Building an Evidence Ecosystem Inclusive of African Scholars: Lessons from the New CIDR Report

Join the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) on July 7th for a webinar reacting to findings from the Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR) report. This study documents the state of inclusion of African scholars across the global development research pipeline–from higher education and mentorship to research production and policy impact. African faculty, practitioners, funders will engage directly with this evidence, share perspectives on persistent barriers and opportunities, and explore what these findings mean for building a more equitable and effective development economics field.

The webinar will take place on July 7 at 8:30am PST. Register to attend here.

Moderator

Constantine Manda is an Assistant Professor in the department of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine since July 2023. Constantine also co-founded the Impact Evaluation Lab at Tanzania’s Economic & Social Foundation (ESRF) as well as the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA). He is a CEGA Faculty Affiliate and 2012 CEGA Fellow.

His area of expertise includes comparative politics and the political economy of development with a regional focus on Africa. At UCI, Dr. Manda teaches courses on African politics, political economy, decolonization, genopolitics, global politics, program evaluation, among others. His work is published in the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, among others. Over the last twelve years, Dr. Manda has built the capacities of over 465 Black researchers and students in Kenya, Tanzania, Benin, and the United States through Strathmore University’s Business School, UDSM, the African School of Economics, and Yale University, respectively. 

Panelists

• Monica Lambon-Quayefio is an Associate Professor of Development Economics at the University of Ghana, a 2024 CEGA Fellow, an affiliated Professor at JPAL, and currently on sabbatical at the World Bank within the Development Research Group and Africa Gender Innovation Lab. She is an applied microeconomist whose research sits broadly within development economics, with interests in gender and labor markets, social protection, education, and digital innovations in agriculture. Her recent work examines the drivers of gender gaps in entrepreneurship; how online job-matching platforms can be made more effective in sub–Saharan African labour markets; and the impacts of education policies and programs on household behavior. Monica received her PhD in Economics from Clark University.
• Elizabeth Lyons is an Associate Professor of Management at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Her research focuses on the intersection between technology and innovation strategy, international management, and organizational economics. Her current projects include using field observational data to analyze firm hiring and organization in international labor markets, using experimental lab evidence to analyze the relationship between organizational authority and production decisions, and using data collected over four years to study the effects of entrepreneurship training on career decisions. During her graduate studies, she was the associate director of the Creative Destruction Lab, a venture lab at the University of Toronto.
• Thando Malambo is a Senior Program Specialist in the Global Health Division at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). In this capacity, she leads on the development and dissemination of relevant knowledge products, coordinates knowledge management activities, and manages the program ‘s virtual global learning platform. She holds a masters degree in Medical Anthropology/Global Health from Simon Fraser University, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Harvard University.