James P Habyarimana

James P Habyarimana is a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. His research focuses on identifying cost-effective strategies to improve health and education outcomes in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on decentralized governance, teacher training, and electoral policy impacts in East Africa. He is a founding member and former co-Director of Georgetown’s Initiative on Innovation, Development and Evaluation (gui2de), and serves as a fellow at BREAD and affiliate of J-PAL. He contributes to global policy through roles at GiveWell, the Global Innovation Fund, and Building Tomorrow.

His work explores how political incentives shape education and health policies, with recent studies examining school governance reforms in Tanzania, financial inclusion for education transitions in Kenya, and the role of local bureaucrats in policy implementation. He employs experimental methods to evaluate interventions across sectors including public health, education systems, and governance structures.

Key research themes include the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in education, the impact of political appointments on bureaucratic productivity, and strategies to address educational inequality through teacher incentives. His findings often highlight practical solutions for improving service delivery in resource-constrained settings.