Afidep pledges more support to Malawi
The African Institute for Development Policy (Afidep) founder and country representative in Malawi ELIYA MSIYAPHAZI ZULU has committed to enhancing the institute’s support to the Malawi Government in increasing the use of evidence in public policy formulation and implementation to accelerate the achievement of the Malawi 2063 development blueprint. Zulu made the commitment when he submitted Afidep’s letters of credence to the Malawi Government through Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nancy Tembo. Our Staff Writer BRENDA BULIYANI caught up with Zulu to learn more about their work and the diplomatic status.
What is Afidep and how does it work?
Afidep is a pan-African regional research and policy institute established in 2010 in Kenya to bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice across Africa. Our vision is to see an Africa where evidence is used consistently to transform lives. Afidep opened its offices in Malawi in 2014 and moved its headquarters from Nairobi to Lilongwe in 2022. The institute’s work focuses on strengthening the capacity for evidence use in the public sector, by training policy-makers to access, evaluate and use evidence in their work. We also train researchers on how they can promote the use of evidence in policy processes and translate evidence to inform policy formulation and programme improvement. Our evidence uptake work focuses on five thematic areas: population dynamics and the demographic dividend; health and wellbeing; transformative education and skills development; environment and climate change; as well as governance and accountability. In all our work, we pay particular attention to gender equality and the socio-economic empowerment of girls and women.
We have worked in all 54 African countries but done more intense research and evidence-uptake work in 26 of them. We also work closely with the African Union Commission and regional economic blocks to reach out to more countries and achieve our regional mandate through their platforms.
What has led to this diplomatic status?
We have worked in Malawi since we started operations in 2010, but we opened our office in 2014. Our Board of Directors requested the Malawi Government to host our headquarters in recognition of the growing demand for our work in the country. As a non-profit organisation with a mandate and demonstrated capacity to work across the entire African continent, we requested the Government to host our headquarters as a tax-free organisation. We are grateful to them for granting Afidep diplomatic status in recognition of the importance of evidence in addressing the country’s development challenges. We are confident that this recognition will help strengthen our partnership with the Government and enhance our work in Malawi and throughout Africa.
What does the diplomatic status mean to Afidep, and of what value is it to Malawi?
The diplomatic status enables Afidep to attract local and global development research and policy experts to support Malawi in enhancing the use of evidence and data in public policy formulation and implementation. We currently have a staff compliment of 75 drawn from 10 countries, with diverse expertise across the development fields. With the diplomatic status and our ability to deliver impactful work and attract high-value funders, these numbers will undoubtedly grow, providing employment opportunities for upcoming and experienced experts in the evidence-to-action ecosystem in Malawi and across Africa. Having Afidep’s headquarters in Malawi will help increase forex reserves and boost the economy through increased purchasing power that our well-trained and experienced multi-national staff will bring.
Providing diplomatic status to many organisations such as Afidep will position Malawi as a regional intellectual hub for developing evidence-informed public policies and programmes to fast-track Africa’s sustainable development goals. By supporting the Government to increase the use of evidence in decision-making, Afidep’s work will help the country set the right development priorities and design and implement intervention programmes that will maximise returns to investment in transforming people’s lives for the better, as envisioned in the Malawi 2063.
What are some of Afidep’s achievements in Malawi?
Afidep has worked on significant projects and influenced changes in different spheres within Malawi, working closely with ministries responsible for health, education, youth and sports, environment and climate change, and gender. The institute also works with the Malawi Parliament and the National Planning Commission (NPC).
We are particularly proud of the work that we have done with the Malawi Parliament over the past 10 years, focusing on strengthening the capacity of its staff to access and evaluate evidence that parliamentary committees and individual parliamentarians use in their legislative and oversight roles. We also support parliamentarians to champion critical development issues such as ending child marriages, increasing funding for the health sector and programme action for family planning and reproductive health. Last year, our technical support to the Malawi Parliament culminated in a landmark legislative reform to enhance the autonomy of parliament in running its business and, as such, ensure that it is adequately resourced to fulfil its mandate of fostering the country’s democratic governance and socioeconomic transformation.
Any more achievements made in other sectors?
Let me discuss our recent partnership with the National Planning Commission and the Copenhagen Consensus Centre on the Malawi Priorities Project. We supported the NPC in conducting a robust cost-benefit analysis to identify interventions that maximise returns to every kwacha invested in development. This work produced 24 technical reports and 24 policy briefs covering health, governance, agriculture, and business. The evidence from this work informed some of the interventions in the first phase of the Malawi 2063 Implementation Plan (MIP-1).
What is Afidep’s vision?
Afidep aspires to be a centre of excellence in supporting governments and other development actors across Africa and beyond in institutionalising the culture of evidence-based decision-making. We want to be at the centre of creating a critical mass for evidence-use champions in governments, universities, and the broader development community. We will soon build our own headquarter offices in Malawi and open an office in francophone West Africa. We want Afidep to be the go-to institution for African experts seeking lasting contributions to propelling the socio-economic transformation agenda. We want to see Afidep’s partnership with the Government of Malawi stimulate other organisations to come to Malawi to make the country a robust intellectual hub for developing evidence-informed practical solutions to Malawi and Africa’s pervasive development challenges.
