eBASE Africa Awarded CHF 100,000 Grant to Strengthen Cameroon’s Foundational Learning Agenda and Shape Global Evidence Infrastructure

The What Works Hub for Global Education has awarded eBASE Africa a CHF 100,000 grant to produce policy-relevant evidence syntheses, strengthen evidence use for foundational learning, and contribute to the development of the Synthesis-Ready Evidence Repository.

eBASE Africa has been awarded a CHF 100,000 grant by the What Works Hub for Global Education to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making in Cameroon and contribute to the development of global evidence infrastructure for education.

Running from April 2026 to January 2027, the project will support two systematic reviews addressing priority questions identified through Cameroon’s foundational learning agenda. It will also contribute to testing and strengthening the What Works Hub’s Synthesis-Ready Evidence Repository, a global initiative designed to accelerate access to high-quality education evidence.

From Unlocking Data to International Investment

The grant builds on the work of Cameroon’s Community of Practice (CoP) on Foundational Learning Data Use, a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together government institutions, local authorities, universities, civil society organisations, and education practitioners. Through a learning agenda aligned with the Education and Training Sector Strategy (2023–2030), the CoP identified key evidence gaps affecting foundational learning.

The Community of Practice was established through the Unlocking Data Initiative (UDI), a regional programme that promotes the use of education data and evidence in decision-making. In Cameroon, UDI has brought policymakers, researchers, and practitioners together to identify priority education challenges and evidence needs.

Through this process, stakeholders developed a learning agenda focused on the country’s most pressing foundational learning priorities. The grant shows how locally identified policy questions can attract international funding and research support.

Addressing Priority Questions for Foundational Learning

The project will focus on two questions identified through the Community of Practice:

• What structured pedagogy approaches for foundational numeracy are effective in resource-constrained multilingual primary schools in Sub-Saharan Africa?
• How can social-emotional learning be effectively integrated into early childhood and primary education curricula to support both academic achievement and student well-being in African contexts?

eBASE Africa will conduct systematic reviews using international, regional, and local evidence. Findings will be translated into policy briefs and practice notes for decision-makers at national and local levels.

The evidence products will be shared through the Ministry of Basic Education’s Teacher Training Directorate, the Curriculum Development Unit, and municipal education platforms coordinated through the United Councils and Cities of Cameroon (UCCC).

Strengthening a Global Evidence Infrastructure

A distinctive feature of the project is eBASE Africa’s contribution to the What Works Hub’s Synthesis-Ready Evidence Repository.

The repository is a global database that makes research easier to find, organise, and synthesise. By preparing studies in advance, it helps speed up evidence synthesis and improve access to timely evidence.

As part of the project, eBASE Africa will identify French-language studies, grey literature, and evidence from conflict-affected settings that are often underrepresented in global evidence systems. This will strengthen the repository while improving the visibility of evidence from Francophone Africa.

eBASE will also provide structured feedback on the repository’s coverage, usability, and relevance, helping improve its value for researchers and policymakers worldwide.

Why This Matters

The project demonstrates how locally identified policy priorities can generate actionable research and attract international investment. Rather than producing evidence in isolation, it responds directly to questions identified by education stakeholders through Cameroon’s foundational learning agenda.

The initiative also highlights the growing role of African organisations in shaping global knowledge systems. By contributing evidence and feedback from a Francophone, multilingual, and conflict-affected context, eBASE Africa will help ensure that global evidence infrastructures better reflect the realities of underrepresented education systems.

Beyond the immediate outputs, the project will strengthen links between policy questions, evidence synthesis, and decision-making in Cameroon.

Looking Ahead

As implementation begins in April 2026, eBASE Africa looks forward to working with partners across government, academia, civil society, and the global evidence community to ensure that research evidence reaches those who need it most.

By linking Cameroon’s foundational learning agenda to a global evidence infrastructure, the project shows how African-led initiatives can shape both national education policy and global evidence systems.