2023 Annual
Report

Our partnership with PEP, “What Works for Youth Employment in Africa: A Review of Existing Policies and Empirical Analysis,” has deepened our understanding of youth employment issues across the targeted countries. The insights gained are shaping our thought leadership and influencing our initiatives in workforce and entrepreneurship development. Our goal is to enable 30 million young women and men to access dignified and fulfilling work opportunities as part of our Young Africa Works strategy. As a key partner in Research & Learning, PEP is instrumental in implementing our research strategy and its foundational principles. Notably, PEP’s non-extractive research approach ensures that all stakeholders involved are informed on the findings. This is exemplified during national-level policy engagement sessions, where the team disseminates the findings to a diverse range of stakeholders while ensuring that the voices of young women and men, including persons with disabilities, refugees, and the internally displaced, are front and centre in our discussions.

Tade Aina, Chief Impact and Research Officer, Mastercard Foundation

The Hewlett Foundation applauds PEP’s work to empower and build the capacity of researchers in East and West Africa to generate rigorous and reliable evidence that is informing the decisions of policymakers within their communities.

Christopher Chibwana, Program officer, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

In line with our commitment to advance gender empowerment, Co-Impact is proud to have partnered with PEP to identify contextualized policy interventions that can increase women’s access to decent work in the Global South.

Varja Lipovsek, Director, Learning, Measurement & Evaluation, Co-Impact

Through over a decade of engagement, I have been and continue to be impressed by the unique PEP approach to promoting locally-led research and evidence for communities’ and countries’ most important development challenges. PEP has made a significant contribution to enhancing the capacity of local research, and does so through a deep focus on building partnerships in the research process. The results and real-world impacts speak for themselves. PEP supported research for example led to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to produce gendered data thus enabling government programs to be more responsive to women and populations’ needs. In Nigeria, PEP’s findings informed the country’s response strategy to the COVID-19 crisis, with the research lead being included in the President’s Economic Sustainability Committee. And, in Zimbabwe, findings from the study were presented to the Cabinet when it was in the process of framing the government’s response.

Arjan De Haan, Senior Program Specialist, International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Global Affairs Canada is pleased to work with PEP to strengthen the impact evaluation capacities of Canadian small and medium organizations (SMOs) and their local partners in low-income countries. Through PEP’s LKMP project, partners should be better equipped to measure the impacts of their interventions on living conditions, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Stefan Paquette, First Secretary Development, Canadian International Development Agency

In the fight against climate change, locally-led research and solutions that support gender equality are key to success. Canada is proud of its collaboration with Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) in conducting critical research, including its work to empower women farmers in Africa while addressing climate change.

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development of Canada