UNICEF Evidence Mapping
The Pulte Institute for Global Development partnered with LEAD Analytics to study the UNICEF Eastern and Southern African Region (ESAR)’s research function. ESAR includes 21 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. The research team reviewed the research function in ESAR, in alignment with UNICEF’s research policy and procedures and with regional office management plan objectives. In order to do this, the team implemented a series of key informant interviews, literature reviews, and data validation efforts to ensure that the findings reflect the action that UNICEF’s ESAR research arm has undertaken on key issues for children, including child health and education. Based on this information, the team then developed benchmarks for all dimensions of the research function in the region and a monitoring framework for both country offices and regional office and then updated the Regional Research Strategy and Action Plan and Standard Operating Procedures for UNICEF ESAR. The updates were provided in a report that spelled out in more detail the team’s findings and recommendations.
Dr. Nancy McCarthy and Dr. Lila Kumar Khatiwada led this study for ESAR. Dr. Nancy McCarthy, Pulte Institute Visiting Associate and President of LEAD Analytics, has lived and worked in the region for more than 25 years, and has extensively published a wide-range of policy-relevant research. Dr. Lila Khatiwada, senior research associate in the Evidence and Learning Division at the Pulte Institute, has over 15 years’ experience in social research and has implemented research work in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, amongst others.