Executive Committee
ADA OCAMPO (PERU)
President. On duty from September 2020.
Ada is a sociologist with a master’s degree, with distinction, in Development Planning and Management granted by the University of Wales, UK. She has worked in the United Nations System since 1990 with UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and IFAD in different countries of North and Latin America, Africa and Asia. During her career, she has been mainly involved in evaluation capacity development and networking. She has lectured at various universities including Carleton (Ottawa – Canada), FLACSO (Santiago, Chile), Indian School of Business (Hyderabad, India and BRAC (Dhaka, Bangladesh). She authored several articles and publications. She was one of the founders of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) and of the Latin America Evaluation Network (ReLAC). Ada is the former co-chair of EVALSDGs. She supported the Secretariat of the Global Parliamentarians Forum of Evaluation (GPFE). Currently, Ada is a free-lance consultant and the President of IDEAS.
Ada is fluent in Spanish (mother tongue) and in English; she understands and reads French, Italian and Portuguese. She has lived in Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, New York, Italy, the UK and Thailand. Ada loves to travel. She enjoys watching independent cinema and loves music and dancing. Above all, she loves people.
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2026
SERGE ERIC YAKEU DJIAM (CAMEROON)
Vice-President
As a Credentialed Evaluator (CE), Serge Eric Yakeu Djiam has 15+ years of experience in evaluation with more than 22+ years’ country experience in Cameroon. He works with stakeholders at multiple levels including Universities such as in UAE University (2013-2014) where he served as Visiting Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences in Cameroun (2012-2014), the University of Constantine II in Algeria (2015), and as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Montreal in Canada since 2016. As Evaluation Team Leader, he also works with government entities, CSO, donors, and UN agencies such UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, IFAD, FAO, UN Women, and WFP. He is the CEO of the Centre for Evaluation and Development (Cameroon). Serge Eric led the design and implementation of over 50 country research worldwide and within complex and humanitarian environments either as individual or in team setting in various locations including very remote areas. With his ability to manage participatory approaches in addition to his knowledge and leadership skills, he adapts readily to different cultural environments. With a multi-disciplinary background and experience, he worked in Africa, Europe, North-America, Middle-East, and Asia, in various environments including cities, and villagers.
As a Bilingual international expert (French & English), Serge Eric Yakeu Djiam is very active as adviser for youth empowerment for their inclusion into the society especially within professional networks in Francophone and Anglophone countries. He wrote two books, training materials, several reports and articles and can easily develop summative reports and restitutions. He participated to various conferences/seminars /symposium and chair panels/sessions in monitoring and evaluation, agricultural research, research methodology and statistics, and related topics worldwide. As President, he chaired the 2014 AfrEA International Conference in Cameroon with over 550 participants worldwide.
Serge Eric Yakeu Djiam is also Life-member of IDEAS, member of CES, CAIDP, CaDEA, DME, EvalPartners, and AGDEN.
First Term of Office expires: 31 March 2024
PETER E. WICHMAND (DENMARK)
Treasurer
Peter E. Wichmand has been involved with international development evaluation for over 30 years designing, managing, and implementing management studies, evaluations, and planning assignments on international basis for NGOs, UN organisations and private companies. Trained as a development economist, with degrees in international economics, management and development including research degrees from University of Cambridge, Peter has worked as a trainer, consultant, manager, researcher, and programme officer in the field of evaluation and management of development for almost 30 years, based in the Denmark, UK, Italy and now Switzerland with travel and work to over 30 countries mainly in West, East and southern Africa, Asia, and Europe. Peter has worked in areas such a programme/project cycle management; strategic, thematic and policy evaluations including impact assessment; development of tools for economic analysis; organisational development, institutional analysis, and management studies; management of training and capacity building; public sector management; planning processes, systems, and tools; knowledge management; and management information systems, including use of information technology in planning.
Peter is currently the most senior Senior Evaluation Officer in the independent evaluation office of the International Labour Office (specialised agency of the UN) working on strategic corporate high level institutional evaluation on capacity development, research and knowledge management, partnerships, gender equality, Covid19 response; methodologies on impact and ex-post evaluations; and the introduction of new and transformative approaches such as clustered evaluations and evaluations of normative and standard setting activities.
First Term of Office expires: 31 March 2025
LENNISE JC BAPTISTE (TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO)
Secretary General
Lennise Baptiste, is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago and works as an Independent Consultant undertaking evaluations of donor funded projects throughout the Caribbean region. She has more than 35 years combined professional experience in the fields of education and programme evaluation.
Her introduction to the evaluation of projects and programmes began in the US in 2005 at the Research and Evaluation Bureau at Kent State University, Ohio. She was the 2010 recipient of the Michael Scriven Dissertation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evaluation Theory, Methodology, or Practice.
