APD Participants in Ghana

African Policy Dialogues

Initiated by INCLUDE’s platform members, African Policy Dialogues (APDs) are networks of policy actors that aim to encourage the use of existing and new knowledge in policy making in Africa.

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About the African Policy Dialogues

The aim of the APDs is to encourage the use of existing and new knowledge in policy making in Africa. The dialogues identify priority policy issues in a sector where evidence is lacking, generate evidence and use the evidence to inform the drafting and implementation of policies and programmes. They are initiated by INCLUDE’s platform members, hosted by the platform members’ organizations and implemented in collaboration with national level stakeholders. The aim of the APDs is to encourage the use of existing and new knowledge in policy making in Africa.

Key features
  • To bring together diverse and relevant actors
  • Focus on the generation of research evidence to inform the design and implementation of policies or programmes
  • Driven by demand – each APD is initiated based on the evidence of what is needed by the actors in a sector

Past, ongoing and future work

  • 2016–2018: Seven APDs were successfully established in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria
  • 2019–2020: Four APDs are being implemented in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana
  • 2020–2021: Three APDs are being implemented in Mali, Mozambique and Niger.

Key achievements

  • In Uganda, the APD led to strengthened partnerships among actors in social protection, contributed ideas during the development of the National Development Plan and raised the issue of the informality of women entrepreneurs, which is now widely debated.
  • In Kenya, the APD on social protection contributed to the Kenya National Social Protection Bill 2015, including enhancing the coordination of social protection, the development of a comprehensive definition of social protection, and making clear linkages between social protection actors.
  • In Mozambique, as a result of the APD, the quality of inter-sectoral and inter-generational debates among actors that previously worked in isolation has strengthened, extractive sector firms have been encouraged to reveal the extent to which they include youth in their activities, and the National Institute of Statistics has incorporated a tool to measure how inclusive extract firms are in their surveys.
  • In Nigeria, due to the APD, the federal government agreed to set aside a budget for the revival of the rice and cotton value chains in Nigeria in order to prioritize agriculture and agro-processing for employment creation.

Evidence Factsheets

This series of Evidence Factsheets provides a concise summary of each APD, highlighting the key evidence generated and recommendations to enhance inclusive development.

Factsheets available: