WHAT’S IN THE VALUE PROPOSITION?

by Elton Mpiyuri

Elton Mpiyuri does not know the exact time he became a member of the Africa Evidence Network (AEN) but says “not shy of a year”. He is a financial administrator and even at Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE) he was recruited to work on the administration and back end processes, administrative as well as corporate services. Not as hands on with the network as some of his other colleagues, he still joined the network for personal reasons and not because he works at ACE. The most personal reason being he says “I get the value proposition of the AEN”

Elton elaborates on the ‘value proposition’ and points out that both in Africa and abroad, there is a huge disconnect in how people come up with policies given the evidence they have. And in that context, the AEN can provide a platform to collaborate so that socio economic issues for instance; are refined using evidence. “The network provides that potential for us to discuss these issues and challenges” and that is the main reason he subscribes to the AEN.

For Elton the AEN advisory group meeting was critical in guiding his commitment to EIDM: “Last year we had an advisory group and lucky for me I had the opportunity to join one of the meetings while they had discussions. It was when I was speaking to a panel of different stakeholders, people in different positions of governance and practitioners and they shared their opinions of the subject matter (EIDM). It actually got me thinking about how crucial or how important the issues they were trying to address were. It was an amazing moment”

He assures me the most valuable aspect of the network is the webinars that are hosted because they provide awareness of what is happening in the EIDM. He reckons that it is with webinars that the AEN can give more understanding to the specific challenges that come with the work we are dealing with. He also feels that webinars provide more room for us to moderate what we do and that is what our value point is.