Abstract Submission

IS NOW CLOSED

Abstract Submissions for the 9^th Biennial SAMEA Conference are now open. To submit an Abstract, please read the Abstract Submission guidelines below and click the submission link to upload your abstract online.

The past years have demonstrated that society faces multiple significant global crises unmatched in recent generations. Both locally and globally, we witness the negative repercussions of climate change and environmental degradation, the consequences of persistent inequality, the economic and social implications of war, and the importance of promoting equitable public health and social safety nets. These complexities demand evaluation practices and systems around the world to adjust and for government, non-governmental, and individual Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) practitioners to capacitate themselves to deal with the ever-changing world. More and more M&E practitioners need to be advocates for change. The 2024 conference seeks to engage attendees in identifying plausible solutions to these challenges and building our capacity to better use M&E practices and evidence.

Conference Theme: “Vuca-Vuka! Catalysing Change Through Monitoring and Evaluation”

SUB-THEMES / KEY CONFERENCE STRANDS

1

M&E for Just Transition: Focuses on the transformative role of M&E products and practitioners in promoting just transition, economic and social inclusion, and responding to ecosystem breakdown, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
2

Made in Africa Evaluation: Focuses on indigenous knowledge systems, frameworks, and paradigms that are contextually relevant and fit the purpose of programmes, evaluation, and evaluation systems in Africa.
3

M&E Evidence for Continuous Adaptive Management, Reflection, and Learning: Focuses on the processes to rapidly collect, collate, and share information to respond to crises situations (e.g., the pandemic) and promoting the systemic use of evidence for adaptive management.
4

Tech-Enabled MERL: aims to explore and enhance data management and the effective use of secondary data in our African context, and sharing challenges and good practice related to the responsible integration of digital tools and approaches into M&E. Workshops under this theme can encompass practical approaches to topics such as Responsible Data, AI for African Evaluation, Applications of MERL Tech, Data Governance, Open Source Software, and other related themes.
5

M&E for Investing in Impact/Measuring Impact: provides an opportunity for SAMEA and the M&E profession to contribute to discussions, and develop new methods, approaches in the Impact and Social Investment sector. Workshops under this theme should focus on aligning the principles of M&E and Impact Measurement and Management, while providing practical guidance to M&E practitioners and impact investors on how to effectively measure and report on such investments.
6

Evaluation for and by Youth: Evaluation for and by youth provides a platform to highlight the different approaches for engaging young people in evaluations as participants and as collaborators. Workshops under this theme can focus on using innovative approaches when evaluating youth projects. It can also focus on integrating young evaluators in the evaluation teams and how to transfer skills and stimulate learnings.
7

Competencies of M&E Practitioners as Catalysts of Change in the Time of VUCA: Focuses on the competencies required by M&E professionals, whether young emerging evaluators, middle- or advanced-level M&E professionals, in responding to VUCA.

PRESENTATION FORMAT OPTIONS

Oral Presentation
Oral Presentations are short talks given individually or as part of a panel at the conference. Oral presentations are normally 10-15 minutes, followed by questions from the audience. These presentations should demonstrate how M&E theories, tools and methods are used by practitioners and be aligned to the conference strand.
Poster Presentation
Posters entail a poster-size presentation with visual representation (graphs, diagrams, photos) and text. Infographics could depict an evaluation study, including questions asked in the study through methodology, data, findings and conclusion, and may include specific case-studie(s). Infographics will be displayed, and presenters need to be available to respond to questions asked about the infographic when on display.
World Café
World Café sessions consist of a 45-minute session with participants seated around three tables. Each table is given a topic to discuss with a facilitator guiding the discussion. After 15 minutes, participants move to the following table to discuss another topic. After participants have discussed all three topics, the facilitators will summarise the discussions and open the floor to questions and further inputs.
Lightning Presentation
Lightning sessions use 20 PowerPoint slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds for a total presentation time of just 5 minutes. These types of sessions convey a very clear message, idea, or method. Lightning presentations are interesting and fun to attend or present. For examples of the format, see http://www.ignitetalks.io/