The inaugural Evidence to Action (E2A) conference was conducted by the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) in partnership with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) and the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Assets and Market Access (AMA Innovation Lab), and Tegemeo Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the first of two regional conferences held in Africa in May and July 2017. The second regional conference was held in Accra, Ghana. The two conferences were held 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.
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.
The theme was on the understanding that there are evidenced-based research and evaluation projects that have a huge potential to positively impact Africa’s policy decisions and development agenda. The theme was broken down into sub-themes highlighting key issues, including:
The conference provided 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. The convening provided a platform for industry stakeholders to:
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