Africa has high rates of unemployment and poverty, and it is abundantly clear that new and innovative approaches to addressing the scourge of the triple challenges need to be found. Thus, promoting evidence-informed decision-making could make a meaningful contribution to evidence-based policymaking in Africa. ACE aims to enhance the use of evidence in informing decision-making to address the socio-economic and developmental priorities of the region, thereby impacting the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Centre aims to promote Africa鈥檚 participation in the broader global evidence movement to address common developmental challenges that affect developing nations.
ACE was established as a research Centre within the 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg鈥檚 Faculty of Humanities in 2017 and has consistently produced evidence to inform many interventions. It is an integral part of the 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg, and the authority of ACE is vested in the Council of the 欧美福利100000. ACE consolidates different expertise to contribute to using evidence in decision-making and inform the nexus between theory, policy and practice. The evidence is generated from governments, civil society, corporates, and civil society, thereby adopting an all-of-society approach. To this end, ACE seeks to be the hub of an evidence ecosystem in the African region, and ensure the adoption and use of evidence in tackling immediate socio-economic development issues in Africa.
The Centre is driven by the following goals:
- Produce useful research evidence to inform policy and practice across the region in (South) Africa);
- Support the production of high-quality systematic reviews and evidence syntheses by others;
- Support the use of research evidence amongst decision-makers;
- Ensure that systematic review and evidence synthesis design and methods are fully responsive to the contexts and needs of research producers and users in Africa
- Build strategic local, national, regional and international partnerships with the shared vision of ensuring research is high quality, useful and used
ACE鈥檚 work to date is recognised across the continent and has contributed to policy shifts. These shifts have mainly been in raising awareness of evidence-informed decision-making, strengthening the capability to use evidence in decision-making for public and private institutions, and demonstrating how the evidence can be used.
For 2025, ACE focuses on four strategic objectives:
- Understanding the multidimensional drivers of unemployment, poverty and inequality
- Identifying, packaging and showcasing the use of evidence in decision-making to lower the triple challenges to build stronger evidence capacities
- Promoting the use of evidence-informed decision-making in Africa to support meaningful evidence communities
- Promoting successful models that lower the triple challenges to enable replication by others
- Producing and dialoguing rigorous evidence for policy action
Ongoing Projects
- Africa After USAID
- The Competitiveness of South African Cities: A Comparative View of Metropolitan Municipalities
- The Role of Data Ecosystems in Improving Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Case Studies of eThekwini and Cape Town Metropolitan Municipalities
- The Role of Philanthropies in South Africa鈥檚 Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Masters Fellowship Pogramme
ACE runs a Master鈥檚 Fellowship programme where four Masters students are selected on a competitive basis to form part of the Fellowship programme on an annual basis. The Fellowship is funded by one of the leading philanthropies in the country, with a particular focus on data ecosystems and evidence-based decision-making in South Africa鈥檚 development landscape.