Esther Duflo & Abhijit Banerjee
Co-Founders/Directors, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT
Nobel Laureates, Economic Sciences 2019
Abhijit Banerjee:
It’s been our privilege to be associated with Abdul Latif Jameel [Community Jameel] for well nigh twenty years since the day Mohammed, like a comet, appeared in our lives. And what a twenty years it has been, watching Abdul Latif Jameel transforms everything it touches: old institutions get better, new ones are created, so much innovation. Touching so many dimensions of human life. From climate changing development thinking, to making the arts more open to new talent. It’s been exhilarating.
Thank you very much. Happy 75th!
Esther Duflo:
It’s almost a tautology to say that without Abdul Latif Jameel, there would be no J-PAL! In fact I once referred to Mohammed in his presence as the “J” of J-PAL, and he’s become very fond of this expression, using it with his nice smile whenever we had an occasion. But it goes much farther than that: I think without Abdul Latif Jameel [Community Jameel] and Mohammed Jameel in particular, there would, no Poverty Action Lab in the way it is now. And it is way beyond the funding. Of course the funding played a critical role in the beginning – allowing us the freedom to do what we wanted to do and the capacity to do it. The funding was also there at several critical stages in our development when it was appropriate for us to take it to the next level.
But much beyond the funding, there was all the advice, all the conversations, all the wisdom, that we got from Mohammed Jameel from the very beginning. This same wisdom that we see in all of the work that Abdul Latif Jameel has done for the past 75 years. From the very beginning, from his very first conversation, we were asked “What is your ambition?” and from this very simple question, we were asked to define our ambition. And it’s been with us since the beginning . . . we have enjoyed this friendship. We have immensely benefitted from the wisdom and the advice, and we look forward to 75 more years – at least – of a continuous relationship.
Thank you Mohammed! Thank you Abdul Latif Jameel [Community Jameel]l and good luck for the next 75 years!
