The International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) in partnership with the Ministry of Planning and Development-Ethiopia, University of Gondar, Policy Studies Institute, Ethiopian Economics Association, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Market, Risk and Resilience of the University of California at Davis, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Ethiopian Evaluation Association, Jimma University, Global Development Network, Ministry of Finance-Ethiopia, Africa Centre for Systematic Reviews and Knowledge Translation-Makerere University, African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) and other partners are organizing the 2023 Evidence to Action (E2A) Conference and Exhibition. The event would be held in Ethiopia at the Ethiopian Economics Association Auditorium, in Addis Ababa, from 24th to 28th July, 2023 and would entail 2 days of pre-conference events/side events and the 3-day conference and exhibition. The conference would bring together key actors and stakeholders across the continent and globe, within all stages of the value chain of evidence-based policymaking and practice, including high calibre of experts, government actors and policymakers, research institutions, academia, civic society organizations, international NGOs, United Nations Agencies, private sector organizations and industry, global business leaders and entrepreneurs, and the media. Click here to download the full document
CONCEPT NOTE
Over the last few years, the world has faced tremendous disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and other fragilities in several countries, climate change hardships and various natural disasters that have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Further aggravated by global economic and financial market depressions, even many more have been thrown into poverty, with greater exposure to vulnerabilities and inequalities. These disruptions have led to serious reversal problems, eroding decades worth of development progress, and consequent undermining of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063. As is often the case, developing countries, many of which are in Africa, face the harshest impacts of shocks Nonetheless, enormous challenges also present enormous opportunities for resilience and the chance to boost local momentum to recover progress lost, particularly within the developing countries who are the most affected by any global shocks. Approaching the risks and opportunities to people, planet, and the economy, using a sustainability lens, unearths unique prospects to mobilize domestic resources and deploy tailored solutions at scale. With inclusive and complementary support from all key sectors and stakeholders, countries are able to better position themselves to build the systems, structures and capacities needed to withstand shocks and bounce back better; to wit, resilience and recovery. The year’s E2A would be held in Ethiopia at the Ethiopian Economics Association Auditorium, in Addis Ababa, from 24th to 28th July, 2023 comprising a 2 days of pre-conference events/side events and the 3-day conference and exhibition. Click here to get the full concept note
Information is increasingly becoming the most important currency in today’s global economy. With the United Nations predicting that the world population will hit the 9 billion mark by the year 2050 and that during the same period, Africa’s population is expected to double from the current 1.2 billion to 2.5 billion. In view of the above, there is an urgent need to define strategies to enhance Africa’s development Tied to this, there is a need to ensure that there is efficient information and knowledge being generated by researchers and M&E experts to influence decisions by key policymakers. In view of this, there’s therefore an ardent need to ensure that ongoing research and evaluation projects are producing information that is available, accessible, affordable and adoptable.
During the past decade, Africa has seen a huge growth and interest in production of research, monitoring and evaluation. Today, a large number of institutions are investing in production of huge amounts of stimulating research results as well as M&E data. However for many of them, the production of the research report often marks the end of the process, hence missing out on an opportunity to create meaningful change by influencing policy and practice at both the national and institutional level.
To aggravate the situation, there continues to be a big disconnect between generation and creation of new and solid evidence in development systems research efforts and the translation of that same evidence into data-informed policies. Policy makers struggle to find, collate, understand and apply the evidence to support their own decision-making needs, despite existing knowledge. These challenges are not insurmountable. With the right level of support and collaboration between researchers, evaluation experts and decision-makers, the translation of evidence-based research findings into actionable policy and programmatic guidance is an achievable goal.
It is against this background that the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) in conjunction with Tegemeo, Atai, BASIS and ISSER is organizing a five day Africa Evidence Conference in Nairobi next year to enhance collaboration between researchers and stakeholders and outline clear recommendations on how to ensure Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and evidence-based research positively impacts regional and national priorities and contributes to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Malabo Declaration.
Through this convening, the organizers seek to ensure increased uptake and utilization of research and innovation in evaluation for development to influence policy and drive change at the national, regional and global levels.
The conference will offer an exciting platform for renowned research and evaluation professionals, and development practitioners from national, regional and international organizations to tackle important topics such as Agriculture and Food Systems in sub-Saharan Africa, Climate Change and Environment, Agriculture Risk, Index Insurance and Risk Mitigation, Private Sector in Development, Impact of investment in Agriculture and Food Systems, Innovative Finance, Credit and Savings for Smallholders, Gender and Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems, Youth Employment, National and Local Governance and Accountability, Evidence Synthesis and Impact Evaluation for Policy Making, Knowledge Brokering and Knowledge Translation.
