050: eMBeD at the World Bank on behavioural science in complex environments

Introducing Zeina Afif, Renos Vakis and Ana Maria Muñoz Boudet

I’m privileged to welcome to A Load of BS the core team at eMBeD, the Mind, Development and Behaviour Unit at the World Bank. Zeina, Ana Maria and Renos are working on the front lines, alongside governments and policy makers, challenging standard policy design and trying to change behaviour in complex, unpredictable environments and solving the thorniest of problems in gender, inequality and poverty among other.

They have worked in over 70 countries, supporting the World Bank by diagnosing, designing, and evaluating behaviourally informed interventions. 

Show notes

• How music and magic contribute to behavioural science
• eMBeD’s role and purpose
• Managing policy makers in complex environments
• Using local, cultural and political context to construct behavioural science interventions
• Can the skillsets doing BS at eMBeD take you anywhere?
• Being gritty
• Disaster risk management in Haiti identifying barriers to act on hurricane early response systems encouraging people to go to their shelters
• Focusing on solutions that work vs. the best solution 
• Sustainability: projects are not a one-night stand
• Work on vaccine hesitancy
• Ensuring diversity in the World Bank
• What excites and scares the eMBeD team for the future?

Please leave a review if you like the podcast; and share with friends. Your support makes us very happy!

Get the podcast in your inbox every week by subscribing here
Access our exclusive speaker events by subscribing here
Follow Daniel on Twitter
Podcast music: Tamsin Waley-Cohen's Mendelssohn's violin concerto