Dr. Anis Ben Brik, Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Program for Social Policy Evaluation and Research (PROSPER) at the College of Public Policy (CPP), participated at the International Leadership Boot Camp of the Voluntary Organization for Professional Evaluation (VOPE). Dr. Ben Brik spoke during a roundtable titled “Evaluation from the Global South”. He discussed challenges and opportunities to institutionalizing evaluation practices and building national evaluation systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Dr. Ben Brik also presented PROSPER, a leading program in the region to build capacity, advance discussions and collaborations towards collectively supporting evaluation systems strengthening in Qatar and the region.

The roundtable took place during the seven-week boot camp’s unprecedented closing event where, for 48 hours uninterrupted, the global evaluation community connected to virtual forums addressing current evaluation issues. The intensive capacity building initiative was organized by the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), specifically for leaders in national and regional Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPE).

Dr. Ben Brik joined speakers representing evaluation networks and associations from countries in Africa, North and South America, Europe, and Asia, as well as global organizations. A series of keynotes focused on the importance of evaluation for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in post-COVID times; lessons from COVID-19 about the strengths and limitations of remote data collection for evaluation; and how to make governments demand innovative, rigorous and quality evaluations, among other topics.