EIDM INNOVATION IN AFRICA #1 | Youth-led EIDM capacity development

PACKS Africa is a youth-led capacity development think tank, with a mission to influence the use of research and other forms 
of knowledge in the development of policies in Africa. Our Corporate Evidence Leaders — Mentorship Programme (CEL-MP) is our flagship initiative for supporting technical and leadership competencies of young people within the ecosystem and beyond. Currently in its second cohort, the programme takes a decolonised approach to capacity development, aiming for mentees to drive learning at their own pace. In this EIDM Incubator hub session, participants of Evidence 2023 will have opportunity to interact with mentees from both cohorts, as well as engage with elements that informed design of the intervention.

The Corporate Evidence Leader Mentorship Programme by PACKS Africa was launched in 2021 to address the gap in EIDM skills amongst young people. It is a 12-24 month programme which seeks to tackle both corporate skills such as knowledge for organizational development; administrative skills; ethical leadership skills as well as technical skills, particularly evidence ecosystem governance; critical thinking for evidence use, production, and communication for knowledge brokering. The programme is facilitated through weekly online interactive meetings where we seek to strengthen competencies through peer-to-peer learning and we seek to improve this initiative through continuous evaluations. In our second cohort, we have two mentees, Margaret Impraim, a development professional from Ghana and Bruce Chidi an educator from South Africa.