Laurenz Langer

Laurenz Langer
Designation: Director, South Africa Centre for Evidence NPC (SACE)
Laurenz is the executive director of the South Africa Centre for Evidence NPC (SACE), a non-profit organisation set up to supporting the use of evidence by African decision-makers to reduce poverty and inequality on the continent. He specialises in the production of evidence syntheses and in the design of institutional knowledge systems to support the use of bodies of evidence by decision-makers.

Blogs by author

Why we need qualitative evidence in systematic reviews: the case of the Gender SR

We recently completed a new systematic review, ‘Strengthening women’s empowerment and gender equality in fragile contexts towards peaceful and inclusive societies’. This systematic review, also called the Gender SR, examined 14 gender-specific and gender-transformative interventions focusing on women’s empowerment in fragile contexts.

Addressing the need for timely and reliable evidence in the time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic brings the importance of high-quality, timely and relevant evidence to the fore. Governments all over the world justify radical policies to control and manage the pandemic with reference to evidence.

Is it possible to combine capacity development with a rapid synthesis response to an evidence request?

Two of the most important and long standing challenges for evidence synthesis in international development are: 1) The need to provide timely (eg. rapid) responses to demands for evidence to inform decisions; 2) Developing capacity to do high-quality, policy-relevant syntheses, especially in L&MICs. At present these challenges are typically addressed in isolation.