The first ever Asia Pacific Virtual Winter School 2021 for Young and Emerging Evaluators (YEEs) was held from 29th to 31st March 2021. It was organized by EvalYouth Asia (EYA) in partnership with Asia Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA), Sri Lanka Evaluation Association (SLEvA), Evaluation Community of India (ECOI), EvalYouth Sri Lanka, EvalYouth India, EvalYouth Afghanistan, EvalYouth Pakistan and the Center for Evaluation at University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The Winter School for YEEs is part of an activity in the Asia Pacific Regional Evaluation Strategy, specifically under the theme of Promoting Young and Emerging Evaluators in the Asia Pacific region. The purpose of the Asia Pacific Winter School was to provide an opportunity for selected 47 YEEs in the Asia Pacific to become competent, experienced and well-networked professionals who contribute to evaluation capacity at national, regional and international levels.
The expected outcomes for the Winter School as follows:
- Enhanced knowledge and skills of 47 YEEs on evaluation and SDGs.
- Enhanced skills in career development in M&E.
- Participants of the Winter School applying the knowledge and skills gained in the winter school in their evaluation work/profession in their respective countries.
- YEEs network strengthened in the Asia Pacific.
For the Winter School, over 90 YEEs had applied, where only 47 were selected with a good representation of all regions of Asia Pacific. Also, there were a couple of participants from the Middle East and Africa as well. Out of this, 42 participants successfully completed the three days of the Winter School including; 26 females, 15 males, and one transgender person. The opening remarks for the Winter School were given by Mr. Asela Kalugampitiya, President of APEA; Mr. Marco Segone, Director Evaluation Office of UNFPA; Ms. Josette Arevalo, Vice-Chair of EvalYouth Global Network, and Mr. Yatin Diwakar, Co-Leader of EvalYouth Asia and EvalYouth India. Participants took part in the following six sessions conducted by internationally renowned M&E experts.
Session 1: Introduction to Monitoring & Evaluation by Mr. Ziad Moussa, Past President of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation
Session 2: Global Trends in Evaluation by Mr. Khalil Bitar, Chair of EvalYouth Global Network
Session 3: Evaluation to Achieve Sustainable Development by Dr. Dorothy Lucks, Executive Director SDF Global
Session 4: Career Development in M&E by Mr. Ruchira Paranavithana, Former Training Manager, Ansell Lanka (Pvt) Ltd
Session 5: My M&E Career Plan by Mr. Ruchira Paranavithana
Session 6: EvalYouth, Role of YEEs in Development Agenda/Networking and Opportunities by Mr. Imad Haroon, Co-Leader of EvalYouth Asia; Dr. Bianca Montrosse Moorhead, Former Chair of EvalYouth Global Network and Ms. Sawsan Al Zatari, Co-Chair EvalYouth MENA.
The closing remarks for the Winter School were given by Mr. Khalil Bitar, Chair of EvalYouth Global Network; Ms. Shaista Jabeen, Co-Leader of EvalYouth Pakistan and Dr. Rajib Nandi, Co-Founder and Co-Leader of ECOI. The vote of thanks was given by Mr. Randika Lawson De Mel, Co-Leader of EYA and EvalYouth Sri Lanka and participants’ certificates were presented by Dr. Rajib Nandi and Ms. Hasithi Samarasinghe, Co-Leader of EvalYouth Sri Lanka. This event was moderated by Ms. Anna Erika Lareza, Co-Founder and Co-Leader of EYA.
A pre-survey was conducted to understand participants’ expectations from the program and their level of proficiency in the topics. In addition, all the participants were requested to give feedback after the Winter School, out of which 40 members responded and provided valuable feedback. Of the 40 participants, 39 have acknowledged that the workshop content has improved their knowledge and understanding of evaluation, while 37 participants have acknowledged that the workshop content will be useful for their current or future work. Also, 37 participants have agreed that they will recommend this workshop to other YEEs.
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