She is the Immediate Past Chair (2015-2018) of the Caribbean Evaluators International (CEI) Board and she continues to work on behalf of the CEI on the South-to-South Evaluation Initiative continuing to link with other Voluntary Organisations of Professional Evaluators (VOPEs) in the Global South. She has been a member of the American Evaluation Association since 2006 and was the Chair of the Mixed Methods Topical Interest Group from 2008-2018.
Lennise values participatory approaches to evaluation. She frequently blends the empowerment evaluation and the utilization-focused evaluation approaches in her work. She believes in the transformative value of evaluation activities when stakeholders learn from the process not just the results. She advocates that there is more to be learned than feared when evaluation activities are undertaken.
First Term of Office expires: 31 March 2024
Board Members
FABIOLA AMARILES (COLOMBIA)
Representative for Latin-America and the Caribbean
Fabiola Amariles is a Colombian economist and educator with an MA degree in Finances & Strategic Management and specialized training and consulting experience in organizational and human development, participative research, and capacity development. Through broad international development practice, she specialized in gender equality and empowerment of women, while working for many years for the international agricultural research system CGIAR.
Over the last 25 years, she has worked in countries of Latin & North America, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. In 2006, she founded and currently owns the consulting firm Learning for Impact, Corp., with offices in Miami and Cali, Colombia. During the 2011-2014 period, she was the coordinator of RedWIM, the Network of Latin American and Caribbean Women in Management, an organization that seeks to promote equality in gender relations in the region.
As an international consultant, she has led and has been part of evaluation teams for large development and gender projects in Central and South America with USAID, EU, Oxfam, UN-Women, UNDP, ECLAC, Canadian Cooperation, among others, which refined her analytical writing to produce interesting and use-oriented reports.
She is a member of the Management Group of EvalGender+, a global partnership to promote the demand, supply, and use of Equity Focused and Gender Responsive Evaluations. During the period 2020-2023 she has been a member of the Board of IDEAS, representing the Latin America & Caribbean region.
Fabiola has written many internal documents, evaluation reports, and articles about organizational development and change, capacity building, and talent management with gender and human rights perspectives. She has also facilitated workshops, seminars, and presentations at different national and international events.
Second Term of Office expires 31 March 2026
SONAL ZAVERI (INDIA)
Representative for South Asia, East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific
Sonal is an independent consultant with 25 years experience in strategic planning, capacity building and evaluation. She has experience with gender related evaluation, at local, national, regional and global levels. From 1982 to 1993, she was the Research Director of the Center for Research and Development in Mumbai and Program Consultant for a national level NGO, the Community Aid and Sponsorship program from 1992 to 1997. In 1997, she was tasked as Technical Coordinator, Project Support Unit, Gujerat State (population 64 million) to begin the first HIV/AIDS targeted intervention program in the state, where she worked with NGOs, state and national AIDS control departments and (then) DFID to initiate HIV prevention programs and develop a comprehensive gender friendly MIS system. From 1997 till the present, she has worked with government, multi-laterals, bi-laterals, foundations, NGOs and INGOs in more than 25 countries in Asia, East and West Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe.
First Term of Office expires: 31 March 2025
SAJIDA SHROFF (UNITED KINGDOM)
Representative from Europe & Central Asia
Sajida Hassan Shroff, CEO of Altamont Group (Boutique Investment and Advisory), is an international educational strategist with over 20 years’ experience. She is passionate about integrating strategic business practices in knowledge organizations; and committed to contextualizing education for positive impact. Altamont Group (AG) is a boutique education investment & advisory focused on innovation in emerging markets. AG, under Sajida’s leadership, invests in diverse brick/mortar and technology higher education assets. In addition, Altamont Group advises governments, NGO, and corporates across five continents regarding education investment; evaluation; smart education solutions; & education innovation that enable access and sustainability. Her experiences with global entities include G20, EiE, Plan International, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNESCO, OECD, NATO, Dubai Holding, UAE PMO, Smart Dubai, Qatar Foundation, KSA MoL, MoE, MoT, and AKDN; along with institutions such as Cambridge, McGill, Harvard, and Columbia. She is also engaged in ventures to develop smart education ecosystems & education planning including post CV-19 strategies.
Sajida is actively engaged in CSR including President Emeritus of Harvard Club of the UAE; President of Harvard Global Women’s Empowerment; Advisor for Integreat Special Needs Centre; Founding Chair of MENA/GCC Chapter of Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs; and Advisory Board Member for e7 Daughters of the Emirates اإلمارات بنات) Banat al Emarat). Sajida has an EdM in Strategy & Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; a MBA in Marketing & Management from Emory University; a BEd and a BA from the University of British Columbia. Sajida is from Kenya and grew up in the UK and Canada.
