Bellagio-Report-Vs-Apr-14

MR. STEPHEN PORTER - South AfricaMr Stephen Porter is currently Acting Director of the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEARAnglophone Africa) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mr Porter has a 10 year career in developing andimplementing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems in Africa and is well versed in theories of change.Currently Mr Porter is working with the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) inSouth Africa on a range of evaluation issues. Mr Porter has designed and supported the implementation of arange of community based M&E systems that balanced donor, government and organisational requirements.Stephen has developed good practice M&E systems for USAID and DFID funded initiatives at VSO andAMREF and conducted a provincial level evaluation of the institutional barriers to the outcomes basedapproach and is currently teaching courses at Wits. Mr Porter has also assisted an FAO division on thedevelopment of simple monitoring systems and has a range of peer-reviewed publications on institutional,collaborative, and rights-based M&E approaches. He holds a Masters degree in Public Policy and is currentlyworking on his PhD.DR. SUKAI PROM-JACKSON - The GambiaDr. Sukai Prom-Jackson has over 20 years of professional experience and leadership in the management andconduct of research and evaluation, policy formulation and strategic planning, and in the facilitation oflearning as a university lecturer and trainer. She has spent 15 years with the World Bank in the fields ofpolicy research, policy-based lending and investment operations. Her work experience includes governance,public sector administration and reform, education and human development, and human resourcemanagement. She has recently been appointed by the UN General Assembly to serve as an Inspector of theJoint Inspection Unit. Since 2005, Sukai has worked as Evaluation Adviser of the independent EvaluationOffice (EO) of the UNDP. She is well-recognized in the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) and theinternational evaluation community and has represented the UNDP and the UNEG in various meetings toadvance development evaluation. Dr. Prom-Jackson is a Gambian and a graduate of Howard University andMiddlebury College in the USA.PROF. AKILAGPA SAWYERR - GhanaProfessor Akilagpa Sawyerr is a member of the Council of State in Ghana and Vice-President (Arts) of theGhana Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities(AAU) from 2003 to 2008, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana from 1985 to 1992. Prior to that,he taught law at the Universities of Dar es Salaam, Papua New Guinea and Ghana, and held fellowships andvisiting appointments at universities in Europe and the US. Professor Sawyerr studied law at the Universities ofDurham, London and California (Berkeley), where he obtained the degree of Doctor of the Science ofJurisprudence (JSD), and is a member of the Bar in England, Ghana and Papua New Guinea. He serves onseveral national and international bodies, including the Governing Board of the Commonwealth of Learning,the Technical Committee and Advisory Council of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, as well as theCommittee on Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science (CFRS) of the International Council forScience (ICSU). Professor Sawyerr’s research interests cover globalization, higher education, humandevelopment, and international negotiations, areas in which he has published widely and acted as consultantto national and international bodies.DEBBIE SERWADDA - UgandaDebbie Serwadda is the founding chairperson of iCON Women & Young People’s Leadership Academy(iCON) - a “proudly Ugandan” social enterprise and civil society organization providing a unique integratedformal and non formal entrepreneurship and leadership education experience for women and young peoplewho aspire to excel as productive and innovative local and global citizens. iCON has piloted anEntrepreneurship and Transformational Leadership Fellowship with more than 600 community based womenin post-conflict Northern Uganda; 50 young men and 100 young women in post-secondary institutions inNorthern Uganda; and 100 students in selected schools in Kampala. Recognized for her authentic leadershipskills, Debbie is a core member of the African Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN).AGDEN is a Special Interest Group (SIG) under the umbrella of the African Evaluators Association (AFREA),and Africa wide network through which gender and rights evaluators seek to influence development throughparticipatory evaluation practice on the continent and the world.African Thought Leaders Forum on Evaluation and Development, Bellagio, Nov 2012 55