Bhubaneswar, Oct 31 (UNI) Odisha government today signed an MoU with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) South Asia to maximize impact on anti-poverty programmes of the state across a wide range of sectors. Odisha Development Commissioner Suresh Mohapatra signed the agreement with J PAL South Asia Executive Director Sobhini Mukherjee in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
The partnership aimed at bringing transformation in the lives of people through research-based intervention in policy formulation. The programme partnership has all the components of 5T with on-field application that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been focusing on the transformation of Odisha through timely application of Transparency, Teamwork and Technology.
As per the agreement J PAL will work with several departments Like labour, Education, Health, and women and Child Development to conduct a policy-relevant randomized evaluation of new anti-poverty and development programmes. In addition to it, a diagnostic exercise and subsequent workshop will be conducted to build state capacity in the area of monitoring and evaluation.
Chief Minister hoped that the partnership will help in actualizing team Odisha’s effort to transform Odisha by addressing its growth aspirations. J PAL and Odisha government will conduct an annual policy dialogue to identify government’s top policy priorities, conduct discussions to share evidence and jointly come up with innovative solutions that can be field-tested through rigorous randomized evaluations. Topics for the policy dialogues included malnutrition, women empowerment, distress migration, health worker performance and improving agricultural productivity.