First Term of Office expires 31 March 2026
JEAN SERGE QUESNEL (CANADA)
Representative from North America
Jean Serge Quesnel is currently President of the Quebec Programme Evaluation Society and associate professor at the National Public Administration School of Quebec. He is a credentialed evaluator and fellow of the Canadian Evaluation Society. In 2004, he was honored to receive the first membership certificate issued by IDEAS and he is a life member.
Mr. Quesnel was one of the first chair of the Expert Group on evaluation of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (DAC-OECD). He is one of the founding members of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) and the founding coordinator of the International Financial Institutions Evaluation Group (ECG). He is the founding coordinator of RFÉ –
Réseau francophone d’évaluation. Mr. Quesnel was proactive in the creation of many regional and national evaluation networks. In 2012, EvalPartners presented him with an Award of appreciation for having made significant contribution to the promotion of the profession of evaluation and to the capacities of Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation.
While at the Canadian International Development Agency, Mr. Quesnel managed programmes implemented in Asia, Francophone Africa, Latin America, and North Africa. He was also Alternate Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank. Mr. Quesnel was Director of the Evaluation Offices of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), of the Interamerican Development Bank (IADB) and of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
First Term of Office expires 31 March 2026
RANDA HAMZA (EGYPT)
Representative from Middle East & North Africa
Randa Hamza is a development economist with more than 22 years of experience in planning, designing and evaluating official development assistance (ODA) projects and programs. She holds a Master’s Degree with Highest Honors (Summa Cum Laude) in Economics in International Development, and has received executive education in Harvard Kennedy School and Clairmont Graduate University in public leadership and development evaluation respectively. She is also an author of several publications in development policy reforms, development partners cooperation strategies, mapping ODA with sustainable development goals (SDGs) and just financing for climate action.
Randa serves currently as the Assistant Minister of International Cooperation in Egypt in charge of Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. In her current capacity, she has successfully mainstreamed and institutionalize monitoring and evaluation standards and practices at the Ministry of International Cooperation, which is the designated entity leading Egypt’s cooperation with all international bilateral and multilateral development partners.
She has successfully led the M&E department to ensuring delivery of timely, credible, and neutral evidence-based recommendations on Egypt’s ODA policies, plans, programs, and projects to improve accountability, transparency, and decision-making, and to ensure the optimal utilization of international development cooperation finance in the country. She inaugurated the first information management system of ODA data in Egypt and worked diligently to train and connect all relevant national entities to the system to enhance accuracy and strengthen cooperation.
First Term of Office expires 31 March 2026
EDDAH KANINI (KENYA)
Representative from Sub-Saharan Africa
Eddah Kanini has a multifaceted competence in Organizational Development, Monitoring, Evaluation and Gender specialization and training. She is based in Kenya and has over thirteen years working experience as a Leadership, Management and Governance Advisor for A USAID program, a lecturer and a consultant.
Eddah holds a double Masters in Public Health, Monitoring and Evaluation specialization and Masters in Health Systems Leadership and Management and is a Doctoral Candidate. She has undertaken an executive program in Public Policy. Her passion for Evaluation has pushed Eddah to undertake further trainings in M&E, Statistics, Analysis, Impact Evaluation, governance, Gender equity, climate change and human rights among others. This horned her skills in teaching theoretically as well as practically conducting different types of assignments in Research and Evaluations such as Baseline, Mid-term, formative, Impact evaluations, and End term Evaluations and OH. She has also spearheaded, assessments of gender-based violence, gender equity and DEI.
Eddah believes in passing her knowledge to others and has therefore been a mentor to many. She participated in mentoring the Young and Emerging Evaluators in 2019 under the EvalPartners program, mentored in MDE Partnering to Educate and Coach Evaluators (The PEACE) Project currently the Connexus and mentored the youth entrepreneurs to successfully pitch in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit graced by the President of the United States (POTUS) H.E Obama. She also held a group mentorship program for women in Evaluation on jumping the Evaluation hundles.
First Term of Office expires 31 March 2026
ADMINISTRATION
DANIEL SVOBODA (CZECH REPUBLIC)
IDEAS Coordinator and Administrator
Daniel is a co-founder and since 2023 a President of the Czech Evaluation Society and since July 2019 Coordinator and Head of Administration of IDEAS. He is specialized in project management and sustainable development. Since 2009, he has been working for the European Commission as an external monitor for the environmental program LIFE. Between 2007 and 2017 he coordinated the European training EPDET, in 2018 and 2019 he was a lecturer of IPDET at the University of Bern. He is also a lecturer of project management and evaluations at the Czech University of Life Sciences. Until 2019, he was a member of the Reference Group on Evaluations of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs; currently he works as mentor on evaluations at the Czech Ministry of Health. Since 2020, he is a Coordinator of the International Evaluation Academy.