Enhancing Cohesion Policy's Impact for Jobs, Skills, and Competitiveness

Welcome to the Workshop on Enhancing Impacts of Cohesion Policy! 

• Enrico Pesaresi – Deputy Head of the Evaluation Unit, DG REGIO, European Commission.
• Ruth Paserman – Director, Directorate Funds: Programming and Implementation, DG EMPL, European Commission.
• Arianna Legovini – Director, Development Impact, World Bank.

Workshop Roadmap and pre-workshop survey

• Leonardo Iacovone – Lead Economist, Finance, Competitiveness, and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.
• Patrick Premand – Social Protection and Jobs Program Lead, Development Impact, World Bank.

Keynote: Trial-and-Adopt to Enhance EU Cohesion Policy Effectiveness

• Arianna Legovini – Director, Development Impact, World Bank.

Moderator: Rafael de Hoyos – Lead Economist, Education Global Practice, World Bank.

Thematic Breakouts: Introduction and Expected Journey

Thematic Breakout 1. Competitiveness

• Enrico Pesaresi – Deputy Head of the Evaluation Unit, DG REGIO, European Commission.
• Rajesh Chandy -Professor and Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship, London Business School.
• David McKenzie - Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank.

Moderator: Leonardo Iacovone – Lead Economist, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 2. Skills & Jobs, Education & Health, Twin Transition

• Renos Vakis – Head of the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD), World Bank.

Moderator: Maria Ruth Jones – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Clinic 1: Policy Objectives and Interventions

Teams will discuss their program/project policy objectives, which challenge they aim to address, and through which interventions. Key   points will be recorded in the PowerPoint template, which each project will use to present their impact evaluation design at the end of   the workshop.

Introductory Remarks: The appeal of trial and adopt for ESF+ 

• Jeroen Jutte – Head of Unit, European Social Fund +, DG EMPL, European Commission. 

Keynote: The Value of Experimentation for Policy

• Marianne Bertrand – Professor of Economics, University of Chicago.

Moderator: Achim Schmillen – Lead Economist and Program Leader for Human Development for the EU Member States, World   Bank.

Plenary Ignites: Skills for Jobs, Start-ups and SMEs

• Patrick Premand – Social Protection and Jobs Program Lead, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe – Associate Professor of Finance, Department of Finance, London School of Economics.
• David McKenzie – Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank.

Moderator: Eliana Carranza – Global Lead for Labor Markets and Skills, the Social Protection Unit, World Bank.

Clinic 2: Priority Policy Questions and Key Outcomes | Part 1

Teams determine the main policy impact questions for their project, and start discussing key outcomes of interest and potential data sources. Key points will be recorded in the PowerPoint template, which each project will use to present their impact evaluation design at   the end of the workshop.

Methods 1: Causal Inference and Experimental Impact  Evaluation

Breakout 1 (non-technical)

• Arlen Guarin – Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Breakout 2 (advanced)

• Arndt Reichert – Professor of Health Economics and Development Research, Leibniz University of Hannover.

Thematic Breakout 1. Competitiveness

• Andreas Stegmann – Associate Professor in Economics, Department of Economics at the University of Warwick.
• Francisco Campos – Senior Economist, Finance, Competitiveness, and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.
• Marco Sanfilippo – Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Turin.
• Teo Firpo – Research Associate, Humboldt University of Berlin.

Moderator: Reena Badiani-Magnusson – Senior  Economist, the Equitable Growth, Finance and  Institutions, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 2. Skills & Jobs

• Ana Garcia Hernandez – Associate Director of Policy, J-PAL Europe.
• Samantha de Martino – Economist, Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD), World Bank.
• Eliana Carranza – Global Lead for Labor Markets and Skills, the Social Protection Unit, World Bank.

Moderator: Marcus Holmlund – Senior Economist and  Research Manager, Development Impact, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 3. Education & Health

• Ciro Avitabile – Senior Economist, Education Global Practice, World Bank.
• Rafael de Hoyos – Lead Economist, Education Global Practice, World Bank.

Moderator: Linda Adamaite – Evaluation Officer, Impact  Assessment, Evaluation, Monitoring of Funds, DG EMPL,  European Commission.

Thematic Breakout 4. Twin Transition

• Aidan Coville – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Alice Duhaut – Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Daniel Rogger – Senior Economist and Research Manager, Development Impact, World Bank.

Moderator: Enrico Pesaresi – Deputy Head of the Evaluation Unit, DG REGIO, European Commission.

Methods 2: Non-experimental impact evaluation

Breakout 1 (non-technical)

• Hannah Irmela Uckat – Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Breakout 2 (advanced)

• Caio Piza – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 1. Competitiveness

• Alexandra Avdeenko – Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.
• Carolyn Pelnik - Economist, World Bank.
• Caio Piza – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Christopher Woodruff – Professor of Economics, Oxford University, and Nonexecutive director, British International Investment board.

Moderator: Łukasz Marć – Senior Economist, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 2. Skills & Jobs

• Jochen Kluve – Director of Evaluation at KfW Development Bank and Professor of Economics at Humboldt-University.
• Arlen Guarin – Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Denni Tommasi – Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Bologna.

Moderator: Susanne Hoffmann – Evaluation Officer, Impact Assessment, Evaluation, Monitoring of Funds, DG EMPL, European Commission.

