Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders: IBI Helps to Develop Young Professionals
In March 2024, the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) convened its 11th annual conference in Kigali, Rwanda. The AfrEA conference is a key event for monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) practitioners from across the continent to share insights, best practices, and innovations in the field. The conference featured a wide range of topics, including developing local capacity in MEL. Presentations on ‘Made in Africa’ evaluations, indigenous evaluations, and youth-led evaluations underscored trends towards more locally led initiatives that emphasize perspectives from traditionally marginalized communities. IBI seized on this event as an opportunity for our MEL professionals in Liberia and Tanzania to broaden their skills and expand their networks. With support from USAID under the Liberia Data, Evaluation, Learning and Technical Assistance (DELTA) project, and the Tanzania Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity (T-MELA), six MEL staff members attended the conference and came away with important achievements.
Aligned with the conference's themes, IBI’s work under DELTA and T-MELA prioritizes local capacity development as part of our core objectives. For example, T-MELA supports Tanzania's MEL and research field by backing locally driven research projects, monitoring, publication, and dissemination efforts, and organizing expert lecturer series for M&E graduate students. DELTA’s local capacity development component is also dedicated to supporting the improvement of MEL skillsets among Liberian MEL professionals within USAID and among its implementing partners and counterparts. DELTA’s MEL internship program, for example, is managed in partnership with local Liberian organization, PERT Consultancy, and has hired and placed 50 interns to date, with more to come.
This internship is designed to shape the next generation of MEL leaders by providing targeted training in MEL and work-readiness, on-the-job training with MEL professionals within other organizations, and practical skill-building exercises. By combining this training and work experience with opportunities such as attending the AfrEA conference, DELTA enables young professionals to contribute effectively to local MEL initiatives with expertise from both local and international MEL practitioners.
A notable success story from the program is the experience of Alfreda Yeanue, an intern who was placed with ECODIT, the implementing partner for the USAID Land Management Activity (LMA) in Liberia. Before the internship, she worked as a Program Associate at a local NGO and had no prior MEL experience. Her internship through DELTA provided valuable experience, allowing her to take on significant responsibilities, including eventually leading the MEL department at LMA during a transition period. Her performance led to a full-time position at ECODIT, where she now works as a MEL Officer.
Another DELTA intern, Theo Gbayou, credits the internship and participation in the AfrEA Conference for exposing him to varied developmental activities and professional networks which have jump started his career in the M&E field. He now works as an M&E Officer for the Youth Crime Watch of Liberia (YCWL), an organization serving local youth in Liberia. Gbayou credits his internship for helping him move up in his profession. Also, the involvement of professional development trainings and the “mentor and mentee” component of the internship have given him the opportunity to network with seasoned professionals and further prepared him for his current job.
At the AfrEA conference, Gbayou presented on “Capacity Strengthening Efforts of Local Organizations in Digital Monitoring and Evaluation." Not only was this a notable experience for a young professional, Gbayou made meaningful contributions to the discourse at the conference on innovative approaches to capacity development.
Under the T-MELA project, local capacity building efforts for young professionals include arranging guest speaker opportunities for them at local research and MEL institutions. These seminars are targeted at enhancing MEL, sharing experiences, and receiving training on various MEL topics. In Q2 of FY 2024, 73 MEL students participated in the professional seminars, organized in collaboration with T-MELA’s local institution partners.
As DELTA and T-MELA continue to explore innovations in local capacity development, the insights gained from the AfrEA conference will play a vital role in shaping strategies. The conference provided invaluable opportunities for staff to learn from and contribute to the collective knowledge of MEL across Africa, reinforcing IBI’s commitment to strengthening the MEL field.
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