ACED is a think-and-do tank. All our interventions are science-based and evidence-informed. To achieve the greatest impact from our interventions, ACED adopts a non-linear approach, combining research, action and policy. Our approach involves the generation of robust evidence through research to enhance understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable communities. ACED endorses the Adaptation Research Alliance principles of Research for…
Influencing policies is at the core of our interventions and an important channel to impact in our work. ACED has explicit mechanisms to influence policies. These include a platform on evidence, a helpdesk and the organization of Evidence-Policy-Action (EPA) dialogues (i.e EPA Forum). The platform on evidence is a virtual library which provides policymakers (but also practitioners) with evidence syntheses…
Evidence is essential to inform, frame, and guide interventions (policies, plans, programmes, and projects) that structure community development. At the local level in Africa, local authorities are experimenting with decentralization in a context of poverty and social inequality, resulting in important trade-offs being made between vital daily needs, scarce resources, and political considerations. In such a context, evidence represents an…
ACED’s work is focused on some of the most pressing development issues for Sub-Saharan African countries, such as food security, nutrition, climate change and environment protection. Climate change adaptation is considered a cross-cutting issue and is mainstreamed in almost all our interventions. Our areas of focus in climate adaptation in agriculture mainly include research on climate vulnerability and adaptation strategies,…
Recent research by ACED indicated that local policymakers are aware of the usefulness and importance of evidence for better decision making, including informing social dashboards, budget planning, developing community programs and projects, etc. However, in practice, very few policymakers use evidence before making decisions because of the difficulties in accessing reliable, up-to-date, and relevant evidence. Evidence, particularly scientific evidence (research…
Broadly speaking, “evidence” refers to any body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid. Its exact meaning and implications vary with disciplines (law, philosophy, mathematics, economics, etc.). Recently there is a persisting call upon “evidence” mainstreaming in the decision-making process, not only in the policy sphere but also in all strategic initiatives and…
Evidence-informed policymaking (EIP) is a nonlinear and iterative process in which we engage policy and decision-makers in improving their culture of evidence use. However, often those we work with are not adequate people to work with, making it unclear who the authorities are. The main reason is the misunderstanding of power relationships within policy spheres at local and central government…
As our work is focused on agriculture and food security issues, climate adaptation is a cross-cutting issue that is mainstreamed in our interventions. We summarize below some key climate adaptation interventions we conducted over the past years and continue to support. Inland fisheries. ACED has worked with fishermen and fisherwomen to analyze the vulnerability of inland fishery to increased levels…