6TH AfrEA CONFERENCE - MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF AfrEA

Message from the President of AfrEA

Welcoming you to the 6th AfrEA conference

Dear Member, Friend & Supporter,

It is four weeks to the start of the 6th AfrEA conference in January 2012.

So let me start by thanking you for your interest in the African Evaluation Association AfrEA in particular and in the 6th AfrEA conference scheduled to be in Accra, Ghana from Monday 9th to Friday 13th January 2012.

For those who have not yet heard about the conference, please take this notice to you.

This is the first African Evaluation Conference to be held in Anglophone West Africa since the association was formed in 1999. This is not the only unique thing about this conference; it is also the first one being organized by the AfrEA Secretariat hosted for the first time in a public institution - the University of Ghana, Legon.

The theme of Conference - Rights & Responsibility in Development Evaluation is an attempt to place humans and human agency at the heart and centre of development practice and in particular development evaluation. Development, of the done kind, is pursued in the interest and for the transformation of the human condition for the better, to improve lives, life outcomes and perchance lived experiences and living environments. In the recent past, development evaluation and indeed much of development has been consumed by the search for ‘the’ best method for doing development evaluation for the obvious reasons of less than the successful decades-long development engagement and expenditures running into billions. Although this engagement with ‘method’ is understandable it ought not to be the reason under any
guise whatsoever for the abdication of the raison d’être of development action.

We believe that in order to place the human person and indeed the environment which sustains us at the centre of development, it is imperative to interrogate the subject of Right and Responsibility. For the simple reason that Development is ‘done’ by many in the name of many and has many different faces, it is important to pause at a time as auspicious as now in human history when the whole world is wracked by crises and uncertainties; about the climate, about the euro, about capitalism, in politics - in North Africa and parts of the Middle East, to ask the questions we may have forgotten or refused to ask.

It is our hope that, in asking and attempting to answer the question of Rights and Responsibility of the many who act at the behest of themselves on behalf of the many in the name of development, we might begin a journey of claiming the true future of development.

On behalf of the Board of the African Evaluation Association, I welcome you to the feast we have prepared in this Conference.

On offer are;

60 conference papers in two languages; French & English
21 preconference workshops including 13 half-day workshops, 7 one-day workshops and 2 two-day workshops
26 Panels & Roundtables in French & English
Exhibitions; in particular exhibitions by National Evaluation Associations & Special Interest Group members of AfrEA and;
An optional cultural tour programme of Accra and the Central Region of Ghana.

For the first time at an AfrEA Conference live webinars will be given on site for those who are not in attendance as well as sms and face book messaging.

We also have plans to publish a daily conference Bulletin/newspaper.

The point of this letter is to let you know that whether you are physically present in Accra or not you can get involved and we would dearly love you to do so. You can email, sms or post a question, message or comment. In the coming weeks, we will conclude the technical arrangements to ensure that all this happens and we will let you know the details so that you can be part of this exceptional experience.

In the meantime however, I invite you to; check out the conference website www.afreaconference.org, or send an email.

As a member you can also support some of the work of the Board Conference Task teams or, if you are located in Accra Ghana, of the Local Organising Committee. Please send your inquiry to afrea.info@gmail.com.

I look forward to welcoming you either in person or online to the 6th AfrEA International Conference.

Signed

Florence Etta

President, AfrEA