Rosetti Nabbumba Nayenga First Preparatory Meeting 8th AFREA Conference Rosetti Nabbumba Nayenga UEA President First Preparatory Meeting 25th August 2016

Outline: AFREA Conferences UEA Technical Concept Preparations to date Immediate Tasks Conclusion

AFREA Conferences The African Evaluation Association (AFREA) Conferences are international bi-annual events, organised by AFrEA in partnership with one of its national Voluntary Organisations for Professional Evaluation (VOPE). Platforms for networking, knowledge sharing and capacity building for member associations, individuals, funders and partners in the evaluation field globally, and especially Africa

AFREA Umbrella body for VOPEs founded in 2009 Headquarters in Accra Ghana Three categories of membership: 33 national associations and networks of M&E 6 international institutions 658 individual members

AFREA Core Objectives Support evaluations for development in Africa Promote Africa rooted and led evaluations Encourage development and documentation of high quality evaluation practice and theory Support establishment and growth of VOPEs Facilitate capacity building, networking and information sharing Empower members to influence national M&E policy in respective countries

7 AfrEA Conferences Year Venue Theme No 1999 Kenya Evaluation Trainings 300 2002 350 2004 SA (Cape Town Africa Matters, Evaluation Matters: Joining Forces for Democracy, Governance and Development 482 2007 Niger (Niamey) Evaluating Development, Developing Evaluation: A Pathway to Africa’s future 573 2009 Egypt Cairo The AfrEA-Nonie-3ie Conference: Perspectives on Impact Evaluation: Approches to Assessing Development Effectiveness 700

AfrEA Conferences Year Venue Theme No 2012 Ghana (Accra) Rights and Responsibilities in Development Evaluation 362 2014 Cameroun (Yaounde) Evaluation for Development: From Analysis to impact 502 The next 8th Conference should have been held in 2016. Was postponed to 2017 due to technical challenges at AFREA. AFREA leaders are elected at the Conferences

UEA Shares the same values and objectives as the parent institution AFREA Submitted a technical bid in 2015 and 2016 to host the 8th AFREA Conference. AFREA announcement for Uganda to host made in June 2016. In July 2016, the Office of the Prime Minister, upon request by UEA, officially agreed to co-host the event with the Association. July – August 2016: AFREA-UEA-OPM has prepared a technical proposal, and draft fundraising approach

Technical Concept Theme: “Evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals: Opportunities and Challenges for Africa”

Conference Vision and Objective Promote exchange between researchers, academia, young emerging evaluators and practitioners on demand and supply of credible evaluative evidence for identifying, designing, implementing and monitoring interventions in support of the SDGs in Africa. 2. Improve capacities to design, manage and use evaluations to help Governments achieve their national and international development agendas, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Africa 2063 Agenda.

Other agreed parameters Date: March 27th – 31st 2017 Venue: Speke Resort Munyonyo Participants: 700 Plenary and parallel sessions Format: two days pre-conference workshop and three days conference sessions (parallels, panels, key note speakers, round tables, posters) Discussions still ongoing on integrating the Uganda Evaluation Week in Conference

Partnerships AFREA to recruit an International Expert as Conference Manager UEA to recruit a National Expert to support the International Expert in Conference Management. Conference will be jointly organised by AFREA-UEA-OPM A Joint Action Plan (JAP) shall guide the work of the three partners with clear separation of responsibilities. Organising Committees will be set up to implement the JAP: AFREA (international committee) and UEA/OPM (national committee)

Fundraising Approach Conference registration fees – category of participants (students, AFREA and UEA members, non-members), early bird registration, participation in specific workshops, number of attendance days Sponsors – donors at international and national level Strand management – strands allocated to interested institutions at a unit cost

Proposed strands 9) Gender Equality and Equity Focused The role of Governments in evaluating SDGs Poverty Health Education Environment Agriculture Youth Made in Africa Evaluation 9) Gender Equality and Equity Focused 10) Parliamentarians 11) Leveraging capacity building knowledge for development results 12)CSOs 13) Private sector 14) Peace building evaluation 15) Partnerships for evaluating SDGs

Preparations to date Technical Proposal and fundraising strategies done UEA-OPM partnership established – two meetings held to agree on national approach Government confirmed conference date and venue OPM has offered two offices on Old Post Office Building as working rooms TORs for International and Local Experts drafted AFREA Executive Director was in-country for two weeks in August 2016 – Preliminary discussions held Preliminary negotiations with hotel management

Two levels of Organising Committees National Organising Committee – Constituted around the National Evaluation Sub-committee of OPM (MDAs, UBOS, academia, UEA, NPA, OPM, Office of the President, Foreign Affairs, Donors, Parliament, etc) – Strategic Planning and decision making, chaired by a Minister and meets monthly (Dr. Albert Byamugisha responsible to oversee) UEA Technical Working Groups – Constituted around the UEA membership and co-opting interested stakeholders – Day to day execution of conference tasks and meet frequently (President UEA responsible)

Immediate Tasks Publicising the conference Operationalising the Organising Committees Finalising hotel negotiations and depositing 50% Advertisement and engaging international & local experts Budget, joint action plan, conference strands, programme Call for papers, identifying and contacting key note speakers Opening AFREA Bank Accounts Fundraising AFREA Board will be in Uganda 26th – 30th September 2016 at Munyonyo and will interact with stakeholders to assess level of national preparedness

Conclusion AFREA-UEA-OPM will work as one entity executing the Joint Action Plan Conference preparation is voluntary Strong accountability and stewardship systems Time is of essence, speed is needed Great appreciation to the UEA Executive Committee and OPM Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner M&E for bringing us this far.