Biography

Executive Director, Pan-african Collective For Evidence

Laurenz is the executive director of the Pan-African Collective for Evidence (PACE), a non-profit organisation set up to support the use of evidence by African decision-makers to reduce poverty and inequality on the continent. He specialises in the production of living and AI-powered evidence syntheses and in the design of institutional knowledge systems to support the use of bodies of evidence by decision-makers. His work focusses on supporting government decision-makers to integrate evidence in the formulation and design of public policies and programmes and in making evidence more responsive to decision-makers’ needs using AI. He co-led the innovation of policy-relevant evidence maps and evidence-bases in the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency of South Africa which informed seven national policy areas in the country. This also includes the institutionalisation of responsive evidence services and co-production approaches. Laurenz has conducted over 60 systematic reviews and evidence maps, including reviews published by the Campbell Collaboration and the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence.