The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), earlier known as the Center of Evaluation for Global Action, is a research network based at the University of California that advances global health and development through impact evaluation and economic analysis. The Center's researchers use randomized controlled trials and other rigorous forms of evaluation to promote sustainable social and economic development around the world. History and Mission CEGA was established in 2008 by Economics Professor Edward Miguel, Temina Madon, and colleagues at UC Berkeley. The Center’s founders, including Haas School of Business Professor Paul Gertler, are considered pioneers in the field of impact evaluation. They have led some of the most influential field experiments in recent years, including evaluations of school-based deworming in Kenya and of the Oportunidades program in Mexico. The Center is guided by the principle that economic policy and social programs should be based on scientific evidence. In support of this vision, CEGA researchers rigorously test anti-poverty strategies and disseminate their findings to governments and other decision-makers. The Center also invests in developing junior researchers in the U.S. and in low- and middle-income countries. CEGA is currently led by Faculty Director Edward Miguel and Executive Director Carson Christiano. Activities CEGA focuses its resources in three core areas: research, training and policy impact. The Center's research program draws on the empirical work of more than 100 faculty members at the University of California, Stanford University, and other West Coast academic institutions. These researchers are united in their use of rigorous statistical tools to measure the impacts of social programs in low and middle income countries. The CEGA toolbox includes randomized evaluation (long-trusted in the medical field) as well as regression discontinuity, panel analysis, instrumental variables, and other rigorous quasi-experimental methods. When used appropriately, each of these methods can create equivalent treatment and comparison groups for use in estimating an intervention's impact. CEGA is unique among development research centers, in that it integrates business and economic approaches with expertise from various sectors—including agriculture, engineering and computer science, public health, education, political science, and environment. It also maintains deep investments in cultivating research collaborators in developing countries, through programs like the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative. Policy Impact To transform research into better policies and programs, CEGA encourages the scale-up of proven interventions. For example, CEGA researcher Edward Miguel, in collaboration with Michael Kremer, demonstrated in 2004 that school-based mass