EAG 2017 SF: Embedding EA thinking in government decisions beyond the OECD (Claire Walsh)

Governments in developing countries are some of the biggest players in the fight against poverty, providing millions of low-income people with critical services daily. Scaling up effective, evidence-backed programs through governments is a critical path to alleviating human suffering worldwide. But how can governments begin to build a culture of EA thinking and evidence-informed policymaking, especially when ideology, inertia, and politics often drive policy decisions? Based at MIT, J-PAL is a network of economists who have run over 800 randomized controlled trials in over 80 countries to ensure that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Claire Walsh, head of J-PAL’s Government Partnership Initiative, will share lessons learned about how governments can adopt a more EA approach to policymaking based on our partnerships with over 30 national, state, and city governments in over 15 countries over the past decade. She will feature examples of randomized controlled trials that have led to national government scale-ups of effective programs in India, Indonesia, Peru, and Zambia.

Source: Effective Altruism Global (video).

Effective Altruism is a social movement dedicated to finding ways to do the most good possible, whether through charitable donations, career choices, or volunteer projects. EA Global conferences are gatherings for EAs to meet. You can also listen to this talk along with its accompanying video on YouTube.