Strengthening the Eastern Africa Regional Evidence Synthesis Initiative

Africa is making progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, despite the uneven pace of progress between countries. Many countries continue to grapple with persistent structural barriers, growing uncertainty and the complexity of crises, including poverty, inequality, limited public financing, fragile governance and climate change, which undermine their development. In this complex landscape, evidence must be at the forefront of decision-making and policymaking. Evidence, particularly when locally generated through a rigorous process, offers a powerful lever for designing equitable and sustainable policies that work for all.

The first phase of the LEEPS (Learning together to Advance Evidence and Equity in Policymaking to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals) partnership, jointly funded by IDRC, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, funded two African regional hubs established as centres of excellence on evidence-informed policymaking. Its aim was to strengthen the capacity to synthesize, translate and apply evidence in policy processes across Africa. Through these two hubs, LEEPS has made significant progress in building the capacity of individuals and institutions in knowledge translation and evidence synthesis, while improving access to timely, demand-driven and context-specific evidence to inform decision-making.

The second phase, focusing on Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia and Tanzania, will reinforce the LEEPS partnership's capacities in delivering and supporting a culture of evidence use in Africa, building stronger relationships with local stakeholders, establishing trust and collaboration with key institutions and investing in shared infrastructure and knowledge systems, primarily in the thematic areas of reproductive health and climate change and health. It will adopt a multi-level (local, national, and regional) transdisciplinary approach to ensure that the use of evidence is embedded within policy institutions, practices and incentives.