Select Policy Work
International Projects
Principal Investigator, Graduating to Resilience Labor Market Assessment (LMA), AIR (2020-2023), Client: AVSI/USAID/BHA /Uganda
I led a mixed methods evaluation (that included a RCT evaluation) of the LMA for cohort one of activities of the Graduating to Resilience Project in Uganda. Graduating to Resilience is a USD ~37 million seven-year activity (October 2017-September 2024) funded by USAID’s former Office of Food for Peace (FFP), now the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The activity aimed to identify the most cost-effective graduation approach to meet food security and nutrition challenges of extremely poor refugee and host country households. I managed the overall LMA, co-created with implementers (AVSI & Trickle Up) a complex large scale household survey and led the mixed methods evaluation study. He also led dissemination of findings via conferences.
Principal Investigator, Graduating to Resilience Value Chain Assessment, AIR (2020–2023), Client: AVSI/USAID /Uganda
I led a mixed methods monitoring and evaluation of the VCA for informing cohort two of the activities of the Graduating to resilience project in Uganda. I managed the overall VCA, and designed and implemented a new tool for VCA for value chain programming to the local needs of the implementer (AVSI). As part of the tool, I led profitability and cost analyses of a variety of value chains and helped AVSI finalize six value chains for cohort two programming considering nutritional value of value chains as well. I then conducted a more in-depth VCA for each of the six value chains to inform opportunities for supporting smallholder farmers in the local context.
Co-Principal Investigator, Smart Containment with Active Learning (SCALE): A Proposal for a Data-Responsive and Graded Approach to COVID-19 (2020–2021) , Client: Harvard University and Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP).
I co-led a multidisciplinary proposal to support COVID-19 response efforts in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) at national and sub-national levels. This proposal included a detailed operational plan and policy recommendations. As the lead author, I published an article in the Lancet Microbe discussing the benefits of group testing for estimating SARS-CoV2 prevalence and efficiently relaxing lockdowns during a pandemic. The SCALE operational plan outlined an evidence-responsive COVID-19 response strategy that aimed to minimize disease spread and mitigate socio-economic impacts by targeting interventions based on prevalence levels in smaller geographical units. It provided color-coded policy responses graded according to disease prevalence. Our work informed discussions with the Government of Pakistan, shaping their COVID-19 policy response, and received citations in journals like Science for its impact on pandemic policymaking.
Quantitative Lead, Beoog Biiga III (BB3) , AIR/IMPAQ International (2021) ,Client: USDA/Catholic Relief Services
I led the quantitative evaluation for Beoog Biiga III (BB3) program partnering with Catholic Relief Services in three provinces in Burkina Faso to improve health and literacy outcomes. AIR/IMPAQ conducted a performance evaluation of the five-year BB3 program by using quantitative methods at baseline/midline/endline. I oversaw the collection of data, data quality checks, cleaning, and analysis. I supervised and conducted a quantitative analysis of performance indicators by disaggregating data by key groups and identifying important differences in means. Following analysis, I contributed to the writing of the report including writing up the quantitative results and their presentation and successful submission to the client.
Quantitative Lead, Liberia Food-for-Education (FFE) Program, AIR (2022–2023) , Client: USDA/Save the Children
I led the quantitative evaluation for Liberia Empowerment through Attendance, Reading, and Nutrition (LEARN) program in four counties in Liberia for two cohorts of students with the goal of improving health and nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as enhancing the quality of literacy instruction for primary school-aged children. I evaluated a randomized control trial (RCT) and conducted a performance evaluation for endline of LEARN. In addition, I worked with Save the Children to lead the design of an RCT for evaluating the relative effectiveness of local vs foreign supplies of foods in shaping deity diversity and other health and developmental outcomes about children of school-going age as part of the next round of LEARN (II) activities.
Domestic Projects
Project Director, PROMISE Center: The Centers of Excellence at CCC – Labor Market Projections, AIR (2022–2023), Client: Community Colleges of Chicago (CCC)
I was the Project Director of the labor market projections team that proposed and estimated statistical models (using machine learning and econometrics) to predict future occupation and skill demands in the Chicago. The primary goals for this effort were to (1) help the CCC leadership and the administrators of the CCC Centers of Excellence plan expansions of their current programming, changes to current curricula, and the introduction of new educational and trainings programs; and (2) create a scalable model that can be applied throughout the community college ecosystem to enable colleges to build economic mobility and resiliency through identifying in-demand skills and informing programming to help the American workforce gain equitable entry into these jobs.
Project Director, Apple Tree Charter Expansion Project, AIR (2022) , Client: Department of Education/Apple Tree Institute
I co-led the impact evaluation of the scale up of charter schools in Washington DC and used quasi-experimental design with both school- and student-level matching to understand if the quality of instruction and student outcomes in replication preschools are equivalent to the outcomes in established AppleTree charter schools. I managed the overall impact evaluation including the hiring of staff, and data collectors, formulating a data collection and analysis plan, including overseeing the propensity score matching design for the evaluation and overall activities of the project.
Media and social impact
I gave a TEDx talk at Rice University on "Busting Myths About Health and Wealth" . I was featured in a documentary on child stunting in Pakistan which gathered more than 68000 views.
Over the years, through the help of my funders, collaborators and friends, my work has reached policy makers in Capitol Hill/White House, World Bank, United Nations and members of local governments in Houston as well as international governments. For instance, I wrote a policy brief on investing in global child nutrition for the White House which was shared to policy makers in Capitol Hill through the Baker Institute. My oped on child stunting was shared recently with members of the national parliament in Pakistan. In Peru, I am collaborating with policy makers and researchers in GRADE/UDEP to make their cash transfer program more transparent and to evaluate its effectiveness. I have also presented my work before members of Qatar’s Royal family. I regularly share my evidence informed opinions on X/Twitter,
Select op-eds and other policy writing
Social Protection, Special Report,The News Sunday, April 2023
Negotiating better deals, Special Report,The News Sunday, February 2023
Winning the war against Covid-19, The News Sunday, April 2020
Rethinking Health Spending, Special Report,The News Sunday, August 2020
Maybe think again about fasting while pregnant, Soch Writing, May 2019
Follow Latin America’s lead to improve maternal, child health, The Hill, December 2017
Minimum wages and child health, Health Policy Research Newsletter, September 2017
Invest in global child nutrition, Policy Brief (for the White House), Dec 2016