The global research center, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), celebrated its 10th anniversary recently.

Rafael Reif, president of MIT, gave the opening speech at an event, which was attended by over 1,000 international and local researchers, government officials and bilateral and multilateral agencies.

The anniversary event also featured speeches from J-PAL's directors, as well as Alan Krueger, former chairman of the USA Council of Economic Advisers, video messages of support were also offered by Jim Kim, president of the World Bank Group, and Bono of the rock group U2.

The celebration focused on the first 10 years of J-PAL, reflecting on the progress that has been made, but also addressed the challenges that remain. During the program of events, the directors laid out their plans for the next 10 years and what they hoped to achieve.

With the aim of becoming a leading independent adviser to governments, and high-level leaders worldwide, on anti-poverty policy and evidence-based policymaking, J-PAL will conduct four core activities over the next 10 years: to enable new research of government programs and policies, promote and advise on scale-ups of policies already evaluated and found to be effective, embed a culture of experimentation and learning within governments, and provide fellowships and open online courses that will greatly expand the number of governments, other policymakers, and researchers who conduct high-quality evaluations, or use available J-PAL evidence, to inform policy.

J-PAL is a major international network of researchers that specializes in determining which development programs work, which do not, and why. Established in 2003, and headquartered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), J-PAL is known for pioneering the use of randomized control trials (RCTs) to test the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. J-PAL’s network of over 90 affiliated professors has produced over 440 randomized evaluations in 54 countries, and more than 164 million people have been reached by policies found to be effective by J-PAL studies.

Since 2003, J-PAL has been part of the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (ALJCI) program with the goal of evaluating and testing the effectiveness of innovative poverty reduction programs around the world. These evaluations have helped governments to ensure that their education, health, and other social protection programs benefit the people most in need across their countries.

Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel is a member of the board of trustees since 2009, and a member of the visiting committee at the departments of economy and mechanical engineering at MIT.

Since the establishment of J-PAL in 2003 as a research center at the economics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL’s mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is based on scientific evidence, and research is translated into action.

ALJCI, the Community Services arm of the ALJ Group, a Toyota automobiles dealer and distributor in 13 different countries, plans and operates numerous global programs, such as poverty-alleviation initiatives, artistic and educational projects, and technology innovation grants, including a long history of scholarships for students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.