Overall Goal
The Conference will provide a platform for industry stakeholders to discuss strategies for enhancing the dissemination of research findings and ensuring that the process achieves the desired impact. They will provide stakeholders with a platform to do the following :
Highlight the innovative & cutting-edge research and evaluation projects
Support for and scale up uptake of what is working in terms of innovation and best practices.
Use evaluation and research results to contributing to systemic change in African countries.
Conference Objectives
The objectives of the conference are as follows :
Increase the dissemination of high quality evidence of what works, where, and why to develop seed systems, enhance soil health, improve post-harvest storage and strengthen rural institutions and mechanisms for market access for African and South Asian farmers.
Support the dissemination of policy-friendly systematic reviews and summaries of new and existing evidence for interventions to develop seed systems, enhance soil health, improve post-harvest storage and strengthen institutions and mechanisms for market access for African farmers.
Increase awareness amongst the Africans and policy makers, and international development staff of this evidence. Also on the factors that prevent uptake of research and evaluation data in Africa and discuss strategies for scaling up their dissemination and impact.
To achieve a transformation of smallholder agriculture through changing smallholder behaviour to promote wider adoption of improved technologies.
Our Approach
The Conference will have a five-day program as follows: The first two and a half days will be set aside for side events and exhibition while the remaining days will be scientific and technical sessions. Research and development papers will be presented in different sessions and will include the following activities:
Self-organized side events where institutions can present their programmes and galvanize support for their activities.
An exhibition where organizations can exhibit their projects and activities
Plenary sessions to be addressed by a mix of high level speakers and stakeholders
Breakout sessions to address specific issues and topics
A business to business platform where stakeholders attending the Conference can meet each other on the side lines of the event.
Congress Theme
The theme for the Conference, “Evidence to Action” is premised on the understanding that great research and evaluation findings have huge potential to positively influence Africa’s policy decisions and development agenda.
Subthemes
The Sub-Themes are as follows
Research and Evaluation of Agriculture transformation programs in Africa
Public-private partnerships in seed system development
Sub- Sahara Soil Heath and Modern Technology
Agriculture Risk, Index Insurance and Technology
Smart subsidies for technology up-take
Impact Investing, Credit and Savings for Smallholders
Information and Extension: Reaching farmers where they are
Evidence Synthesis and Evaluation Result Generalization
Participants
Conference participants will be drawn from a diversity of stakeholders across Africa who are involved in the research and evaluation sector. This includes the following:
Relevant government ministries’ representatives
Farmer organizations
Representatives from universities
Development think tanks
Research Organizations (National and International)
Development agencies and donor community
Private Sector organizations/companies
Technology promoters/distributors/partners
Planning/Organizing Committees
The Conferences is co-convened by International Centre for Evaluation and Development, Tegemeo, Atai and BASIS.
International Organizing Committee – This committee includes representatives from the partners plus other global institutions.
Local Organizing Committees – These will be drawn from universities, research institutions, non-governmental organizations and development agencies.
Engagements With Development Partners
• This initiative has attracted financial and technical support from key partners in the research and evaluation space including ICED. Organizers are reaching out to other local and global partners to support this great initiative.
Expected Outcomes
Awareness creation on the challenges to research and evaluation in Africa
Linkages and partnerships among the various stakeholders including researchers and technology developers
A Call to Action that clearly spells out what needs to be done to counter the challenges discussed
Establish a mechanism for sourcing for evidence with potential to inform policy and action.
Sustain the mechanism for sharing policy-related evidence with policy makers in the continent.
Continuously nurture a culture of evidence-based decision making.
Strong agricultural growth is a multiplier for economic growth. However, despite the unprecedented decade of impressive advancements across the African continent and improved governance and improvements in human development indicators, African agriculture still faces major challenges. The solution to these lingering issues remains unclear in large part because there remains a gap between the research on how agricultural productivity should be sustainably boosted in Africa and agricultural policy development.
