Workshop: Mentoring Emerging Evaluators, Kenya, November 2014
A very successful Workshop on Mentoring Emerging Evaluators was held recently in Nairobi, Kenya. It was part of the Evaluation Week 2014 (17 – 20 November) organised by the Monitoring and Evaluation Department (MED), the Presidency and Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Republic of Kenya; and the Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK).
Awuor Ponge, IDEAS Board Member and President and Director of Research and Evaluation at the African Policy Centre, played a leading role in organising the workshop, and acted as Facilitator for the event.
In interactive discussion groups, participants were encouraged to consider the challenges facing emerging evaluators in Kenya, the role of Mentorship in helping to reduce these challenges, and the
practical steps necessary for setting up and piloting a Mentoring Programme.
Many emerging young evaluators are disadvantaged in terms of consultancy and job placement because of lack of experience. There is a clear need to create a forum whereby the established evaluators are able to mentor upcoming evaluators through offering advice and by working with them on work assignments.
Ponge shared with the participants that Mentorship was in fact one of the flagship projects that had just been introduced at the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), and a pilot phase will be rolled out shortly. The Facilitator also introduced the participants to some of the other new initiatives at IDEAS such as Youth Membership, and the formation of a Gender and Evaluation Thematic Interest Group, and he outlined how emerging evaluators could benefit from the opportunities available.