Thematic Breakout 3. Education & Health

• Daniel Rogger – Senior Economist and Acting Research Manager, Development Impact Evaluation, World Bank.
• Renos Vakis – Head of the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD), World Bank.

Moderator: Rafael de Hoyos – Lead Economist, Education Global Practice, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 4. Twin Transition

• Arndt Reichert – Professor of Health Economics and Development Research, Leibniz University of Hannover.
• Wei Lu – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Alice Duhaut – Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Moderator: Maria Ruth Jones – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Clinic 3: Program roll-out plan and Impact Evaluation Strategy

Teams will work on designing an impact evaluation to answer the questions they have identified, and discuss identification strategy and potential challenges. The proposed design will be recorded in the project's PowerPoint template.

Keynote: Trial-and-Adopt in Action to Improve Employment Policies in France

• Bruno Crépon – Professor of Economics at ENSAE and Scientific Director of J-PAL Middle East and North Africa.

Moderator: Francisco Campos – Senior Economist, Finance, Competitiveness, and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.

Plenary panel: How to expand policy experimentation to strengthen cohesion policy impacts in the EU?

• Cyril Nouveau – Director of Statistics, Studies, Evaluation and Prospective Analysis, France Travail.
• Vasile Asandei – Director General, Regional Development Agency North-East Romania.
• Christopher Woodruff – Professor of Economics, Oxford University, and Nonexecutive director, British International Investment board.
• Thania de la Garza – Former Deputy Director General of CONEVAL and co-founder of Globall Evidence for Results

Moderator: Asad Alam – Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions (EFI) Vice Presidency, World Bank.

Introduction to Group Discussions

• Chloë Fernandez – Senior Research Officer, Development Impact, World Bank.

Group discussions: challenges and solutions to expand experimentation in Europe

• Moderators for groups discussing strategies for trial-and-adopt: Chloë Fernandez, Enrico Pesaresi, Ghida Karbala, Alexandra Adveenko, Noe Letourneaux, Linda Adamaite, Susanne Hoffmann
• Moderators for groups discussing strategies for data: Maria Jones, Wei Lu, Tillmann Heidelk, Marina Visintini, Eric Lysenko, Sandrine Faoro

Insights from German government on need and priorities for policy learning and evidence-based decision making

• Elga Bartsch – Director General for Economic Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action

Plenary Ignites: Leveraging data and AI for real-time policy learning

• Daniel Rogger – Senior Economist and Research Manager, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Arianna Legovini – Director, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Feng-Ji Sim – Deputy Secretary for Digital Government, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, Singapore

Moderator: Cecile Thioro Niang – Practice Manager, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.

Introduction to data and AI breakout

• Maria Ruth Jones – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.

Data and AI Breakouts

Thematic Breakout 1. Leveraging digitalization for government service delivery:

• Daniel Rogger – Senior Economist and Research Manager, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Guadalupe Bedoya – Senior Economist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Renos Vakis – Head of the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD), World Bank.

Moderator: Ghida Karbala – Data Analyst, Development Impact, World Bank.

Thematic Breakout 2. Data and AI solutions for job seekers and firms:

• Pascale Schnitzer and Maddalena Honorati – Senior Economists, Social Protection & Jobs, World Bank.
• Christian Meyer – Director, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Development, Oxford University.
• Leonardo Iacovone – Lead Economist, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.

Moderator: Federico Lucidi – Head of Unit, Impact Assessment, Evaluation, Monitoring of Funds, DG EMPL, European Commission.

Thematic Breakout 3. Perspectives and best practices for datasystem integration in the EU

• Wei Lu – Data Scientist, Development Impact, World Bank.
• Panel discussion – Showcasing best practices for monitoring datasystem integration in the EU

Moderator: Tillmann Heidelk – Economic and Policy Analyst, DG REGIO, European Commission.

Clinic 4: Data Strategy, Implementation Plan and Presentation Finalization

Teams will discuss their data strategy and implementation plan and finalize their presentations to be shared with the workshop facilitators by the end of the day. This will include preparing a 1-slide summary of the work that will be presented on Friday.

Clinic 5: Implementation Plan and Presentation Finalization

Plenary Panel: Reporting back from workshop discussions on how to expand experimentation to strengthen cohesion policy impacts in the EU

• Peter Berkowitz – Director for Policy, DG REGIO, European Commission
• Arianna Legovini – Director, Development Impact, World Bank.

Panelists: To be defined after day 3 group discussions

Team Presentations | Part 1

Teams will be grouped together based on themes and provide 2-slides summaries of their policy questions and impact evaluation designs, followed by Q&A for each group.

1. Competitiveness I – Speakers from each delegation

2. Skills and Jobs – Speakers from each delegation

Team Presentations | Part 2

Teams will be grouped together based on themes and provide 2-slides summaries of their policy questions and impact evaluation designs, followed by Q&A for each group.

1. Competitiveness II – Speakers from each delegation

2. Education, Health and Twin Transition – Speakers from each delegation

Closing Remarks and Ceremony

• Peter Berkowitz – Director for Policy, DG REGIO, European Commission.
• Cecile Thioro Niang – Practice Manager, Finance, Competitiveness and Investment Global Practice, World Bank.
• Federico Lucidi – Head of Unit, Impact Assessment, Evaluation, Monitoring of Funds, DG EMPL, European Commission.
• Arianna Legovini –Director, Development Impact, World Bank.