More than ever, there is a need for strong evidence to better inform development professionals, policy makers, donor community and private sector investors. This abundance of research findings and evaluation reports now needs to be systematically reviewed, translated, contextualized, and disseminated to better inform policy makers and development practitioners to effectively transform African agriculture to increase incomes, reduce food insecurity, and put African countries on track to achieve sustainable agricultural transformation on the continent.
Recommendations for policy action in sub-Sahara Africa have not been effectively communicated or implemented. There are few institutions and organizations actively engaging policy makers, development professionals, civil societies and community leaders. There continues to be a disconnect between the generation and creation of new and solid evidence from agricultural and development systems research efforts and the translation of that same evidence into data-informed policy action. Policy makers struggle to find, collate, understand and apply the evidence to support their own decision-making needs, despite existing knowledge. These challenges are not insurmountable. With the right level of support and collaboration between researchers, evaluation experts and decision-makers, the translation of evidence-based research findings into actionable policy and programmatic guidance is an achievable goal.
With this background in mind, the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) and ISSER are partnering with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Assets and Market Access (AMA Innovation Lab), to organize two regional conferences to be held in Africa in May and July 2017.
The two conferences, which will be organized under the same theme — “Evidence to Action” – towards a measured driven and data informed policy for action to enhance collaboration between researchers and stakeholders and outline clear recommendations on how to ensure Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and evidence-based research positively impacts regional and national priorities and contributes to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Malabo Declaration.
Conference Objectives
The purpose of this convening is to promote evidence from rigorous impact evaluations and research and to encourage increased uptake and utilization of research and innovation in evaluation to influence policy and drive change at the national, regional and global levels.
The conference provides an excellent platform for researchers, academics, private sector practitioners, development agencies, civil society and policy makers to learn, share information, build networks and partnerships with the overall objective of identifying effective strategies and interventions for ensuring data generated from research and evaluation projects is well utilized.
These convening will provide a platform for industry stakeholders to:
Learn about the innovative & cutting-edge research and evaluation projects
Discover the range of high quality evidence of what works, where, and why
Get actionable information about these research innovation and best practices
Discuss strategies for scaling
Understand more concretely how evaluation and research results can contribute to systemic change in African agriculture development
Our Approach
The West Africa convening will be held over a two-day period and will comprise the following activities:
Plenary sessions to be addressed by stakeholders
Breakout sessions to address specific issues and topics
Self-organized side events where institutions can present their programs and galvanize support for their activities
An exhibition where organizations can exhibit their projects and activities
A business-to-business platform where stakeholders attending the Conference can meet each other on the sidelines of the event
Congress Theme
“Evidence to Action” is premised on the understanding that there are evidence-based research and evaluation projects that have a huge potential to positively impact Africa’s policy decisions and development agenda.
This conference theme has been broken down into sub- themes highlighting key issues. For each sub-theme various aspects including assessment methods and data, technologies, practices, strategies, investment, policies, cases studies, success stories will be discussed and showcased.
Subthemes
Promotion of the adoption of improved technologies
Developing markets through public-private partnerships
Agriculture risk, index insurance and technology
Financial inclusion through smart subsidies, impact investing, credit and savings
Information and extension: Reaching farmers where they are
Harnessing information and communications technology
Evidence synthesis and evaluation result generalization
Research and evaluation of agriculture transformation programs in Africa
Participants
Congress participants will be drawn from a diversity of stakeholders across Africa who are involved in the research and evaluation sector. This includes the following:
Relevant government ministries’ representatives
Technology promoters/distributors/partners
Farmer organizations
Representatives from universities
Development think tanks
Research Organizations (National and International)
Development agencies and donor community
Private Sector organizations/companies
Planning/Organizing Committees
The planning and organizing for this conference is coordinated by ICED in partnership with ATAI, AMA Innovation Lab and Tegemeo Institute, among others.
Financing and Technical Support
This initiative has attracted financial and technical support from key partners in the research and evaluation space including ICED, ATAI and AMA Innovation Lab, ISSER, and Tegemeo Institute. Organizers are reaching out to other local and global partners to support this great initiative.
Strong agricultural growth is a multiplier for economic growth. However, despite the unprecedented decade of impressive advancements across the African continent and improved governance and improvements in human development indicators, African agriculture still faces major challenges. The solution to these lingering issues remains unclear in large part because there remains a gap between the research on how agricultural productivity should be sustainably boosted in Africa and agricultural policy development.
