Fabio Bezerra is the recipient of the Africa Evidence Leadership Award 2025 in the Emerging Leader Under 35 category offered by the Africa Evidence Network. We asked Fabio to reflect on his work.
I joined ForAfrika in 2023, when the organisation was undergoing a fundamental transformation. Rebranding from Joint Aid Management, Management, we were shifting from traditional humanitarian responses toward transformational community development, with an ambitious vision of supporting 20 million Africans to become self-sufficient and 6 million to have a platform to thrive by 2032. This goal requires more than good intentions—it demands robust evidence to understand what self-sufficiency means in diverse African contexts and how our programmes contribute to achieving it.
This challenge led to the development of what would become ForAfrika’s Impact Measurement Guidelines and the implementation of our first comprehensive baseline study across six African countries. The journey taught me that evidence production in Africa cannot simply adopt frameworks designed elsewhere; it must be contextually grounded while maintaining methodological rigour.
Redefining Evidence for African Contexts
Traditional monitoring and evaluation approaches often reduce complex development outcomes to simple metrics that satisfy donor requirements but fail to capture the multidimensional reality of African livelihoods and contexts. Communities juggle multiple survival and development strategies simultaneously—farming, trading, remittances, social networks—yet many evidence frameworks examine these elements in isolation.
Our approach began with a fundamental question: what does self-sufficiency look like for households across different African contexts? Rather than imposing external definitions, we adapted the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to create a comprehensive measurement system that acknowledges how households build resilience.
We developed the Sustainable Livelihoods Index (SLI) which measures household capacity across five interconnected resource dimensions through 22 carefully selected indicators, based on the SDGs and sector best practices: natural capital (land access and resource management), physical capital (infrastructure and basic services), human capital (education, health, and food security), financial capital (income, savings, and market access), and social capital (community networks and governance). This framework recognises that sustainable development emerges from the interplay of these different forms of capital rather than improvements in any single area.
Each indicator incorporates international standards while adapting to local contexts. For instance, our land access indicator combines both legally recognised documentation and perceived security of tenure rights, acknowledging that formal titling systems may not capture the full reality of land security in different African settings.
Evidence That Drives Decision-Making
The real test of any evidence framework lies not in its methodological sophistication but in its ability to inform better decisions. Our 2024 baseline study, covering 2,425 households across six countries, Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, and Uganda, generated insights that fundamentally changed how we approach programming.
The findings revealed striking variations in household self-sufficiency levels, from just 1.5% of households meeting minimum thresholds in South Sudan to 46.5% in South Africa. More importantly, the data showed distinct patterns in the distribution of different forms of capital. Natural capital emerged as a consistent strength across most countries, suggesting potential leverage points for building broader resilience. Physical capital showed wide disparities reflecting infrastructure gaps, while financial capital remained constrained even in contexts with high financial inclusion rates.
These insights directly influenced programming decisions. In Rwanda, where we found strong community savings but limited productive assets, we shifted focus toward connecting financial inclusion with productive investments. In Angola, where natural capital was strong but physical infrastructure lagged, we prioritised water and sanitation systems that support both household needs and agricultural production. In Uganda, strong land access combined with moderate market integration suggested opportunities for productive asset development.
Balancing Standardisation with Localisation
One of the most challenging aspects of evidence production across diverse African contexts is maintaining comparability while respecting local variations in how communities understand development and progress. Our framework addresses this through a designed mixed-methods approach that combines standardised quantitative measurement with qualitative assessment to capture community perspectives.
Our methodology includes the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP), which will use “blindfolded” interviews where researchers gather community perspectives on changes in their lives without initially revealing our specific programmes. This approach reduces bias while ensuring that evidence reflects how communities themselves understand progress and change. We plan to implement this qualitative component after our first follow-up round of quantitative data collection, enabling us to triangulate findings and better understand the causal pathways behind household self-sufficiency. The qualitative data will also help us rebalance the components of the Sustainable Livelihoods Index according to community priorities.
Building African Capacity for Evidence Leadership
The development and implementation of this framework required significant investment in building evidence capacity across ForAfrika’s country offices. Comprehensive, week-long DMEAL training programmes gathered over 80 staff members across six countries, bringing together programme staff, DMEAL specialists, and support teams. These sessions equipped participants with enhanced skills in programme design, monitoring methodologies, evaluation planning, and accountability mechanisms.
This capacity building effort reflects a broader principle: African organisations must lead in developing evidence approaches suited to continental realities. The training programmes were carefully tailored to each country’s specific context and capacity needs, ensuring that global standards could be effectively adapted to local realities.
Looking Forward: From Survival to Leadership
The recognition from the Africa Evidence Network reinforces the importance of continued innovation in evidence production for African development contexts. Our work demonstrates that it is possible to create evidence systems that are both methodologically robust and contextually relevant, that serve community needs while meeting international standards, and that drive better programming decisions while building organisational capacity.
ForAfrika’s CEO, Isak Pretorius, often reminds us about “the power of 1” – the power of changing one life. Our evidence framework scales this principle: by understanding what enables one household to achieve self-sufficiency, we can design programmes that support millions of African families in their development journey. This requires ongoing commitment to approaches that centre African voices, respect local knowledge systems, and generate insights that genuinely inform better development outcomes.
About the author: Fabio Bezerra Correia Lima is Director of Design, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (DMEAL) at ForAfrika. He leads the organisation’s evidence production efforts across eight African countries and has over 12 years of experience in evidence for impactful development policies.
Acknowledgements: The author(s) is solely responsible for the content of this article, including all errors or omissions; acknowledgements do not imply endorsement of the content. The author is grateful to Charity Chisoro for her guidance in preparing and finalising this article, as well as her editorial support.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in published blog posts, as well as any errors or omissions, are the sole responsibility of the author/s and do not represent the views of the Africa Evidence Network, its secretariat, advisory or reference groups, or its funders; nor does it imply endorsement by the afore-mentioned parties.
Suggested citation: Bezerra F (2025) Beyond Reporting: How Evidence Can Drive Africa’s Journey to Self-Sufficiency. Blog posting on 25 August 2025. Available at: https://africaevidencenetwork.org/beyond-reporting-how-evidence-can-drive-africas-journey-to-self-sufficiency/2025/08/25/
