Paper long abstract:

In line with a global trend in policy formulation and program implementation, African governments and international organizations are also responding to the growing call for a strengthened research and evidence base. With this call, it is assumed that evidence-based policies and programmes are more likely to bring about desired development outcomes and processes, including for example economic transformation, food security, sexual and reproductive health, rule of law and inclusive governance. This proposed roundtable reflects on the opportunities and challenges for evidence informed policy-making in Africa and The Netherlands, based on the experiences of four Knowledge Platforms. These platforms were established by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of its new knowledge policy in 2011 and aimed to improve the way knowledge and research are used for international cooperation. Convenors of various communities of practice, will share the challenges encountered in the dialogue processes and strategies to overcome them, as well as the rewarding achievements in terms of making knowledge work for policy and practice. These include Food &Business Knowledge Platform's various knowledge brokering activities, the Knowledge Platform Security and the Rule of Law's Addressing Root Causes (ARC) Program Learning Group, Share-Net Internationals Communities of Practice & Small Grants Facility and INCLUDE's African Policy Dialogues.