17 - 21 Aug 2009, Emperor's Palace

Registration for the conference is open! Please register on the conference registration website or download the registration form.

eVALUation  2009

SAMEA EVALUATION CONFERENCE:

Monday 17 to Friday 21 August 2009

Emperor’s Palace

Johannesburg, South Africa

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT!!

The SECOND South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) conference is planned as an event to contribute towards the fulfillment of the SAMEA mission of cultivating a vibrant community that supports guides and strengthens the development of monitoring and evaluation in South Africa. The conference is open to members and non members and will provide a platform for interaction and information-sharing among all those interested in monitoring and evaluation. 

SAMEA is home to M&E practitioners, thinkers, commissioners and users. We encourage practitioners in government, NGOs, service providers, academics, trainers, and users of monitoring and evaluation information to attend this important event. 

CONFERENCE THEME: “eVALUation”

• What is most valued about M&E?

• What are the values that underpin M&E?

• Whose values matter?

It is proposed that within this broad theme we focus on: the utilization of M&E practices and findings in programme development, management and implementation; knowledge management and learning within organizations and programmes; the challenges of building evaluation systems for tiered, multi-sectoral and multi-partnered programmes; and building evaluation capacity. Please have a look at the SAMEA Conference programme 2009.

Organising Strands:

Monitoring and Evaluation in the public sector – the principles and values that inform frameworks and practices.

• Values underpinning evaluation methods – The relation between methods of evaluation and the values that informed them.
• Contracting evaluations – The values embedded in requests.
• M&E innovations in action – New approaches, instruments, tools and techniques.
• Global trends and local actions – Comparative perspectives, global and local influences, the role of donors and dependence/interdependence issues.
• M&E practices and values in the caring professions – Health, Welfare, HIV/AIDS, Poverty Alleviation and the general well-being of individuals, communities and institutions.
• M&E practices, values in Education and Training – Formal education, from ECD to higher education, community based capacity building programmes and the skills development (SETAS) agenda in South Africa as well as the building of evaluation capacity.

Conference Format

A wide range of Professional Development Workshops during the first 2.5 days will offer training opportunities to beginners as well as seasoned professionals who wish to sharpen their skills. The Professional Development Workshops will be offered by competent and reputable trainers based locally as well as internationally. This will be followed by 2.5 days of the main conference. Exhibitors, publishers, and service providers who can add value to the field of Monitoring and Evaluation will advertise their products throughout the conference period.

The main conference format will include plenary sessions, panel discussions, roundtables, poster presentations and parallel paper presentations.

Call for presentations and panels

All SAMEA members and non-members should use this opportunity to share their experiences, insights, perspectives in relation to monitoring and evaluation and around the proposed theme. Please see the conference call for submissions for further instructions.

Confirmed key note speakers

Prof. Jennifer Greene: Of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an international author, scholar, trainer with in-depth experience of working in the field of M&E in different contexts.

Prof. Johann Mouton: Of the Centre for Research on Science and Technology, University of Stellenbosch. He is a well known author and scholar whose books are used by most academic institutions in South Africa.The Post-Graduate (monitoring & evaluation) programme at the University of Stellenbosch has also attracted participation from students across Africa.

Other speakers from the government sector, private sector and civil society will be invited to contribute.

Conference fees

SAMEA Professional Development Workshops

SAMEA Professional Development Workshops are hands-on, interactive sessions that provide an opportunity to learn new skills or hone existing skills prior to SAMEA’s August 2009 conference.

Professional development workshops precede the conference. These workshops differ from sessions offered during the conference itself in at least three ways:

1. each is longer (either half day, full day or two days long) and thus provides a more in-depth exploration of a skill or area of knowledge,
2. presenters are paid for their time and are expected to have significant experience both presenting and in the subject area, and
3. participants pay separately for these workshops and are given the opportunity to evaluate the experience.

Sessions are filled on a first-come, first-served basis and most are likely to fill before the conference begins.

For more information click here. 

REGISTRATION: Registration for professional development workshops will be handled as part of the conference registration forms; however, you may register for professional development workshops even if you are not attending the conference itself (still using the regular conference registration forms - just uncheck the conference registration box).You may view the workshops here: https://samea.newsbeat.co.za/workshops_public.php.

Call for exhibitors

The conference is an ideal platform to showcase & market your organization, products or services to a targeted group of participants and key decision makers within this sector. Find out more about exhibiting here.