UKZN Poster a Winner at 3 Impact Evaluation (3IE) Conference in the Philippines

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A poster created by graduate Mr MacCarthy Honu-Siabi and a Senior Lecturer Dr Desiree Manicom from UKZN’s Policy and Development Programme in the School of Social Sciences on the Pietermaritzburg campus has won a top award at a conference in the Philippines.

The poster, titled: “The Critical Role of Monitoring and Evaluation Systems in Collecting Data for Impact Evaluations”, scooped first prize in the Best Poster Presentation Awards category at the International Impact Evaluation Conference at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Manila. Mr MacCarthy Honu-Siabi attended the Conference and was sponsored by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation(3IE)

‘Participants at the Conference were asked to vote for best presentations for various categories including the Poster presentations. To be voted 1st Position for Poster presentation out of the many (about 20) posters presented at the international event was very affirming and certainly exciting. It was mesmerising to walk to the stage to pick up the award presentation, and certainly a big moral and confidence boost to be awarded such an award at such a level of international representation,’ said student Honu-Siabi.

He further added that people who viewed the poster were very excited about both the presentation and content of the poster. ‘They were interested in the findings and the topic. One of the highlights of the Conference was the discussion on how to help small NGO’s to build capacity for Impact Evaluations, which is what this poster is about.’

‘Back at UKZN, faculty members and students who saw the poster were also very interested in it. Staff at SaveAct, the NGO on which the research is based was also very pleased with the poster and findings of the research when I presented a copy of the poster to them during a feedback seminar session held on the 17th of October.’

Themed: “Making Impact Evaluation Matter”, the Conference - the first major international gathering on impact evaluation and systematic reviews - was jointly organised by Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Philippines Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) and 3IE. 

The focus of the Conference was on producing better evidence for effective policies and programmes. This was aimed at getting policy makers to engage with how to make better policy decisions that are based on available and quality evidence.

It was attended by more than 600 international delegates, made up of researchers, policy makers, programme managers and political figures. South African government delegates from the Department of Performance Management and Evaluation (DPME) in the Office of the Presidency also attended the conference.

Further details of the Conference are available on the 3IE website: http://www.3ieimpact.org/en/events/3ie-conferences-and-workshops/making-impact-evaluation-matter/

 UKZNDabaOnline and Melissa Mungroo