Abstract
To maximise the potential impact and acceptability of EIDM capacity building, there is a need
for programmes to coordinate their remits within existing systems, playing both ‘insider’ and
‘outsider’ roles. Through a review of the South African evidence-policy landscape and analysis
of a stakeholder event that brought together EIDM role players, this paper illustrates how one
capacity-building programme navigated its position within the national evidence-policy interface.
It identifies strategies for improving the acceptability and potential effectiveness of donor-funded
EIDM capacity-building activities: understanding the evidence-policy interface, incorporating
programmes into the decision-making infrastructure (being an ‘insider’), whilst retaining an element
of neutrality (being an ‘outsider’).