Africa Evidence Leadership Award 2025

Terms of reference for the Africa Evidence Leadership Award (AELA) 2025

1. OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICA EVIDENCE NETWORK

The Network is pan-African, open to all who live and work on the continent. It is unique in its inclusivity and diversity in six broad dimensions. It spans i) all countries in Africa; ii) all sectors across the Sustainable Development Goals; iii) all spheres, including government, academia, civil society, citizens, and all intermediaries; iv) the full diversity of roles within these spheres from members of parliaments to program managers to researchers; v) all elements of the evidence production and use cycle, from the generation of evidence to its integration into policy and implementation; and vi) all types of evidence from administrative data, to evaluations of all kinds, to experimental research, to citizen experiences and systematic syntheses of primary studies. Its strategic goals are to: foster collaboration among those engaged in or supporting EIDM in Africa, increase knowledge and understanding of EIDM, share capacities across the EIDM ecosystem, improve the enabling context by promoting EIDM in Africa, and advocate for Africa’s full voice and participation in the national, regional, and global movements to increase EIDM.

2. WHAT IS THE AFRICA EVIDENCE LEADERSHIP AWARD (AELA)?

The Africa Evidence Leadership Award (AELA) is the Africa Evidence Network’s (AEN) initiative that works on a nomination basis and is awarded annually. The award was launched in 2018 by the AEN with the fourfold purpose of:

• Increasing awareness of evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) in Africa.
• Raising the status of evidence amongst decision-makers in Africa; and
• Showcasing the status of Africa in EIDM discussions by recognising impactful, insightful, effective, and/or innovative work that supports EIDM in Africa.
• Honour and celebrate excellent contributions to advancing evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) in Africa.

3. WHAT DOES THE AWARD CONSIST OF?

The award includes in-person participation bursary to Evidence 2025 and online participation at Africa Evidence Week 2026. This will be administered through the AEN, directly coordinating with and paying event organisers. Award-winners will not be given any of the awards directly. The award recipient must sign a contract with more specific terms and conditions and will be an AEN champion.

The recipients of the award will receive:  

• A space in the biennial Evidence programme to deliver a keynote address or alternatively be part of a panel discussion on their work.
• Participate in the online Africa Evidence Week 2026.
• Up to USD500 grant contribution towards participating in a high-profile course or event of their choice on EIDM [1].
• A token of recognition presented at the next EVIDENCE in-person event.

4. WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

This award is given to individuals [2] only. Only AEN members can nominate other AEN members to receive this award. To be eligible for the award, the nominee must:

• Be a member of the AEN, having joined the Network at minimum one year before their nomination,
• Be able to demonstrate leadership in and an influential contribution to EIDM in Africa,
• Work in any sector as long as they can motivate their participation in EIDM [3] as an evidence-user, evidence-producer, evidence broker or any combination of these,
• Provide proof of citizenship of and/or permanent residence in an African country (as defined by the United Nations),
• Be available for the entire duration of EVIDENCE 2025 and must commit to giving a keynote address or alternatively be part of a panel discussion at the event and
• Be able to provide clear evidence of an exceptional contribution to EIDM. 

5. WHAT ARE THE CATEGORIES?

Winners in the following four categories will be recognised: 1) Evidence producers, 2), Evidence mediators (knowledge brokers or knowledge translators), 3) Evidence users and 4) Young and emerging leaders. Each category will have a winner and one runner-up.

6. WHAT IS THE NOMINATION PROCESS? 

This award considers nominations only; no applications are considered for the Africa Evidence Leadership Award. Nominations will commence on 10 March 2025, and the deadline for nominations is 28 March 2025. To submit a nomination, a nominator must submit 1) a nomination form containing all supporting information AND a 2) confirmation form (completed by the nominee) to the AEN (via info@africaevidencenetwork.org) by 28 March 2025. 23:59 SAST. All documentation should be emailed in PDF format to the AEN secretariat at info@africaevidencenetwork.org [5] with the subject line AEN AWARD NOMINATION.

Nominations in either English or French will be accepted. We can provide a French translation of this guidance for applicants if required.

7. WHAT IS THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS?

After the submission deadline, the AEN awards committee will review the nominations, and a list of shortlisted nominees will be prepared by 04 April 2025. Online profiles of shortlisted nominees (protecting applicants’ contact information; shared publicly only with their permission) will be shared via the AEN on 12 April 2025. Each AEN member will have one opportunity to vote for their preferred shortlisted nominee until 30 April 2025. The final shortlisted nominations will be considered by both governance structures of the AEN (Reference and Advisory Groups), with three award-winners and three runners-up being announced on 02 May 2025.

8. WHAT ARE THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA?

The Africa Evidence Leadership Award seeks to recognise individuals who have demonstrated clear and enduring leadership in the field of EIDM on the African continent. The nomination must include evidence of the candidate’s experience in this field, their influence in advancing EIDM in their contexts, and their relative reach. Examples could consist of strong advocacy for EIDM; introducing innovations in evidence production, brokering and/or use; enhancing structures for the use of evidence for decision-making; creating enabling environments for EIDM; fostering collaborations to enhance EIDM; embedding EIDM into previously resistant environments, etc.

Therefore, the criteria for assessment are not prescriptive but rather reflective of the candidate’s unique career trajectories and EIDM activities as per the nomination. The panel will look for evidence of knowledge, experience, and leadership when assessing the submission for each candidate. These could include, but are not limited to, awards, distinctions, publications, policies, public engagement, sector reach and diversity, leadership roles (formal and informal), etc.

To enquire about the award or anything about the award, contact Siziwe Ngcwabe and Charity Chisoro via info@africaevidencenetwork.org

#AELA2025 #AfricaLovesEvidence #EVIDENCE2025

[1] Some eligible events or courses include the Global Evidence Summit, Global Evidence and Implementation Summit, the biennial conference of the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, and the Cochrane Colloquium. Award winners are welcome to propose additional events or courses not listed here to the award committee. The award is valid for a year.

[2] Members of the AEN secretariat, Advisory Group, and Reference Group are precluded from being nominated for the award while they hold positions within these bodies. However, members of the AEN secretariat, Advisory Group, and Reference Group may nominate other AEN members for the Award.

[3] For the purposes of the award, the EIDM sector is defined as both the supply and demand/use of research evidence (which includes monitoring and evaluation, impact evaluations, evidence synthesis, and data and knowledge management). This definition is intended to be broad to be as inclusive as possible. If you feel this definition does not represent your work, kindly contact us at info@africaevidencenetwork.org.

[4] Knight, C & Lyall, C 2013, ‘Knowledge brokers the role of intermediaries in producing research impact: the role of intermediaries in producing research impact’ Evidence and Policy, vol 9, no. 3, pp. 309-316. 10.1332/174426413X671941.

[5] Nominations in other formats with problematic online access will be accepted if the nominee has contacted the AEN secretariat by phone or email by 28 March 2025 to arrange the alternative submission process. Nominations posted to us without prior agreement may not reach us timeously and, therefore, cannot be accepted.