By Bradley Achoki | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 23–24 July 2026
The Africa Evidence Summit is more than a conference on NIERA’s calendar. It is one of the network’s most visible expressions of its mission: strengthening African leadership in the generation, communication and use of evidence for public decision-making.
In July 2026, that mission took centre stage in Addis Ababa as we co-hosted the 14th Africa Evidence Summit with the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), in partnership with Ethiopia’s Policy Studies Institute (PSI). Held under the theme “Powering Policy with Innovative, Inclusive, Transparent Data,” the Summit brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners and development partners to consider not only how evidence is produced, but how it can become more responsive to African priorities and more useful to the people making consequential decisions.
NIERA poster and engagement stand at the 14th Africa Evidence Summit with CEGA, in partnership with PSI, in Addis Ababa.
The work began before Addis Ababa
NIERA’s contribution began well before participants entered the conference hall. In the months leading to the Summit, the Secretariat worked closely with CEGA and PSI on programme coordination, participant engagement and the practical arrangements needed to bring a pan-African network together in one place.
This preparatory work included mobilising NIERA members and fellows, coordinating travel and accommodation, consolidating participant information, supporting visa and itinerary follow-up, preparing NIERA’s organisational presence, and contributing to the communications and publicity plan. The team also coordinated posters and digital resources that would enable participants to learn more about NIERA’s programmes, research and opportunities beyond the formal sessions.
These activities are easy to overlook once a Summit begins, but they are central to inclusive convening. For a network whose members work across countries and institutions, participation depends on careful coordination, timely information and sustained follow-up. NIERA’s behind-the-scenes role helped translate the ambition of an Africa-wide gathering into meaningful access and engagement for its community.
A visible platform for African leadership
At the opening, NIERA Chair Prof. Amos Njuguna joined CEGA Executive Director Carson Christiano and PSI Director General Fekadu Tsega in welcoming participants. Their remarks located the Summit within a shared commitment to evidence systems that are locally grounded, inclusive and connected to public priorities. The participation of H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopia’s Minister of Planning and Development, further reinforced the importance of credible evidence to national planning and public decision-making.
NIERA’s presence throughout the Summit was institutional as well as intellectual. Members contributed to conversations across the programme, bringing experience from different countries, sectors and research traditions. Their participation reflected the depth of the network without implying that every study presented was financed or implemented by NIERA. The more important story was the platform itself: NIERA helped create a space in which African scholars could share policy-relevant work, engage decision-makers, test ideas with peers and build relationships that can outlast a single presentation.
That convening role sits at the heart of NIERA’s approach. The network connects rigorous evaluation with policy demand, supports knowledge exchange, and strengthens the pathways through which evidence moves from research teams to institutions and communities. AES 2026 made those pathways visible in formal discussions, poster exchanges, side meetings and the many conversations that continued between sessions.
NIERA member Zakaria Zakaria, NIERA Policy Fellow Baraka Ndabila and Program Assistant Bradley from right to left at the Africa Evidence Summit
Celebrating evidence use: The Peter da Costa Prize
One of NIERA’s clearest and most distinctive contributions to the Summit was the presentation of the Peter da Costa Prize. The Prize honours the legacy of Dr. Peter da Costa and recognises African policymakers who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to using research evidence to improve policy and advance sustainable development.
At AES 2026, NIERA celebrated Dr. Gladwell Gathecha as the Prize recipient. Her recognition placed evidence use not only evidence production at the center of the Summit story. It acknowledged the leadership required to bring research into public systems, navigate institutional realities and keep policy focused on better outcomes for citizens.
The moment was also a reminder of why NIERA exists. Strong evidence has limited value if it remains in academic papers or conference presentations. Its fullest contribution emerges when policymakers and researchers work together, when findings are translated for decision contexts, and when institutions develop the confidence and capacity to act on what the evidence shows. By recognising Dr. Gathecha, NIERA celebrated precisely that bridge between knowledge and action.
Dr. Gladwell Gathecha receives the Peter da Costa Prize in recognition of her commitment to evidence-informed policymaking.
From Summit conversations to network strategy
NIERA’s engagement did not end with the closing session. The Strategy Day that followed offered the network and its partners a valuable opportunity to step back from the pace of the Summit and reflect on what the conversations meant for future work.
Discussions considered how the CEGA–NIERA fellowship experience could be strengthened, how NIERA could deepen resource mobilisation and institutional sustainability, and how future Summits could become even more useful to researchers, policymakers and partners. Rather than treating AES as a stand-alone event, the Strategy Day connected the convening to longer-term questions about member engagement, African research leadership and the resilience of the evidence ecosystem.
A dinner held around the Summit provided a lighter but equally important dimension of this engagement. Shared meals and informal exchanges gave members, fellows and partners room to reconnect, welcome new colleagues and deepen relationships beyond formal agendas. For a pan-African network, these moments of community are not incidental; trust and collaboration often grow in precisely these spaces.
The Strategy Day created space for reflection, relationship-building and planning beyond the formal Summit program.
Carrying the momentum forward
AES 2026 demonstrated the value of combining a high-level continental platform with the patient work of building a network. NIERA’s contribution could be seen in the planning that enabled participation, the partnerships that shaped the event, the visibility given to African researchers, the celebration of evidence-informed policymaking, and the strategic conversations designed to carry learning forward.
The Summit’s theme powering policy with innovative, inclusive and transparent data also presents an ongoing responsibility. Innovation must respond to real policy questions. Inclusion must extend to who sets research agendas, who produces knowledge and whose experience counts. Transparency must build trust in both evidence and the institutions that use it.
For NIERA, the next chapter lies in converting the relationships, ideas and commitments strengthened in Addis Ababa into continued collaboration: supporting members and fellows, connecting researchers with policymakers, communicating evidence in accessible ways, and advancing decision-focused evaluations across Africa.
The Summit may have lasted two days, but its real measure will be what happens afterwards in the partnerships sustained, the questions jointly pursued and the decisions improved because African evidence and African expertise were present at the table.