eBASE Africa Joins Global Collective Initiative to Strengthen Evidence Synthesis and Use in Education

eBASE Africa is proud to be part of a new global collective initiative that brings together leading organizations to improve how evidence is synthesized and used in education. This collaboration aims to make research more accessible, actionable, and relevant for educators, policymakers, and learners worldwide.

Statement of Intent

A collective initiative to support evidence synthesis and use in education

Much of the $5.8 trillion spent on education every year is not guided by evidence on what we know about children and learning. While the education evidence base is growing fast, challenges persist around evidence synthesis, translation, and use. For example, synthesising evidence into clear, trustworthy policy and practitioner-friendly guidelines is unnecessarily expensive and time consuming.

In response, we are delighted to announce this collective initiative to build and test a synthesis-ready evidence repository for the education sector. Together, we will:

• Pool existing evidence data with a co-created sector taxonomy into a shared repository.
• Conduct a global and open RFP (Request for Proposals) for evidence intermediaries and EdLabs (organizations that translate research into practical advice for schools and governments), particularly in the Global South, to test a “minimum viable product” of the repository during 2026, by producing syntheses in response to country-based policy and practice needs.

The repository will be a ‘back-end tool’ (a behind-the-scenes system) designed to make the work of evidence intermediaries much more efficient. It will build upon and support broader evidence synthesis infrastructure coalescing around the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC). This is an important step in making user-centred and contextually relevant synthesis the norm, especially in resource-constrained environments.

Depending on what we learn during 2026, we aim to scale the initiative much further in 2027. We intend that this relatively small investment in evidence infrastructure will have an exponential impact on children’s learning.

eBASE Africa’s Role

As an organization deeply rooted in African realities, eBASE Africa will contribute by:

• Ensuring African voices guide the taxonomy and synthesis process.
• Testing the repository in real policy and classroom settings.
• Advocating for equity, transparency, and co-ownership in every step.

This collaboration reflects our commitment to making evidence-informed education policies a reality and improving learning outcomes for children across Africa.

 A Global Collaboration

This collective initiative brings together a diverse coalition of evidence leaders, including: Alliance for Living Evidence (Alive), Campbell Collaboration, Durham University, Education.org, Education Endowment Foundation, Effective Basic Services (eBASE) Africa, EPPI Center, ESRC, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Future Evidence Foundation, Innovations for Poverty Action, Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Jacobs Center, Jacobs Foundation, The LEGO Foundation, Porticus, viaEd, Wellcome Trust, and the What Works Hub for Global Education.

Together, we are building a future where evidence is easier to access, faster to use, and more responsive to the needs of educators and learners everywhere.