance to farmers in low- and middle-class countries (LMICs) is generic, difficult to scale, and expensive. With funding from the CEGA co-managed Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), two research groups tested the efficacy of providing agricultural advice via mobile phones, finding farmers appreciated the individualized advice and that it increased yields. Based on this research, Michael Kremer and colleagues started Precision Agriculture for Development (PxD) to support farmers in LMICs by providing customized information to increase productivity, profitability, and sustainability.
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Syrian Refugees Face Serious Disparities
CEGA Research Manager Sarah Stillman, affiliated professor Sandra Rozo, Abdulrazzak Tamim, Bailey Palmer, Emma Smith, and CEGA Faculty Co-Director Edward Miguel release results from the CEGA-supported Syrian Refugee Life Study and find Syrian refugees in Jordan have poorer access to basic services, housing quality, and educational attainment compared to non-refugees.
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Ahmed Akacha
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Predicting Engagement to Promote Care
CEGA Fellow Werner Maokola, affiliated professor Sandra McCoy, and coauthors apply machine learning techniques on electronic medical record data to predict which HIV+ patients in Tanzania are likely to disengage from care. Such predictions can enable more effective targeting of interventions to increase retention.
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Jackie Conciatore
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DevEng Deters Dirty Water
Amy Pickering, CEGA affiliate and professor of DevEng, a new field co-developed by CEGA, introduces the Venturi, a water-purification device that uses no electricity or moving parts to automatically dispense liquid chlorine at the point where users collect water. It has been successfully tested at community taps, hospitals, and health clinics in Bangladesh and Kenya.
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Katya Cherukumilli
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Working Papers
- Sarojini Hirshleifer, Mustafa Naseem, Agha Ali Raza, and Arman Rezaee address misinformation about COVID-19 on a social media platform in Pakistan, finding controlling misinformation reduces platform usage and exposure to official information.
- Dalia Ghanem, Sarojini Hirshleifer, and Karen Ortiz-Becerra assess the impact of attrition on the internal validity of a study by conducting a systematic review of recent experiments and testing various hypotheses to reduce attrition.
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- Anita Raj discusses results on parental aspirations for children in India, which may explain why few adolescent girls transition from secondary education to employment and leadership.
- Alejandro Martínez Marquina shares experimental evidence around aversion to debt and reluctance to borrow money, finding that debt avoidance may not be the best investment.
- Amy Shipow reflects on the direction of CEGA’s Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE) and how local partners will be at the helm of driving this academic community forward.
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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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Marconi Society
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November 2-3, 2022: The Decade of Digital Inclusion Symposium
CEGA is pleased to co-host The Decade of Digital Inclusion symposium alongside the Institute for Business & Social Impact (IBSI) and the Marconi Society. The event will convene technology, business, and policy experts to help build pathways to digital equity by 2030. Through panel discussions and keynotes, the symposium will generate solutions to the complex issue of digital inequality. For more information and to register, see the event page.
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
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November 15-16, 2022: Hope Over Fate Book Launch
This two-day event will celebrate the release of Hope Over Fate: Fazle Hasan Abed and the Science of Ending Global Poverty, a new biography of the late Sir Fazle Hasan Abed by Scott MacMillan, Director of Learning and Innovation for BRAC USA and Abed’s former speechwriter. For more information and to register, see the event page.
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UC Berkeley
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November 17, 2022: BITSS Open Research Seminar
The CEGA-managed Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) is excited to host the Open Research Seminar, a webinar series to promote and share knowledge about the use of tools and practices for transparency and reproducibility in social science research. The final two sessions will be on November 17, "Hashed Linkages for Administrative Datasets," and December 6, "How to Evaluate Journal Implementation of Open Science Standards: The TRUST Process." For more information and to register, see the event page. |
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Hiring Associate, Operations and People
CEGA seeks an associate to develop and implement its people and culture function that facilitates recruitment and retention; boosts staff morale; and helps cultivate a welcoming, fair, and open workplace environment. This role will also lead general office management activities. To apply, see the listing.
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Hiring Communications Intern
CEGA seeks a Communications Intern to disseminate research through social media, develop multimedia content, monitor press coverage, support website operations, and lead special projects. The paid internship will start in the fall and end in January 2023, with the option to renew for the spring 2023 semester. To apply, see the listing.
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Hiring Full Stack Developer, Social Science Prediction Platform
CEGA’s Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) seeks a full-stack engineer to work on refining the Social Science Prediction Platform (SSPP). To apply, see the listing.
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About CEGA
Research. Inspire. Change.
The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is a hub for research, training, and innovation headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. We generate insights that leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Our academic network includes more than 150 faculty, 65 scholars from low- and middle-income countries, and hundreds of graduate students–from across academic disciplines and across the globe–that produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty.
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