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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 Was postponed to 2017 due to technical challenges at AFREA.
AFREA leaders are elected at the Conferences

8. 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

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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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.