Khulisa hosted several great sessions at last week’s South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) Biennial Conference. The sessions included a variety of different formats, but one of our favorites was Thursday’s “Data Methods & Practice Data Café”.
Data Café chair Jennifer Bisgard introduces the hosts of the session.
The Data Café session included four tables, each hosted by a different evaluation professional covering a topic in the genre data collection methods and practice. Participants rotated between each of the four tables, learning about the topic and interacting with the host and other participants.
The speakers and topics at the four tables included:
· Shepherd Nyamhuno, Jhpiego: Use of CSV-dedupe to improve data quality amidst data quality problems in South Africa.
· Jesse Webb, Khulisa: Using intercept interviews to survey vulnerable populations.
· Zamokuhle Thwala, Khulisa: How to set up a data management plan for your evaluation?
· Mutsa Chinyamakobvu, DataLab Africa: Can measuring social impact be done accurately?
Shepherd Nyamhuno of Jhpiego hosts one of the Data Café tables.
Khulisa evaluator Zamokuhle Thwala, another table host.
The Data Café session took place on the second day of the conference, immediately after lunch – a time when, as anyone who has ever attended a conference knows, attendees might be feeling low-energy. A session like this, which forces participants to move around the room and interact, is a great way to combat that post-lunch malaise.
Next week’s EvalTuesdayTip will discuss another interactive SAMEA session that Khulisa co-hosted: The BRIDGE M&E Community of Practice (CoP).