CFPs: Building Sustainable and Synergistic EIP Ecosystems in East & West Africa

Deadline Date: February 28, 2025

Donor Name: Partnership for Economic Policy

Grant Size: $10,000 to $100,000

https://www.pep-net.org/news/call-applications-african-research-centers

The Partnership for Economic Policy is inviting proposals to implement a new programmatic strategy designed to enable in-country research centers (RC) and their policy counterparts (PC, i.e. government institutions) in East and West Africa to achieve greater synergism and establish continued collaborative frameworks for evidence-informed policymaking (EIP).

This strategy builds on PEP’s extensive experience in supporting policy-engaged and impactful research led by locally-based experts in developing countries. The goal is to enable RCs and PCs to work together to translate existing evidence and data into policy actions that respond to policy challenges as they emerge. The strategy will be piloted in six East and West African countries, through the support of selected in-country research centers.

Expected Outcomes

• The program is structured around 4 main intended outcomes (and related axes of intervention):
  • Improve capabilities of selected in-country research centers to:
    • “Think and work politically”: Focusing on skills/competences for: policy context/political economy analysis, stakeholder engagement, knowledge co-creation (or research coproduction), cost-benefit analysis, and knowledge translation/communication. 
    • Provide real-time EIP advice: Drawing on existing evidence and conducting fast-response analyses, so as to provide real-time advisory support to address policy challenges as they emerge.
  • Improve capabilities of collaborating government institutions to achieve evidence-informed policymaking:
    • Focusing on institutional capabilities and processes for procuring (e.g. commissioning research, scientific literature reviews) and using evidence to inform decision processes.
  • Establish real-time policy advisory mechanisms: through which selected research centers deliver evidence and related advisory support to government institutions for effective decision-making. 
  • Support the creation of inclusive and collaborative frameworks: between research centers and government institutions to identify the critical policy decision-making processes that require the procurement and use of evidence base.   
• The “capacity development” component of the program involves a learning-by-doing approach, combining training with mentoring and advisory support (including evaluation of outputs) in real-life policy applications. 
• Participating research centers will be required to form a collaborative agreement (officialized through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding) with a relevant government institution – ministry, department or agency. The purpose of this agreement will be for the research center to provide real-time evidence and advisory support to inform relevant policy decision processes. 
• Through this agreement, the engaged government institutions will also commit the participation of their staff in a series of consultation meetings with the research center’s team, and a self-paced, online course in best practices for evidence-informed policymaking. 

Funding Information

• Participating centers will be allocated an overall cash grant of USD 60K, along with a series of grants (worth up to a maximum of 28,5K) tied to specific activities – e.g. for institutional capacity building, events, travel, etc. 

Eligible Countries

• Applicants should be based in one of the following countries in East or West Africa:
  • West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo. 
  • East Africa: Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for this program, applicant research centers must:
  • Have (demonstrated) experience in and aim to actively pursue collaborative working with government institutions and policymakers – i.e. to advise or inform policy. 
  • Agree to have at least 5 (fixed) members of their research staff dedicate approximately 3 days per month to this initiative, over 2 years (2025-2027):
    • Participating staff teams should include at least one senior researcher (female leads are encouraged), with existing relationships and extensive experience in working with policymakers. The other members should be aged 40 years or less, include at least two females, and all have a minimum of 3 years of experience in policy research. 
    • Other selected senior staff in the organization, including the head or director, will also be required to participate in some periodic, ad hoc activities.

For more information, visit Partnership for Economic Policy.