Building sustainable and synergistic EIP ecosystems in East & West Africa
PEP is implementing a three-year initiative (2024-2027) aimed at enabling in-country research centers and government institutions in East and West Africa to establish continued collaborative frameworks and achieve greater synergism for evidence-informed policymaking (EIP).
The initiative is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and designed to support the implementation of the Foundation’s “evidence-informed policymaking strategy 2024-2027.
The program’s ultimate goal is to remove the structural barriers that confine research and policymaking into siloed processes. On the one hand, research centers need to learn how to quickly respond to evidence needs from policymakers by drawing on existing evidence and conducting fast-response analyses, so as to provide real-time advisory support to address policy challenges as they emerge. At the same time, government institutions often lack internal or institutional capacities for the procurement, appraisal and translation of data and evidence as useful inputs for policymaking.
The strategy
Building on PEP’s current approach to supporting policy-engaged research, this new programmatic strategy focuses on developing the capacities and mechanisms required for researchers and policymakers to not only work together, but also better understand each other’s needs and constraints, while improving their respective EIP-related practices.
The program will be piloted in different countries across Africa, through the support of nine (9) research centers, collaborating with selected government institutions to apply the new capacities and mechanisms to the advisory process of specific policy decisions.
The strategy is structured around the following four main intended outcomes, and related axes of intervention:
- Improve capabilities of selected in-country research centers to “think and work politically", and to provide "real-time EIP advice".
- Improve capabilities of collaborating government institutions in obtaining and applying evidence through policymaking processes.
- Establish real-time policy advisory mechanisms, through which selected research centers deliver evidence and related advisory support to government institutions for effective decision-making.
- Support the creation of inclusive and collaborative frameworks between research centers and government institutions to identify the critical policy decision-making frameworks that require the procurement and use of evidence base.
The projects
The program is financed through two distinct Hewlett-allocated grants.
- The first grant supports six (6) centers, which were selected through a competitive process and focus on a broad range of policy areas.
| Country | Research center | Government partner institution | Focus area |
| Ethiopia | Policy Studies Institute (PSI) | Ministry of Women and Social Affairs | Gender-Based Violence |
| Ghana | Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) | Ministry of Food and Agriculture | Agriculture |
| Kenya | Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) | State Department for Labour and Skills Development | Youth employment |
| Nigeria | Resource and Environmental Policy Research Centre (REPRC - EfD Nigeria) | National Council on Climate Change Secretariat (NCCCS) | Carbon market and climate governance |
| Nigeria | Institute of Budget and Policy, Africa LTD/GTE | Kaduna State Government, Ministry of Education | Basic education |
| Senegal | Pan African Consortium of Experts (PACE) | Ministère de la Santé et de l'Hygiène publique | Healthcare |
- The second grant supports three (3) centers that were pre-selected based on research-policy collaborations that had emerged from a previous Hewlett-funded initiative. These projects are mandated to focus specifically on advising macro policies for women's economic empowerment (WEE)
| Country | Research center | Government partner institution | Focus area |
| Burkina Faso | Centre d’Etudes, de Documentation et de Recherche économiques et sociales (CEDRES) | Direction Generale de l'Économie et de la Planification | WEE in context of insecurity |
| Cameroon | Institut Sous-régional de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée (ISSEA) | Ministère de l'Économie, de la Planification et de l'Aménagement du Territoire | WEE through higher education |
| United Rep. of Tanzania | REPOA Inc. | National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC) | WEE through entrepreneurship |
Supported by
