Maya Angelou, civil rights activist and novelist, said: “If you’re going to live, leave behind a legacy. Make an impact on the world that can never be erased.” This year’s winners of the Africa Evidence Leadership Awards (AELA) look destined to heed this good advice.

At a ceremony held on August 21^st as part of Africa Evidence Week, the winners and runners up were announced. The awards, now in their sixth year, are important tools in showcasing and celebrating impactful, insightful, effective, and innovative work that supports evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) in Africa.  They recognise four categories: evidence producer, evidence mediator, evidence user, and a new category this year, emerging evidence leader.

The winners of the four categories, Violet Murunga, Ismael Kawooya, Enock Musungwini, and Firmaye Bogale were applauded, as were the runners-up Mohammed S. Awal, Esmie Nhlane, Edwin Byusa and Elise Hirwa Musabimana.

Rhona Mijumbi-Deve, co-chair of the awards, spoke of the importance of the work being done by the participants and the Africa Evidence Network (AEN) more broadly. “The network has set itself an ambitious mandate: to tackle poverty and injustice by enabling and facilitating the availability and use of evidence. This is no mean feat.” She spoke of the progress that has been made in a relatively short time and congratulated the winners and nominees: “Winning in this field automatically makes you a leader so the work is only beginning.”

Meandering professional journeys

This year’s award recipients come from diverse backgrounds and are at various levels of their careers in EIDM. As part of the panel, they talked about their professional journeys to get to this place of professional recognition. Each was different: all are inspiring.

One common attribute is each person’s dedication to the field of EIDM. Despite noting the numerous challenges that exist, not one member of the panel said they were thinking of retiring from the field. They advised people interested in joining the EIDM field to be proactive, network with others, and become involved somehow in the Africa Evidence Network (AEN). Enock Musungwini, winner of the evidence use category advised the audience: “Never underestimate the work you do both for the network (AEN) and in EIDM. Someone is always watching and one day your work will be recognised.”

Laurenz Mahlanza-Langer, the Executive Director of the Pan-African Collective for Evidence joined in the applause for the winners. “Without inspiring leaders like yourselves, the evidence to policy ecosystem would be much poorer and we would have much less fun. You have set examples in many ways. Often these evidence journeys can be isolating. You might be a researcher sitting in a faculty and all your colleagues are only interested in publishing journal articles and you may be the only one who cares about policy and societal impact and that feels lonely. Or you may be the working in a government and your colleagues are busy implementing programmes and you are the only person asking: “What is the evidence for that?” “Is that the right thing to do?” and that might also feel a little bit frustrating and a little bit lonely. Or you might be a knowledge broker like PACE and then you might be a little bit homeless altogether! You’re not really a researcher and you’re not really a government official; you’re definitely not a private sector knowledge service consultant and you wonder who are you, and where are the examples you can look to for inspiration?” That too can be isolating.

He went on: “This award is for all of us. We can recognise each other and that makes us feel less isolated and provides inspiration. So, thank you so much on behalf of PACE and all of us.”

Read all about the webinar and watch the ceremony in full on the Africa Evidence 2024 events page.