Dean Karlan, a prominent economist and the first head of the Office of the Chief Economist at USAID, has resigned after over two years in the role. His mandate was to enhance the cost-effectiveness of development programs and to integrate more evidence-based insights into policy-making. Despite his contributions, Karlan felt that the impact of his work at USAID, particularly in influencing policy through better data, outweighed the individual academic research he had previously conducted. His resignation symbolizes the challenges faced within the agency to prioritize effective programming.
In my time at USAID, I realized that the potential for influencing policy through evidence-based programs was much more significant than my individual research.
My experience in the early '90s made me question the effectiveness of development work, driving my desire to push for more evidence in decision making.
Collection
[
|
...
]