News

A new initiative, Learning Together to Advance Evidence and Equity in Policymaking to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (LEEPS), will accelerate evidence-informed, equitable and gender-transformative policies and solutions for achieving the SDGs. LEEPS will strengthen the knowledge translation (KT) ecosystems in Africa and promote the institutionalisation of evidence-informed policymaking (EIP) in the region. The African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) and the Centre for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES) will co-lead the project’s Anglophone Africa Learning Hub.

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH have invested CAD9.2 million into the initiative. Other partners of the initiative are R4D (Results for Development) fostering knowledge exchange and learning across the partnership and  African Centre for Equitable Development (ACED) leading the West Africa Regional Hub.

To deliver the project, AFIDEP will work with the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), a network of scholars and policymakers across Africa; the African Institute for Health Policy and Health Systems (AIHPHS), a multidisciplinary and intersectoral entity established as a training institute in health policy and systems research; and the School of Women and Gender Studies (SWGS) at Makerere University, specialising in the study of women, gender, and related issues.

In a statement announcing the initiative, Dr Rose Oronje, AFIDEP’s Head of Kenya Office, noted: “I am so excited about the opportunity to co-lead the LEEPS Anglophone Africa Learning Hub. LEEPS is an innovative initiative focusing on two critical levers of development (evidence and gender equity) to accelerate Africa’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The Hub will co-create stronger national and regional evidence-informed policymaking (EIP) ecosystems, as well as strengthen individual organisations driving EIP in African countries. Initially focusing on reproductive health and clean energy, our long-term vision is that the LEEPS Hub will expand knowledge use for decision-making in all development sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The 2022 SDGs progress report acknowledges that African countries have made some progress but remain off-track and at risk of not meeting the SDGs aspiration to ‘leave no one behind’. The report emphasises the need for deliberate policies to accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. Yet, the systematic use of evidence and consideration of equity in policymaking remains sub-optimal in many countries. The LEEPS initiative is timely as it will contribute to reducing these gaps and helping the region to get back on the path towards realising the SDGs by 2030. The LEEPS initiative runs from October 2023 to September 2025.

Learn more about the project here.