Alaka  Holla

Alaka Holla is a Senior Economist in the Human Development Chief Economist Office of the World Bank and program manager of the Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund, a multi-donor trust fund that promotes the use of randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental methods to inform policies in education, health, water and sanitation, and early childhood development in low- and middle-income countries. Since joining the World Bank as a Young Professional, she has worked in both research and operational settings in a diverse set of country contexts and on multilateral initiatives to promote the measurement of child development and the costing of programs. She has published in peer-reviewed publications such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, and Health Affairs. She also has co-authored World Bank flagship reports such as World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior and Citizens and Service Delivery: Assessing the Use of Social Accountability Approaches in Human Development Sectors. Her research has focused on the quality of health care, discrimination, early childhood development and education, and cost analysis. She received her PhD in economics from Brown University and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University and Innovations for Poverty Action.