Evidence To Action Conference

Kampala 2022

Evidence To Action Conference - Kampala 2022

Concept Note

The need for more and better evidence from research and evaluation of development programs has never been more crucial as Africa directs its efforts towards accomplishing its commitment to the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063, and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030 during and beyond the COVID 19 Pandemic. With the current context and the challenges facing the world and compounded by the conflict in Ukraine and the food shortages/insecurity as well as the rising fuel prices and shortages, sound evidence is essential to inform policy making, development actions, and citizenry perception of the impact of the agendas.

This year’s event, shines a spotlight on the conduct of practitioners and professionals in Monitoring and Evaluation, dwelling on learned experiences of adapting and innovating evaluation practice for evidence-based decision making within and beyond the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and the post COVID recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the post COVID recovery challenges practitioners and professionals in monitoring and evaluation to focus direction on emerging lessons from the available data at local, regional, and global levels which would enable more effective operational planning and budgeting to support recovery plans and evidence-based policy making that would positively impact on livelihoods choices among communities.

Conference Theme

The Evidence to Action 2022 conference theme is premised on the understanding that evidence-based research and evaluation findings exist that have huge potential for positively impacting Africa’s policy decision-making and action to drive the realization of Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030 . It seeks to reimagine evaluation and exploring ways to make it even more functional amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and post COVID 19 recovery. The conference theme has sub-themes have been chosen to allow for a range of both thematic/sectoral perspectives as well as in depth discussions on knowledge brokering and evidence generation.

Sub-Themes

The sub-themes of the conference are highlighted below:

COVID 19 responses and post COVID 19 recovery and its impact on Public Health

Enhancing agriculture sector development and food systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Improving adaptation and resilience of private, public, and individual change makers to climate change and natural resources management

Innovative finance, insurance, credit and savings for smallholders.

Gender equality and youth empowerment in driving Africa’s development

Evidence synthesis and impact evaluation for policy-making and good governance

Knowledge brokering and knowledge translation under the new normal

Effective recovery strategies and inclusion for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups

The role of Voluntary Professional Evaluation Societies (VOPES) in building debate on leaving no one behind in the face of COVID-19.

Conference Goals

The conference aims to nurture the use of evidence–based policy decision–making and action in Africa, especially in the drive towards the realization of Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 goals within the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The generation and use of evidence-based and relevant policies to support development will lead to individual dignity and wellbeing, flourishing societies, and a planet Earth that is a thriving home for all.

Conference Objectives

To generate innovative insights to support recovery plans in the face of the Covid-19 disruption, using evidence and evaluation.

To enhance opportunities for researchers and evaluators to contribute to demand-driven research and evaluation activities in the context of Africa.

To Emphasize the importance of contextualized knowledge and local public debate and ownership.

To provide a platform that integrates and optimises cutting–edge innovation, research, and evaluation findings through collaborative and shared learning to promote policy making and sustainable program development.

To examine approaches for infusing evidence into policy making and program development.

Expected Outcomes

Increased availability of information and evidence on innovative approaches used to support post COID 19 recovery.

Increased dialogue and communication amongst stakeholders to drive the research and evaluation agenda and priorities towards recovery in Covid-19.

Shared existing sources of and approaches for harnessing both domestic and international financial resources to support local research and evaluation capacity.

Increased availability and accessibility of evaluation and research findings for policy–making and program development.

Improved linkages and adoption of demand driven evaluation and research findings for policy, development programs and constitutional governance in Africa.

Our Aproach

The Conference will be an exciting forum for renowned research and evaluation professionals and development practitioners from national, regional and international organizations and of diverse disciplines to promote the use of evidence for policy–making and practice in Africa through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will promote and ensure dialogue and exchange of experiences and chart a way forward for making evidence-based policy relevant and impactful in Africa. The aim is primarily to provide a platform for African researchers and evaluation professionals, development partners, and users of evidence to interact, share experiences and plan for future work together. Specifically, the conference would highlight:

Pre-conference workshops that facilitate professional development training for interested participants.
Exhibitions of branded items, publications and evidence for innovation and development.
Short paper presentations intended to generate dialogue around the use of evidence for policy making and propose new and innovative evaluation paradigms.
Round table and panel discussions centred on the general theme and sub-themes of the conference.
Poster presentations which would depict an evaluation study including key questions asked, methodology, data, findings, recommendations and conclusions. Posters will be displayed during the conference and presenters need to be available to respond to questions about the poster on display.
Blog posts providing information, updates, relevant materials about the E2A, Uganda Evaluation Association (UEA), Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Makerere University Kampala (MUK).

Participants/ Target Audience

The conference participants will be drawn from a diverse range of stakeholders working across Africa in research, monitoring, and evaluation. They include:

Relevant government institutions
Universities
Civil society
Policymakers and practitioners
National and international research organizations
Development agencies and partners
Private sector organizations
Media

Conference Organizing Committee

The Conference is being convened by the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED) in partnership with the Office of the Prime Minister – Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation, Uganda Evaluation Association; College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda; and Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Market, Risk and Resilience of the University of California at Davis, Campbell Collaboration; Innovation for Poverty Action; and United States International University-Africa, Kenya and other partners.

For further information on abstract submissions, participation and registration, please contact: info@iced-eval.org

Social Presence:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Category: