The Science Granting Council Initiative (SGCI) coordinated by ACTS started in 2015 and aims to strengthen the capacities of science granting councils (SGCs) in sub-Saharan Africa in order to support research and evidence-based policies that will contribute to the continent’s economic and social development.
It does this through programmes focused on management of research grants; the use of evidence to inform STI policy; supporting knowledge exchange with the private sector; and establishing partnerships between Councils and other science system actors. It also focused on the cross-cutting issues of strategic communication, gender and inclusivity. The SGCI currently operates in 15 sub-Saharan African countries.
The SGCI-Phase 2 aims to strengthen the capacity of Africa’s SGCs to design and monitor research programmes, and to formulate and implement policies based on the use of robust STI indicators. The Evi-Pol project falls under SGCI- Phase 2 and has the objective to strengthen the capacity of SGCs to generate and use evidence in policy and decision- making, and to enhance their roles as policy champions. The project focuses more generally at deepening understanding and knowledge on policy processes among SGCs.
The specific objectives of the Evi-Pol project are: support SGCs to conduct reviews of national STI policies and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the policy processes; support the Councils to develop robust organizational-level monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) frameworks and plans; support the Councils to develop data management systems and frameworks and systematically collect, analyze and use relevant data/ evidence; Promote peer to peer learning and knowledge exchange between Councils and local STI experts. The SGCI-2 has a peer-to-peer learning component which strengthens the mutual learning and sharing of experiences in dealing with policy gaps of mutual interest. The knowledge platform or help desk, which is within this objective, has been designed under the Evi-Pol project to embed capacity building in the delivery of the services solicited by SGCs.
Evi-Pol supports the councils to develop data management systems (DMS) and frameworks; systematically collect, analyze and use relevant data/ evidence and promote peer to peer learning and knowledge exchange between councils and local STI experts. Among recent activities, the Evi-Pol team held a DMS masterclass on 26 October 2021 which aimed to explore current issues in data systems interoperability, integrating data sets and to relate these to current practices in different organizations. Another activity is the development of a help desk that is intended to be a one stop point for where the SGCs can request support for discrete small pieces of work and on demand large pieces of work relating to use of evidence in STI decision making and/or the STI policy process. To ensure this, STI policy consultants to provide discrete support in line with the Councils’ needs will be considered from a pool of experts within AfricaLics community. More information about the project can be accessed here
