The Evidence Informed Policy making in Africa under the Africa LEEPS partnership- Evidence Informed Policymaking project (Anglophone hub) is led by AFIDEP in collaboration with the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), the African Institute for Health Policies and Health Systems- Nigeria and the School of Gender and Women Studies- Makerere University. The role of EIP is critical in Africa’s pursuit of sustainable development. Evidence and data help to inform appropriate actions in the present and future and facilitate collaboration among relevant stakeholders towards achievement of sustainable development.
Africa as a continent has made several efforts towards enhancing evidence base policy making through commissioning various studies to respond to needs e.g., COVID-19 or establishing evidence committees, platforms to enhance consolidation of evidence for decisions. However, these efforts remain relatively reactive and are not properly institutionalised due to two main impediments: First, there is limited availability of reliable evidence on what works in different sectors and for different populations and secondly a mass of capacity to help convert high-quality information into practical interventions, as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project therefore responds to the second challenge by training on EIP institutionalization as well as initiating a small grant scheme to build capacity of relevant fellows across Africa towards understanding and contributing to the EIP agenda.
An EIP sensitization training has been conducted, to create awareness among the fellows on the EIP project and its objectives and capacity build them. This was followed by a two-week training with tailor-made modules on different aspects of Institutionalising Evidence in Africa.
Fellows who successfully underwent the EIP training were invited to apply for the mentorship phase. About 10-15 mini grants will be issued on a competitive basis where fellows will be asked to apply and describe their topics of study. These trainees will be well placed to implement the mini-grants in line with the goals of the project and to enhance impacts not only in their institutions but also to capacity build others within their respective regions.The results will be consolidated to produce a book volume on EIP practices, innovations, and opportunities for scaling up.
ARIN AEEPA Mini-grants Scheme – Call for Application
The Alliance for Evidence and Equity in Policy-making in Africa (AEEPA) is part of the Learning Together to Advance Evidence and Equity in Policy-making for Achieving SDGs (LEEPS) partnership coordinated by R4D and funded by IDRC, Hewlett Foundation and Bosch Foundation. AEEPA is led by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in collaboration with the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), the African Institute for Health Policies and Health Systems (AIHPHS) in Nigeria and the Makerere University School of Gender and Women Studies (MakSWGS) in Uganda. READ MORE
