Monica Jain

Dr Monica Jain is a development economist with more than twenty years of experience in the area of evidence-informed policies. Her research focusses on poverty and development issues, especially nutrition and health. At 3ie, Monica manages a global portfolio of policy-relevant evaluations focused on immunisation and SDG-informed sectors like environment, infrastructure, governance and public finance. Her work involves reviewing and quality assuring 3ie-funded research as well as carrying out in-house synthesis and evidence gap map research. Monica also conducts capacity development workshops on impact evaluation for government officials and policymakers in low-and middle-income countries. She is a member of an international WHO working group that is tasked with developing guidance and tools to measure the drivers of vaccination uptake. She is also part of the advisory board of Charity Health Science - a GiveWell incubated non-profit whose mission is to expand immunisation coverage in India using evidence-based approaches.

Before joining 3ie, Monica worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC, where she analysed food and nutrition security issues, especially those pertaining to children and women. She has also worked at the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management unit in New Delhi where she provided technical support in strengthening the poverty and social monitoring systems in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka and in design and implementation of national government’s project for strengthening the statistical system. She has published in leading development economics journals such as Economic Development and Cultural Change, World Development and Journal of Development Studies. She holds a PhD in Economics from University of California, Riverside in the US and an MPhil and Masters in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, India.