Center for Effective Global Action
December 2015 - Impact Note
IMPACT
     
ATAI back at the World Bank Agriculture Global Practice Group
Jeremy Magruder

On December 10, CEGA affiliate Jeremy Magruder spoke at the World Bank's Africa Economic Seminar Series to review evidence from eight studies across Sub-Saharan Africa and India on how information provision can encourage poor farmers to make profitable decisions to invest in new technologies. These insights highlight more than 5 years of research by the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), co-led by CEGA and 
the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL).


IPA Incubates New Nonprofit Organization ImpactMatters

Dean Karlan, founder of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), announced the launch of a new nonprofit organization, ImpactMatters. The new organization aims to fill a gap in global efforts to increase evidence-based decision-making and effective allocation of charitable giving by
conducting "impact audits" that rate nonprofits. ImpactMatters intends to guide nonprofits to 
"strengthen their use and production of appropriate evidence of impact, and to certify to donors that an organization's work is appropriately evidence-based." The organization will be incubated by IPA, and will be based on rigorous evaluation research, much of which is conducted by the networks of research affiliates at IPA, J-PAL, and CEGA.

Watch: DIL Mobile Data Collection Webinar 
 
On December 8, the Development Impact Lab (DIL) hosted its first in a series of webinars focused on mobile data collection in collaboration with Engineering 4 Change. "Mobile Data Collection: A New Frontier of Tech4Dev Research" brought together 100 attendees across 19 countries to explore diverse perspectives on data collection tools and highlight key insights on leading data collection platforms including tools from SurveyCTO, EngageSPARK, and Impact Lab. Watch a recording of the webinar here. DIL will continue this webinar series with "deep dives" into specific mobile data collection tools in the Spring 2016 semester. Stay tuned!
CEGA IN THE NEWS
 
Using cell phone usage data to predict poverty
 
A new study in Science by CEGA Affiliate Joshua Blumenstock (University of Washington), along with Gabriel Cadamuro and Robert On, examines the use of cellular phone use metadata to predict wealth and poverty. The study has been covered by the New York Times, the BBC, Science (podcast), and UW Today. 
 
Success at the BITSS Annual Meeting

The Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) announced the winners of its inaugural Leamer-Rosenthal Prizes for Open Social Science at its Annual Meeting held on December 10 and 11. The work of the prize winners was featured in various publications, including The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and London Free Press.

PEOPLE
 
Remembering Ravi Ramrattan
Ravindra (Ravi) B. Ramrattan

CEGA is humbled to remember Ravi Ramrattan, a friend and former IPA colleague who lost his life in the Westgate Mall terrorist attack in September 2013. A new fund has vewweset up in his honor. The Ravindra B. Ramrattan EASST Fund, established by Ravi's family in recognition of his commitment to poverty alleviation, will allow CEGA to support travel for six East African researchers to the annual Evidence Summit of the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative. We are deeply honored to recognize Ravi in this way.

OPPORTUNITIES

CEGA 2014-2015 Annual Report

CEGA's 2014-15 annual report is now available on our website. The report explores CEGA's evolution over the past year, highlighting the research, initiatives, and individuals that help us achieve impact throughout the world.