The HIGH-Res Project
From 2019 to 2022, the Heightening Institutional Capacity for Government Use of Health Research (HIGH-Res) project served as an experiment in three countries: Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda. The goal was to fundamentally change how ministries operate. We set out to prove that evidence-informed policy becomes a habit when you strengthen the system itself.
For years, ACRES was known primarily for health evidence. Through HIGH-Res, we partnered with 19 new policy entities, including the Office of the President and the Ministry of Gender. Through production of over 40 rapid response briefs across different social sectors, we proved that the ACRES model works just as well for economic policy or labour rights as it does for medicine.
A common mistake in this field is training one person and hoping they change their whole department. We went beyond this by mentoring 89 leaders across three countries.
In Uganda, we helped rewrite the Ministry of Health’s governance guidelines. Now, it is a formal requirement that policy issues must be presented alongside evidence-informed briefs.
Turning ACRES into an independent organisation
Perhaps the most significant outcome of HIGH-Res was the evolution of ACRES itself. During this period, we transitioned into a fully registered, autonomous not-for-profit company. This was a move for sustainability through diversification of our funding and growing of the team, ensuring that ACRES remains a stable, neutral, and permanent ‘Center of Excellence that can navigate political changes without losing its voice.
When data meets the real world
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, districts couldn’t afford to wait weeks for national guidelines. We provided rapid briefs that gave local officials the confidence to decentralize testing. In one district, this cut the wait time for results by 72 hours, allowing for faster treatment and isolation.
- We realized that standard policy briefs are useless for citizens who cannot read. We pioneered “Illustration Briefs”, using pictures to explain data. This allowed illiterate mothers working in the informal economy to participate in Citizen Panels, ensuring their lived experiences directly informed national breastfeeding regulations.
Lessons learned from PEERS
Our work challenged the old ways of doing things:
- By creating visual briefs, we unlocked insights that researchers usually miss. The most valuable input for the Ministry of Gender didn’t come from a textbook; it came from a mother who could finally read the evidence through our illustrations and tell us why the current policy wouldn’t work for her.
- Training a single policymaker is a waste of time if their boss or their peers don’t support them. We learned to engage entire departments at once, creating a critical mass of people who all speak the same language of evidence.
- Policymakers frequently asked our team to present evidence directly to their peers. The relationship we build with a ministry is just as important as the accuracy of our numbers.
- In a crisis, a good answer today is worth more than a perfect answer in six months. Our work during the pandemic proved that rapid, credible evidence is the foundation of a resilient government.
