Amid Foreign Aid Crisis, Evidence Organizations Unite to Fight Poverty

NAIROBI, KENYA (16 June 2025) – Drastic cuts to foreign aid budgets have left many African nations with a yawning funding gap in their economic and social development programs, threatening progress on public health, food security, education, and more. Yet, as global aid strategies shift and resources contract, evidence on the effectiveness of these programs can help decision makers do more with less. Against this backdrop, Kenya is set to host Nairobi Evidence Week, June 23-27, which will help leaders leverage new evidence and insights to sustain progress in the fight against poverty.

Co-hosted by Busara, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA), Nairobi Evidence Week will feature five days of research presentations and policy panels attuned to the needs of African leaders. Comprised of the Africa Evidence Summit, June 23-24, the Economic Science Association 2025 Africa Conference, June 26-27, and a day of collaborative workshops, Evidence Week will showcase a model of effective partnership fine-tuned for a new era of foreign aid.

“Evidence Week is a testament to the power of global networks and collaboration in achieving our shared development goals,” said CEGA Executive Director Carson Christiano. “We will not be discouraged by waning support from some governments; rather, we are buoyed by the leadership of talented African scholars in a growing evidence ecosystem that is driving more cost-effective policymaking on the continent.”

Africa Evidence Summit 

The Africa Evidence Summit is organized by NIERA, an association of African scholars that advances decision-focused impact evaluation of development programs, and CEGA, a research hub at the University of California, Berkeley that generates innovative evidence decision-makers use to reduce global poverty. This year’s Summit will focus on “Better Data for Decision Making.”

The Summit will launch on day one with a discussion about the new foreign aid landscape, featuring representatives from the African Population Health Research Centre, the Global Poverty Research Lab, NIERA, and Norad. Ambassador and Special Envoy Macharia Kamau will deliver keynote remarks on day two about bridging evidence and policy that draw on his decades of experience in the United Nations. These plenary sessions will complement an array of presentations on policy-relevant research that incorporate cost-effectiveness, transparency, and inclusion best practices across different sectors and disciplines.

The Africa Evidence Summit is an annual in-person gathering that brings together East and West African scholars, global faculty at higher education institutions, policymakers, and practitioners to advance the latest evidence on economic development and poverty alleviation in Africa. Now in its 13th year, the Summit amplifies African scholars’ voices, incubates new collaborations, and innovates new ways to integrate evidence into decision-making.

Economic Science Association Africa Conference

In the latter half of the week, Busara will host the Economic Science Association Africa Conference (ESA), the premier event in experimental and behavioral economics. This year, the conference convenes top global and local researchers, economists, and research and academic teams and organizations from all across Africa and around the globe to exchange knowledge on cutting-edge research and innovations in the field. The conference will also offer a unique opportunity to foster interdisciplinary collaborations using experimental approaches.

The ESA kicks off with pre-conference tutorials on June 25th that will feature hands-on sessions led by experts in academia, evidence production and synthesis, and policymaking. June 26th begins with a keynote speech by Professor of Economics Lata Gangadharan, Chair of Business and Economics Joe Isaac, and Professorial Fellow at Monash University Maureen Burnt. Over the next two days, attendees will take part in discussions on methods and evidence across multiple thematic areas, with over 50 different presentations from which to choose. 

A key highlight of the conference will be a roundtable on The Work is Not Done. This roundtable builds on an initiative by Busara to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to imagine what argument, learning, and knowledge can come to the fore when conversations are had and led by the Global South in the current development environment. The roundtable will be a moderated conversation, with an open floor discussion to close.

Nairobi Evidence Week

Showcasing the collaborative power of the Nairobi Evidence Week, an impressive array of organizations advancing global development with evidence-based solutions will amplify the convening’s impact, including the African Population Health Research Centre, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago, International Development Research Centre, Economic and Social Research Foundation, Mawazo Institute, and Penn Development Research Initiative. The Africa Evidence Summit is generously supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

As growing financial constraints force governments to prioritize proven, shovel-ready interventions and calls mount for greater coordination among actors, the global development community is increasingly relying on evidence generators to chart a way forward. With an expected attendance numbering close to 1,000 in-person, the Nairobi Evidence Week promises to help chart a new path for a foreign aid ecosystem beset by budget cuts even as the global need surges.

• To learn more about the Nairobi Evidence Week and to request interviews with presenters or press passes, please contact the media contacts listed below.
• Additional information is provided in the press kit. PRESS KIT
• Follow along on X and Bluesky with the #NairobiEvidenceWeek and #AES2025 hashtags.

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Notes to the Editor

About Busara
Busara works with researchers and organizations to advance and apply behavioral science in pursuit of poverty alleviation. As a research and advisory organization, we are a boutique, cutting edge and vocal, seeking to push the frontiers of knowledge in behavioral science and development, and putting the Global South at the center of research, policy, and practice. We pursue a future where global human development activities respond to people’s lived experience; value knowledge generated in the context in which it is applied; and promote culturally-appropriate and inclusive practices.

About CEGA
The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is a hub for research, training and innovation headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. CEGA generates insights that leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Its academic network includes more than 170 faculty, 88 scholars from low- and middle-income countries, and hundreds of graduate students — from diverse academic disciplines across the globe — that produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty.

About NIERA
The Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) is an association of African scholars with multi-sectoral expertise in various thematic areas that advances decision-focused impact evaluation of development programs through capacity building, evidence generation and policy outreach. Established in 2018 by alumni of the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative, a multi-institution research network administered by CEGA, NIERA is hosted by the United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya and works with over 70 members across the continent.

Media Contacts

Busara
Michael Onsando
Manager, Voice and Impact
michael.onsando [at] busara.global
+254 727 703 794

CEGA
Matthew Kertman
Director of Communications
kertman [at] berkeley.edu
+1 860 918 2735

NIERA
Jennifer Nyakinya
Director of Programs
jennifer.nyakinya [at] nieraglobal.org
+254 723 424 862

APHRC
Christine Ger Ochola
Research Communications Officer
cochola [at] aphrc.org
+254 720 063 506

Becker Friedman Institute for Economics
Eric Hernandez
Senior Officer, Digital Media & Data Visualization
eahernandez [at] uchicago.edu

International Development Research Centre
Angela Baiya
Knowledge Sharing Advisor
abaiya [at] idrc.ca
+254 768 799 454

ESRF
Danford Sango
Head – Governance and Capacity Development
dsango [at] esrf.or.tz

The Mawazo Institute
Naliaka Odero
Communications Lead
naliaka.odero [at] mawazoinstitute.org
+255 715 666 160

Penn Development Research Initiative – DevLab@Penn
Sandra Fairclough
Administrative Coordinator
sandrafa [at] sas.upenn.edu
+1 732 956 1043