American Evaluation Association Conference 2019

The annual conference of the American Evaluation Association was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota this year. Its theme was “Paths to the Future of Evaluation: Contribution, Leadership, Renewal.” Attendees included evaluators, evaluation scholars, students, and evaluation users from around the world, who looked forward to sharing and learning from the successes of the international discipline and practice of evaluation.

Results for Development was pleased to participate in a number of sessions at this year’s conference:

Evaluation and adaptive learning to support innovation in international development
November 14, 3:45 – 4:45 pm
Room: CC M100 F

  • Session Chair: R4D Senior Program Officer Luke Heinkel
  • Presenter 1: Jessica Ruth Kiessel, Head of Learning and Impact – Omidyar Network
  • Presenter 2: Jane Haycock, Evaluation and Learning Lead, innovationXchange – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)
  • Presenter 3: R4D Economist Erin Fletcher
  • Presenter 4: R4D Senior Program Associate Praneetha Vissapragada

How can innovative approaches to Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) support improved education quality?
November 14, 8:00 – 9:00 am
Room: CC M100 C

  • Session Facilitator: R4D Senior Program Director Jean Arkedis
  • First Author or Discussion Group Leader: Melissa Marie Chiappetta, Senior Research and Learning Advisor – United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Second Author or Discussion Group Leader: R4D Senior Program Officer Luke Heinkel

Evaluators as learning partners: How can monitoring, evaluation, and research best support program implementers to achieve impact?
November 14, 8:00 – 9:00 am
Room: Hilton Marquette IV

  • Session Facilitator: R4D Senior Program Director Jean Arkedis
  • First Author or Discussion Group Leader: R4D Program Director Christina Synowiec
  • Second Author or Discussion Group Leader: Program Officer Morgan Benson
  • Third Author or Discussion Group Leader: R4D Program Officer Daniel Plaut

Measuring the hard-to-measure: Developing proxy indicators for fiscal governance outcomes
November 14, 2:45 – 3:30 pm
Room: Hilton Marquette II

  • Session Facilitator: R4D Senior Program Officer Caroline Poirrier
  • First Author or Discussion Group Leader: Megan Colnar, Director, Strategy & Impact – Open Society Foundations

Path to the future in human services
November 16, 8:00 – 9:00 am
Room: CC L101 A

  • Session Chair: Mansoor A. F. Kazi, Director Program Evaluation Center – The State University of New York at Fredonia
  • Presenter 1: Tara Foti, MPH, Graduate Research Assistant/PhD Student – University of South Florida
  • Presenter 2: R4D Senior Program Officer Luke Heinkel
  • Presenter 3: Jessica Smith, Research Associate – IMPAQ International
  • Presenter 4: Ryoko Yamaguchi, President – Plus Alpha Research & Consulting

Global & Regional Initiatives

R4D is a globally recognized leader for designing initiatives that connect implementers, experts and funders across countries to build knowledge and get that knowledge into practice.