On March 18, IPA and J-PAL co-organized a closed-door roundtable discussion in Kenya, as inputs to the Population Policy for National Development, which is currently being revised.The event was co-hosted with the National Council for Population Development, the agency spearheading the policy revisions and that will have oversight over its implementation.

On March 17, IPA Côte d’Ivoire shared the insights of the education section of the second wave of the RECOVR survey.This two-hour session was hosted by M.Raoul Koné (Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Education of Côte d’Ivoire).Loïc Watine (Director of the Right-Fit Evidence Unit, IPA) presented key findings related to the various distance education programs that had been put in place during and after the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, as well as the relevant policy implications.

COVID-19 and its associated school closures present significant challenges for Ghana’s education system.Ghanaian children were out of school from March 2020 until January 2021, losing out on the hours of learning that the structured school setting presents along with other benefits such as the school feeding program.