Monica Jain

Monica Jain
Designation: Lead Evaluation Specialist
Monica reviews 3ie-funded research and manages 3ie-funded impact evaluation grants.

Monica is a development economist with more than fifteen years of experience in the area of evidence-based policies. Her research focusses on poverty and development issues, which include nutrition and health, education, labour and governance. Before joining 3ie she worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC, where she analysed food and nutrition security issues, especially related to children and women.

She has also worked at the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management unit in New Delhi where she carried out development policy-related research and facilitated the setting up of formal poverty and social monitoring systems in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. She also worked on the design and implementation of a Government of India project for strengthening the statistical system of India. As a research intern at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, Monica conducted research on transparency, accountability and governance issues.

Monica obtained her PhD in economics from the University of California, Riverside, and an MPhil and master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics.

Blogs by author

Results from an evaluation of the COVAX Facility and AMC to inform pandemic preparedness and response

The COVAX Facility aimed to accelerate the development, production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. To ensure equitable access for 92 low-income (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) within the COVAX Facility, Gavi created a separate funding mechanism — the Advance Market Commitment (AMC). By the end of 2021, the COVAX Facility and AMC had provided close to 1 billion doses to 144 countries. While this vaccine supply was broadly equitable (prioritizing LICs and LMICs), vaccine coverage rates across countries were inequitable.

Effective interventions for putting child immunization back on track in L&MICs

Despite being highly effective in preventing avoidable disease and death among children, routine child immunization remains well below targets. Child immunization has been especially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, reversing years of gains. In 2021, 25 million children missed essential vaccines, a high not seen since 2009. Putting immunization back on track, especially in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs), is an urgent priority.

Reconciling theory and practice: An adapted community engagement framework for child immunization

In our newly-released systematic review on routine child immunization, we developed a community engagement typology to bridge this gap between theory and practice. We came across three ways communities had been engaged: engagement in the design of the intervention, engagement in the implementation of the intervention, or engagement embedded as a component in the intervention.

External validity: policy demand is there but research needs to boost supply

A randomised controlled trial (RCT) in a Northern district of Uganda finds that the young adults who receive cash transfers use it to buy more food for their families, football shirts, and airtime for their mobile phones, compared to those in control areas. Would the pattern be the same if young adults in central Uganda are given cash transfers? Would the findings replicate if the cash transfers were given to young women in Senegal? This stylised example points to the crucial question of generalisability of program impacts to other contexts – commonly referred to as external validity.

Improving child immunisation through technologies for engaging communities: challenges and lessons

A mother with a six-month old girl receives a voice reminder in her local dialect to take her daughter for her next vaccination. She comes to the local health facility where the health worker takes off a small pendant attached with a black thread from the child’s neck, which has an embedded digital microchip. She places it on the tablet, and all the immunisation information related to the child appears on the screen. The health worker finds that second dose of pentavalent vaccine is due. She administers it to the child.