The Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab (MEL) and the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P) hosted a high-level policy conference today at UM6P’s campus in Rabat-Salé.
Titled 'Toward evidence-based development: Climate change, education and employment in Morocco', the one-day conference offered a platform for Moroccan decision-makers and international researchers to jointly discuss how rigorous impact evaluations can drive effective policy.
Launched in 2024 and emerging from the Morocco Employment Lab, MEL is based at UM6P in Rabat and works to foster development in Morocco by translating scientific evidence into impactful policies.
The MEL is a collaboration between UM6P, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), the Harvard Centre for International Development and Community Jameel.
The conference opened with remarks from Hicham El Habti, president of UM6P, Nader Iskandar Diab, head of programmes at Community Jameel, Professor Rema Hanna from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor Bruno Crépon from the Institut Polytechnique de Paris and Florencia Devoto, MEL project director and affiliate professor at UM6P.
The opening remarks were followed by a presentation on Morocco’s education policy priorities from Mohamed Saad Berrada, the minister of national education, preschool and sports.
Professor Esther Duflo, Nobel laureate, co-founder and co-director of J-PAL, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the Paris School of Economics, delivered the event’s keynote speech on the challenges of climate change adaptation.
Professor Esther Duflo said: "The need to start developing a toolkit for policymakers on what works today and what will work when the climate actually changes, as very few studies have been conducted on this topic so far.
"It’s also essential to include local communities, who are key actors in building resilience to climate change.
"The impacts of climate change are felt most by those living in poverty."
Throughout the event, attendees engaged in a series of panels on recent developments in the sectors of climate change and sustainable agriculture, education and labour in Morocco.
Speakers shared their insights from ongoing efforts to integrate the use of evidence into their institutions’ work and entered into dialogue with researchers from several distinguished universities.
The MEL is part of J-PAL’s Evidence to Policy programme, which was launched in 2022 in collaboration with Co-Impact and Community Jameel.
Through the programme, J-PAL is partnering with governments to advance their common goal of improving the lives of people living in poverty through mobilising governments’ adoption at scale of specific evidence-based policies and programmes.
J-PAL also works with partner governments in the programme to institutionalise a broader culture of evidence and data-driven policymaking in government systems.
To date, the Evidence to Policy programme has impacted the lives of over six million people.
