By Fréjus Thoto
How can the ecosystem of evidence use in policy and practice work better in Global South countries such as Benin?
Here I provide six lessons drawn from activities undertaken by the African Center for Equitable Development (ACED), a non-profit think-and-do tank, located in Benin, West Africa. Our focus has been on the food and nutrition security sector.
Lesson 1: Access to policy-relevant evidence is still a big challenge
There is still much work to do in order to ensure that timely and policy-relevant evidence is produced and accessible to users. We have developed a national platform to consolidate and display the available statistical data, research findings, and evaluation findings. However, a platform alone is not enough, and research agenda setting, research-policy dialogues and other strategic activities are required.
Lesson 2: Involve governments at all levels in evidence-informed policymaking processes