Executive Committee
JUHA I. UITTO (FINLAND)
President
Juha I. Uitto is a Finnish national and a renowned thought-leader in international development and evaluation with decades of experience. He earned an MSc in Geography from the University of Helsinki and a PhD in Social and Economic Geography from Lund University. His career began in the mid-1980s as an Associate Expert at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which introduced him to monitoring and evaluation (M\&E). He subsequently worked as a Research Fellow at the Nordic Africa Institute and as a consultant for various Nordic aid agencies.
From 1990 to 1999, Dr. Uitto managed environment and sustainable development research at the United Nations University in Tokyo. This role led to his appointment at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) M&E Unit in 1999. In 2002, he joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he served as Senior M&E Coordinator, Evaluation Advisor, and eventually Deputy Director of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). During his time at the UNDP, he led global evaluations on poverty, environment, and energy linkages. In 2014, he returned to the GEF to serve as the Director of its IEO, a position he held for ten years.
Beyond these leadership roles, Dr. Uitto has held visiting academic positions at Rutgers University, the University of Montana, and Kyoto University. He is a prolific author on sustainable development and evaluation and remains active as an independent advisor and Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute. He has also held significant leadership positions within the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) and is an active member of various international evaluation associations.
First Term of Office expires: 31 March 2029
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.
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2027
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 now working as independent advisor and researcher on strategic planning and evaluation, particularly focusing on institutionalisation of evaluation, after retirement from the posts as the Senior Evaluation Specialist in the independent evaluation office of the International Labour Office (specialised agency of the UN). Most recently at the ILO, Peter was 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.
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2028
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.
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2027
Board Members
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.
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2028
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.
Second Term of Office expires 31 March 2029
BRENDA BUCHELI (PERU)
Representative for Latin-America and the Caribbean
Brenda Bucheli is a senior Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and organizational development expert with over 30 years of professional experience across Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently the Chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Monitoring, Evaluation and Systematization Network (ReLAC, 2024–2027), where she leads regional strategy, institutional strengthening, and global representation of the network.
Her career combines high-level leadership, technical excellence, and a strong commitment to advancing evaluation practice as a driver of inclusive, evidence-based decision-making. She has led
over 100 consulting assignments and large-scale MEL initiatives, working with international organizations, governments, NGOs, and research institutions.
Brenda is widely recognized for her contributions to evaluation capacity development and knowledge management, including receiving the 2024 Molly Hageboeck Award for Excellence in MEL Training and Capacity Building.
Firts Term of Office expires: 31 March 2029
DENIS JOBIN (CANADA)
Representative from North America
Denis Jobin, MAP, M.A., is an internationally recognized Evaluation Systems and Evidence Leadership Specialist, currently working as a freelance consultant and Director of Evaldge, based in Canada. He possesses over 25 years of experience in monitoring, evaluation, and evidence-informed policymaking across international organizations, governments, and research institutions.
His recent experience includes serving as Senior Evaluation Specialist at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, where he led major global evaluations and contributed to strengthening evaluation quality assurance and evidence-to-policy processes. Prior to that, as Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) for UNICEF Nigeria, he led the country office’s evaluation and results functions, supporting evidence-informed policy dialogue across federal and state governments. A significant achievement in Nigeria was supporting the Government in developing its first National Evaluation Policy and advancing evaluation frameworks in several states, including Kaduna and Kano, thereby institutionalizing evaluation within planning and governance systems. Earlier in his career, Jobin worked within the Government of Canada, contributing to program evaluation and policy development.
Denis Jobin’s global evaluation work encompasses social protection (including rapid reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic), universal child benefits, urban poverty, youth livelihoods, and climate resilience. His expertise has informed development policy and programming across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with field engagements in countries such as India, South Africa, and Cambodia.
He plays an active leadership role in the global evaluation community, currently serving as Co-Chair of EvalSDGs, a global network promoting evaluation for the Sustainable Development Goals. He also previously served as Vice-President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS).
Second Term of Office expires: 31 March 2029
SVETLANA I. NEGROUSTOUEVA (RUSSIA)
Representative for Europe & Central Asia
Svetlana Negroustoueva is a senior governance and evaluation leader with over 20 years of experience advising multilateral institutions, global partnerships, and development organizations. She currently leads an independent evaluation function in an international research partnership CGIAR, supporting governance bodies and executive leadership in strengthening institutional strategy, accountability systems, and performance frameworks. Her expertise spans policy reform, risk-informed oversight, organizational effectiveness, and evidence-based decision-making also in the World Bank, AfDB and USAID-funded organizations. Svetlana has led major strategic evaluations and institutional reviews and has extensive record of collaborating with audit and assurance functions. She brings strong analytical rigor, independent judgment, multilingual capabilities, and deep experience of operating in complex international environments across sectors like agriculture, climate change, health and gender.
Svetlana is a recognized leader in feminist and gender-responsive evaluation. She is a former Co-Chair of EvalGender+ and an active member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), and the European Evaluation Society (EES). She has authored and co-authored numerous evaluation reports, peer-reviewed articles, and methodological guidance, and regularly presents at international conferences.
She holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and a Bachelor’s degree from Moscow State University, Russia.
First Term of Office expires 31 March 2029
