Fresh from the stage at the Digital Africa Summit in Cape Town, Anthony Mveyange, Director of Programs – Synergy at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), sat down with TechAfrica News Chief Editor and Founder, Akim Benamara, to explore a defining challenge for Africa: how evidence moves from research into policy and real-world outcomes.

The conversation spanned research, policy, power, AI, and identity, shedding light on the often unseen processes that shape evidence-informed governance across the continent.

About Our Guest
Anthony Mveyange is an award-winning executive leader, development economist, and board director with over 17 years of global experience across Africa, Europe, and the United States. He serves as Director of Programs at APHRC, headquartered in Nairobi with a regional office in Dakar, and is a co-founder of the Network for Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA). He is widely recognised for scaling development organisations, mobilising more than $40 million in funding, and building partnerships with governments, multilaterals, and global foundations.

An African Institution Built for African Realities
APHRC is intentionally African-led and African-based, with a pan-African leadership and footprint spanning over 35 countries. This design is deliberate. As Mveyange noted, whose voice is present in policy spaces often determines which problems receive attention and which are sidelined.

The Triangle: Research, Translation, Capacity
APHRC operates across three interconnected pillars: research, policy translation, and capacity strengthening. Its work covers health and wellbeing, human development, population dynamics, urbanisation, and data science, including AI and big data. Yet research alone is not enough. 

Working with Power, Without Being Captured by It
While donor-funded, APHRC works closely with governments, parliaments, civil society, and continental bodies. Its support ranges from Kenya’s sanitation policy to model AI and cybersecurity laws.

Structural Constraints: Funding, Uptake, Capacity
Mveyange outlined three persistent barriers: low R&D investment, the mismatch between political urgency and research timelines, and limited capacity to interpret and apply evidence. 

From Talk to Action: Fixing the Translation Gap
“Stop NATO – No Action, Talk Only. There are different players across the evidence value chain. Some of us generate the evidence, while others take that evidence and implement it. But there is a thin layer in between, and that is where translation becomes critical. Those who can use evidence will only use it to the extent that they understand it. If they do not understand it, however good the evidence is, it will simply not be used.”  – Anthony Mveyange, Director of Programs – Synergy, APHRC. 

AI, Identity and Africa’s Place in the World
AI disruption is inevitable, but exclusion is not. The real risk is Africa’s absence from the data and narratives shaping these systems.

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