2025 Africa Evidence Summit

On June 23-24, 2025, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) co-hosted the 13th annual Africa Evidence Summit, focusing on “Better Data for Decision-Making.”

The Summit spotlighted cost-effective, policy-relevant, transparent, and inclusive research. Sessions focused on climate change, agriculture, education, labor, financial inclusion, and other topics related to economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. The event also amplified African scholars’ voices, incubated new collaborations, and innovated better ways to integrate evidence into decision-making.

You may watch the livestream on our YouTube channel here. 

About the Africa Evidence Summit

The Africa Evidence Summit advances knowledge about how to alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and fosters unique collaborations between scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

This year, the Summit will kickstart a week of evidence-focused events taking place in Nairobi, Kenya. The Nairobi Evidence Week combines the Africa Evidence Summit and the 2025 Economic Science Association (ESA) Africa Conference, hosted by Busara. The events will take place consecutively from June 23 to June 27, 2025 with the goal of advancing global knowledge, building partnerships, and showcasing innovations in inclusive research, evidence-informed policy, and practice. You can read more about the Nairobi Evidence Week here.

Learn more about the Summit in our 2023 recap video.

AGENDA | AFRICA EVIDENCE SUMMIT 2025

Program

View selected presentations below. [CEGA fellows denoted by *]

Monday, June 23

Keynote Panel: Responding to a New Landscape in Foreign Aid | Session moderated by Amos Njuguna*, Chair, Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA); Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics and Finance, Northwestern University and Co-Director, Global Poverty Research Lab; Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC); Emilie Oftedal, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)

Role of EdTech on Numeracy and Literacy for Children with Functional Difficulties: Experimental Evidence from Kenya | Frank Odhiambo, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Göttingen 

Impact Evaluation of a School Leadership Development Programme in Western Cape, South Africa | Christine Kahura, Senior Associate, IDinsight

Policymakers’ Demand for Rigorous Evidence on Soft Skills Training and Targeted Internship Placements for University Graduates: Experimental Findings from Uganda | Annet Adong*, Research Fellow; Center for Population and Applied Statistics, Makerere University, and Kizito Omala*, Lecturer, Makerere University

Better Together? The Impact of Cash Transfers and Couples’ Financial Planning on Household Dynamics and Economic Outcomes | Simone Schaner, Associate Professor (Research) of Economics, University of Southern California

Cooperation in Polygamous Households. Experimental Evidence from Northern Benin | Doux Baraka Kusinza, Research Associate, Youth Impact 

Reshaping Gender Norms in Tanzania’s Food Systems to Reduce the Burden of Unpaid Care Work: A Clustered RCT | Ravina Pattni, Tanzania Country Manager, Laterite 

New Methods for Measuring People’s Preferences | Tom Wein, Director of Dignity, IDinsight

Contextualized Poverty Targeting Through Multimodal Spatial Data and Machine Learning in Brazzaville, Congo | Woojin Jung, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Global Health Institute at Rutgers University

From Research to Action: Lessons from the replication crisis for improving Africa’s evidence ecosystem | Patrick Forscher, Director of the CREME Meta-Research Team, Busara 

Flooding and Livelihood Diversification in Nigeria: the View from the Ground and the View from the Sky | Abdulrasheed Isah*, Doctoral candidate, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich

Assessment of the Effectiveness of Climate Adaptation Interventions in East Africa | Mary Nantongo*, Lecturer at Makerere University Business School

The Effect of Empathy and Future-Orientation on COVID-19 Vaccination: Evidence from a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Experiment in Tanzania | Noela Ringo, Research Fellow, Economic and Social Research Foundation 

Causal Inference Methodologies to Assess the Effect of Missed Clinic Visits on Treatment Success Rate among People with Tuberculosis in Rural Uganda | Jonathan Izudi*, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, APHRC 

Education Returns to a Public Health Insurance Program: Evidence from Rwanda | Aimable Nsabimana*, Research Fellow, the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

The Impact of Community Based Health Insurance on Health Service Utilization: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia | Alebel Bayrau* and Shibiru Ayalew*

Will Environmental, Health and Safety Education and Sensitization Improve Usage of Liquified Petroleum Gas? A Lens on the Cooking Stove Distribution Model
in Ghana | Isaac Doku*, Lecturer, University of Education, Winneba 

Reducing Anti-Herder Bias Among Displaced Farmers in Benue State, Nigeria | Oluwabunmi Adejumo*, Associate Professor, Institute for Entrepreneurship and Development Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University

Tuesday, June 24

Beyond the Research: Crafting Policy for Refugee Socioeconomic Integration in Kenya | Mansi Kalra, Research Manager, Forced Displacement at CEGA; Caroline Njuki, Chief Technical Advisor on Employment and Skills Development, International Labor Organization, Kenya; Loise Gichuhi, Professor, Education, the University of Nairobi; Rufus Karanja, National Programme Officer (Migration and Protection), Embassy of Switzerland

See It Grow: A Randomized Evaluation of Digital Innovations in Crop Insurance to Increase Insurance and Fertilizer Demand in Kenya | Berber Kramer, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

Irrigation Infrastructure and Satellite-Measured Land Use Impacts: Evidence from the Senegal River Valley | Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley

Agricultural Subsidy, Shocks, and Conflict  | Solomon Zena Walelign*, Executive Director at Policy Innovation Research Center (PIRC)

Price Dynamics from Shallow Agricultural Markets in Africa | Craig McIntosh, Professor, Co-director, Policy Design and Evaluation Lab, UC San Diego

Expected Discrimination and Worker Sorting: Experimental Evidence from Kenya | Winnie Njoroge, Doctoral candidate, Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (CERGE-EI)

Beliefs and the Demand for Employee Training: A Field Experiment with Small Firms in Uganda | Arman Rezaee, Assistant Professor of Economics, UC Davis

With My Mind on My Money: Productivity in the Immediacy of an Income Shock  | Flavio Malagutti, Doctoral candidate, UC Santa Barbara

How do you build a large-scale livelihoods research program to inform policy? Insights from the Re:BUiLD program | Belinda Muya, Deputy Director – Re:BUiLD, The International Rescue Committee  (IRC)

Armed Conflict, Cash Transfers and Psychological Capital: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia | Halefom Nigus*, PEP Research Fellow, Policy Studies Institute

Unconditional Cash Transfers in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda | Miriam Laker, Senior Research Advisor, GiveDirectly 

Impact Evaluation of a Cash Transfer and Psychosocial Training Program for Refugees in Kenya | Antonia Delius, Doctoral candidate, University of Oxford

Charting a Path for Inclusivity in Development Research | Maya Ranganath, Director of Policy and Inclusion, CEGA

Building a More Inclusive Evidence Ecosystem: Perspectives on CIDR’s Findings | Jane Mariara, Executive Director, Partnership for Economic Policy; Michel Ndayikeza, Assistant Professor, University of Burundi; Amos Njuguna, Chair, Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA)

An AI Evaluation Framework for the Development Sector | Robert On, Chief Technology Officer, The Agency Fund