Launch of the Evidence Capacities Community of Practice

Founded in 2012, the Africa Evidence Network (AEN) has been at the forefront of coordinating regional efforts towards enhancing the practice of Evidence-Informed Decision-Making (EIDM). As a member-based organisation, the group has innovated its programming over the years to provide targeted support to niche professional services within this development-practitioner field. This led to the initiation of the Enhancing Evidence Capacities workstream, and particularly, its working group, in the design of the biennial event Evidence 2020 (Online). On successful delivery of its assigned roles, including the co-development of a Manifesto on Capacity Development for EIDM in Africa, a management decision was made to transition the group into a Community of Practice (CoP), being the first of its kind within the network. An initial group of 18 interested persons, with a largely African pool of practitioners, were invited to co-design an instrument that will provide guidance to the group, culminating in this guidance document. The group is appreciative of generous financial support from the University of Johannesburg, which made possible the initial facilitation processes led by Reboot.