Institutional Brief

About PEP

The Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) is a Southern-led, global organization dedicated to supporting development in the Global South. It is a leader in enabling locally led evidence-informed policymaking (EIPM). PEP does this by providing high-quality, locally generated, policy-engaged evidence that informs better decisions in policy and practice. PEP does this by:

PEP provides high-quality, contextualized, and actionable evidence to support better decision-making in policy and practice across developing countries. Through its unique co-production model, PEP facilitates locally-led research initiatives, where researchers and policy stakeholders collaborate on a range of development issues.
PEP fosters sustainable and synergistic ecosystems for evidence-informed policymaking by enabling research and government institutions to establish collaborative frameworks that translate existing evidence and data into useful and timely policy insights.
While supporting their work, PEP prioritizes developing critical capabilities among local researchers—not only to uphold scientific rigor but also to strengthen engagement and communication skills. Furthermore, PEP connects researchers and stakeholders across its global network, creating a dynamic space for learning, knowledge sharing, and discussion.

Localization matters

Local expertise is often under-represented in informing economic policies in developing countries. Despite being embedded in the country context, researchers from the global South face significant challenges in participating in relevant research and debates. This results in the underutilization of their knowledge of challenges on the ground, their understanding of cultural contexts, and the leveraging of their established networks when formulating policy solutions. The gap is particularly significant given the many political and social factors that strongly influence the policy process in developing countries.

To address these issues, the Partnership for Economic Policy has been working for two decades now to promote local research leadership and engagement with local stakeholders in policy analysis through:

Working on a wide range of thematic areas including agriculture and food security, climate change, education/training, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, fiscal policy, health and nutrition, labor markets, youth employment, gender and women’s economic empowerment, poverty and inequality and child well-being.

Using cutting-edge methodologies in Macro-micro Policy Modelling, Macroeconomic Analysis, and Experimental Research, all incorporating gender analysis.

Providing intensive customized online-learning and mentored learning-by-doing for evidence producers (researchers) and users (decision-makers and stakeholders).

PEP’s impact

Over two decades, PEP has built:

A strong pool of 1300 in-country researchers through 66 countries of the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe) who generate rigorous, contextualized and policy-relevant evidence. PEP is fully functional in English, French and Spanish.

Sustainable local expertise to accompany local and national decision-makers in designing, evaluating, and revising policies and programs as new needs emerge.

A network of trained policymakers who can commission, identify and use rigorous, locally generated evidence.

Impact in numbers

53% of over 400 PEP supported research projects influence policy debates and decisions.
74% of projects have been reported in the news influencing narratives.
52% of PEP supported researchers from a pool of 1300 across 66 countries have experienced career-advancement.
48% of PEP research projects are published in scientific journals. PEP researchers have published 407 peer-reviewed working papers and 145 publications in peer-reviewed journal articles to date.
51% of research projects are presented in international conferences.

Find out more about specific impact stories of how PEP supported research projects have influenced policy in Our Impact.

Services PEP offers:

Given its expertise and track record, PEP offers its services to support potential partners in the localization of policy analysis and advising. Its comprehensive and integrated approach to facilitating localization efforts, includes:

• Identifying expert local researchers and policy stakeholders across various thematic areas and methodologies (macro-micro modeling, microeconomic analysis, experimental research)

• Training, mentoring, advising, supervising local researchers and policy stakeholders, including a range of available resources.

• Facilitating and supporting collaborative work between locally based researchers and policy actors

• Ensuring a conducive local research and policy engagement environment (access to data, software, literature, etc.) to level the playing field for the global South.

• Managing local activities, such as budgeting, coordination, administration, communications, reporting, and more through the PEP global secretariat.

• Organizing local policy events, particularly to disseminate and facilitate uptake of recommendations by relevant policy stakeholders and actors.

Relevant examples of PEP’s services

Illustrated below are select examples of relevant past or current programs of the key services PEP can provide:

Online trainings in economic policy analysis (graduate-level) and gender equality and inclusion

Capacity-building in economic policy analysis (and engagement) through mentored learning-by-doing (e.g. Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment in 47 countries)

Locally-led, policy-engaged, research and analysis (e.g. Decent work for women)

Intervention impact evaluations and monitoring & evaluation (e.g. Learning and Knowledge Management program)

Research grant management (e.g. Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment)

Global and regional policy reviews (e.g. What works for youth employment in Africa)

Policy advisory services: advising and accompanying policy makers and stakeholders in using evidence in the design, implementation and evaluation of innovative policies and programs (e.g. Building sustainable and sustainable evidence informed policy ecosystems in East & West Africa)

We would be delighted to discuss further with you at your convenience! Simply contact us at info@pep-net.org.