More than ever, there is a need for strong evidence to better inform development professionals, policy makers, donor community and private sector investors. This abundance of research findings and evaluation reports now needs to be systematically reviewed, translated, contextualized, and disseminated to better inform policy makers and development practitioners to effectively transform African agriculture to increase incomes, reduce food insecurity, and put African countries on track to achieve sustainable agricultural transformation on the continent.
Recommendations for policy action in sub-Sahara Africa have not been effectively communicated or implemented. There are few institutions and organizations actively engaging policy makers, development professionals, civil societies and community leaders. There continues to be a disconnect between the generation and creation of new and solid evidence from agricultural and development systems research efforts and the translation of that same evidence into data-informed policy action. Policy makers struggle to find, collate, understand and apply the evidence to support their own decision-making needs, despite existing knowledge. These challenges are not insurmountable. With the right level of support and collaboration between researchers, evaluation experts and decision-makers, the translation of evidence-based research findings into actionable policy and programmatic guidance is an achievable goal.
With this background in mind, the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) and ISSER are partnering with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Assets and Market Access (AMA Innovation Lab), to organize two regional conferences to be held in Africa in May and July 2017.
The two conferences, which will be organized under the same theme — “Evidence to Action” – towards a measured driven and data informed policy for action to enhance collaboration between researchers and stakeholders and outline clear recommendations on how to ensure Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and evidence-based research positively impacts regional and national priorities and contributes to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Malabo Declaration.
Conference Objectives
The purpose of this convening is to promote evidence from rigorous impact evaluations and research and to encourage increased uptake and utilization of research and innovation in evaluation to influence policy and drive change at the national, regional and global levels.
The conference provides an excellent platform for researchers, academics, private sector practitioners, development agencies, civil society and policy makers to learn, share information, build networks and partnerships with the overall objective of identifying effective strategies and interventions for ensuring data generated from research and evaluation projects is well utilized.
These convening will provide a platform for industry stakeholders to:
Learn about the innovative & cutting-edge research and evaluation projects
Discover the range of high quality evidence of what works, where, and why
Get actionable information about these research innovation and best practices
Discuss strategies for scaling
Understand more concretely how evaluation and research results can contribute to systemic change in African agriculture development
Our Approach
The East Africa convening will be held over a two-day period and will comprise the following activities:
Plenary sessions to be addressed by stakeholders
Breakout sessions to address specific issues and topics
Self-organized side events where institutions can present their programs and galvanize support for their activities
An exhibition where organizations can exhibit their projects and activities
A business-to-business platform where stakeholders attending the Conference can meet each other on the sidelines of the event
Congress Theme
“Evidence to Action” is premised on the understanding that there are evidence-based research and evaluation projects that have a huge potential to positively impact Africa’s policy decisions and development agenda.
This conference theme has been broken down into sub- themes highlighting key issues. For each sub-theme various aspects including assessment methods and data, technologies, practices, strategies, investment, policies, cases studies, success stories will be discussed and showcased.
Subthemes
Promotion of the adoption of improved technologies
Developing markets through public-private partnerships
Agriculture risk, index insurance and technology
Financial inclusion through smart subsidies, impact investing, credit and savings
Information and extension: Reaching farmers where they are
Harnessing information and communications technology
Evidence synthesis and evaluation result generalization
Research and evaluation of agriculture transformation programs in Africa
Participants
Congress participants will be drawn from a diversity of stakeholders across Africa who are involved in the research and evaluation sector. This includes the following:
Relevant government ministries’ representatives
Farmer organizations
Representatives from universities
Development think tanks
Research Organizations (National and International)
Development agencies and donor community
Private Sector organizations/companies
Technology promoters/distributors/partners
Planning/Organizing Committees
These Conferences are co- convened by ICED and Tegemeo Institute. International Organizing Committee – This committee includes representatives from the three host organizations (ICED, ATAI & AMA Innovation Lab) plus other global institutions. Technical Committee – ICED, Tegemeo Institute, ATAI, and AMA Innovation Lab.
Financing and Technical Support
This initiative has attracted financial and technical support from key partners in the research and evaluation space including ICED, ATAI and AMA Innovation Lab, ISSER, and Tegemeo Institute. Organizers are reaching out to other local and global partners to support this great initiative.
Expected Outcomes
Awareness creation on the challenges to research and evaluation in Africa
Linkages and partnerships among the various stakeholders including researchers and technology developers
A Call to Action that clearly spells out what needs to be done to counter the challenges discussed
