MJB’s Bedouin Project is Changing the Face of Social Research

by Jonah Goldberg


There are “shticks” in applied social research, notes Dr. Yonatan Eyal. Yonatan is a senior research scholar and the Arab Population team leader at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. Most of his energy in this role has been dedicated toward evaluating Government Resolution 3708: The Program to Promote Economic Growth and Development for the Bedouin Population in the Negev. Underneath the long name was an equally complex Israeli government initiative: a plan allocating 1.2 billion shekels to improve the lives of Bedouins from 2012-2016, through several avenues: employment and integration into the Israeli economy; transportation and other infrastructure supporting employment, education, and childcare; personal security; and social services and community leadership.


How does a research team track dozens of programs, affecting the lives of nearly 250,000 Bedouins, over five years? How do they gather and analyze the data to accurately examine the implementation and outcomes of the Resolution?


This is where the shticks come in, the measures that Brookdale has refined over the years:


These methods enabled Brookdale to compile three long, comprehensive reports on Resolution 3708. The team detailed specific achievements of the plan, such as the expansion of the Riyan Employment Centers, which by the end of the Resolution had helped nearly 9,700 Bedouin men and women; they also outlined salient challenges, such as the lack of public grounds limiting the availability of children’s programs and informal education.


Finally, the Brookdale team outlined future directions the programs could take: using data on regional labor demands to decide which types of professional training to offer would raise employment rates, and creating more measurable targets and outcome measures would make the programs more effective across the board.


When the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoA) decided to take that future direction, and create a new five-year plan for the Bedouins in the Negev, they decided they did not just want Brookdale to accompany them on the road and monitor their progress. Resolution 2397 did need more measurable targets and outcome measures, and Brookdale was asked to take the wheel in developing them.


How does a research team determine the priorities for dozens of programs, affecting the lives of nearly 250,000 Bedouins, over five years? How do they dig into the growing body of data to understand the full scope and magnitude of the impact of the Resolution?


It was time for some new shticks.


“The government is improving, and we must improve as well,” Yonatan says. “When they came to us this time… we matured together. They had a better idea of what they want, and we had new ideas. Our new plan is more comprehensive, with new elements. And they know it, and respect us for being able to develop and learn. And I appreciate them.”


This mutual trust enabled the first overhaul in Brookdale’s research strategy: becoming what Yonatan calls a “one-stop research center.” The MoA does not have its own research capabilities; now Brookdale can “step in and give them the full service of whatsoever is related to research.” This includes working with multiple ministries to develop their annual working plans, offering insights on what measures to study and what goals to set. Moreover, responsibility over any third parties assisting the research has transferred to Brookdale, allowing for stronger consolidation and communication of important information.


Tied to this value of communication is greater emphasis on general evaluation. Yonatan explains, “We found out when talking with the government that they are very focused on planning the next five-year plans… we had to convince them that it was good to have a general evaluation… a document with our best understanding and our recommendations for the next five-year plan. It’s going to be an internal paper, not published.” Beyond the internal evaluation, Brookdale is taking every opportunity to update its data and benchmarks. For example, if there is an annual publication about poverty in Israel, “we can take it and compare it with the Bedouins, and we write a short report.” Recalibrating everyone’s understanding of the local and national situations in turn strengthens the next annual working plan and implementation of individual programs.


Finally, the nature of the new resolution inspired Brookdale to dive more deeply into complex research questions. “At first, the situation was desperate,” Yonatan says. “[The Bedouins] were at the bottom of the Maslow hierarchy. First, you help them make their living, and you work on transportation.” Consequently, the first resolution had been planned mostly with high officials, who said they did not have the time and resources to consult anyone else. This time, however, the ministries and Brookdale are working more closely with the residents. “The focus changed because they have more money, more time, and people relate more to the Bedouin people themselves. Once you work with them, your heart is open.” More of the budget is now given to proposals not directly related to employment, such as welfare and assistance to people with disabilities.


Brookdale reached further with this new mindset. Instead of just measuring numbers such as employment and enrollment in programs, which are ultimately proxies for a population’s wellbeing, Brookdale now studies the Bedouin population’s experiences, asking questions such as “what is the effect of transportation on health?”. “You take a subject and you dig in,” Yonatan explains. “It’s a different mode in evaluation.”


“This is our time to influence, this is what we are here for.”


A one-stop research center that can identify the vital outcomes to measure, continually evaluate implementation and rewrite the benchmarks of a program, and go beyond the numbers to understand the lives of the participants. This is where Yonatan believes government interventions are headed. “It’s a great opportunity to learn some new shticks. We can kind of invent a whole research system that will help us to give an answer, that will help us develop a research strategy for complex intervention programs.”


What that new strategy ultimately comes down to is better serving the populations being helped. For Yonatan’s team, their involvement in working with the Bedouins is vitally important. “This is one of the poorest populations in Israel, and it’s a government effort.


“We can’t be anywhere else, this is where we should be.”