Africa LEEPS: Progress and lessons learned in the first six months of the partnership

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To achieve progress towards the fast-approaching 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is heightened urgency for African countries to prioritize development priorities and policies that are guided by principles of equity and supported with a robust evidence base to address specific needs and circumstances. This will require strengthened research, decision-making, and knowledge brokering capabilities and new strategies and structures to incentivize consistent use of evidence in policymaking with attention to equity at all stages of the process. These capacities are critical to ensuring that policymakers have access to timely, high-quality, and relevant evidence to inform decision-making processes.

While many low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa have made advancements in producing and using evidence to inform decision-making, progress has been uneven, faster in sectors like health while slower and fragmented in others, and not well documented. And while there is growing attention to placing equity at the center of policies, many countries face challenges in integrating gender considerations in the policymaking process – from agenda setting, to policy formulation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Africa LEEPS is an ambitious initiative aimed at advancing the use of evidence in policymaking to support progress towards the SDGS. The partnership brings together leading evidence organizations from across Africa to learn from each other, exchange knowledge and experiences, and jointly problem solve – to strengthen evidence-informed policymaking and accelerate progress towards the SDGs. Africa LEEPS is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH.

This report outlines key components of Africa LEEPS and highlights progress made and lessons learned in the first six months of the partnership.

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