For more than two decades, PEP has championed a localisation approach that places researchers and institutions in the Global South at the centre of policy-relevant research. By supporting locally led research teams and strengthening institutional capacity, PEP contributes to ensuring that development policies are informed by context-specific evidence and grounded in local realities.
In 2025, this approach was advanced through a range of programmes and initiatives that strengthened both research leadership and institutional ecosystems. Programmes such as the Strengthening Ecosystems for Evidence-Informed Policymaking (EIPM) initiative, the Learning and Knowledge Management Project (LKMP), and the Africa Fellows in Education Program (AFEP) supported collaboration between researchers and policymakers while reinforcing the role of local institutions in shaping policy-relevant research agendas.
These efforts were complemented by capacity-development activities, mentorship networks, and collaborative research processes that enhanced the ability of Southern institutions to generate, communicate, and apply evidence within policy systems.
At the same time, PEP Research Fellows contributed to advancing the evidence base on localisation itself. Recent working papers examined how research agendas and knowledge flows relate to the priorities of countries in the Global South. Kassouf and Ronconi (2025) show that researchers based in developing countries are more likely to focus on topics of high relevance to local populations, underscoring the importance of contextual knowledge in shaping research priorities. In a complementary study, Lage de Sousa and Cabral (2025) find that policymaking in developing countries still relies heavily on research produced in the Global North—highlighting the continued need to strengthen Southern research leadership and visibility.
Together, these developments reinforce the point that while producing locally led evidence is important, strengthening the systems and incentives that allow such evidence to shape policy decisions at national and global levels is vital.
