Capstone: The Role of Evidence in Africa Agriculture Policy Making and Program Interventions Dr. Marie Rarieya, Vice President, Capacity Building and Professional Development Email: mrarieya@ICED-eval.org Url: www.ICED-Eval.org E2A Conference, 25 May, 2017, Nairobi Kenya

E2A Conference, 25 May, 2017, Nairobi Kenya The first ever Evidence to Action Conference, held in Nairobi-Kenya, from 24-25 to May 2017, brought together over 220 participants drawn from Europe, United States of America, and Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon, and Mozambique) Below are the general conclusions that can be drawn from the just concluded conference Need to harness modern technological innovations, methodologies and approaches that provide the evidence needed to inform policy and drive Africa’s development agenda Need to scale-up knowledge and information sharing to provide evidence that informs policy decision-making and spur growth in Africa’s sustainable development Need to scale up documentation and convenings on best practices— identification of What works, Where, For whom, Where, How and at What cost Development of strategic partnerships for generating, sharing, and utilizing high quality evidence to support policy decision making Need for integration of youth & gender dimensions in all aspects of Evidence to Action –for informed decision making on sustainable development issue and policy E2A Conference, 25 May, 2017, Nairobi Kenya In Africa, the oldest evaluation association was established in 1997 in Ghana, while the African Evaluation association was itself established in 1999 with the heyday period of intense professional associations reported between 2000 and 2004. Within Africa, a second Abidjan conference was held in 1998 involving officials from 12 African countries and 21 international development assistance agencies to deliberate on M&E. In September 1999, the inaugural AfrEA Conference attended by over 300 evaluators from 35 countries was convened in Nairobi-Kenya under the auspices of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with the assistance of the Kenya Evaluation Association, the Kenyan Graduate Mobilization Programme, African Development Bank, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Family Health International, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Habita

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