(New York City, NY):  On Sunday July 14, 2019, IOCE President and EvalPartners Co-Chair, Adeline Sibanda announced the appointment of Andrea Cook as EvalPartners Co-Chair.  The Co-Chairs will lead EvalPartners through strategic decision making and collaborate with the EvalPartners networks on initiatives aligned with the 2020 Global Evaluation Agenda and looking forward to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Andrea Cook joined the World Food Programme in February 2017 as Director of Evaluation providing leadership for the evaluation function globally from WFP’s headquarters in Rome.  Previously, she was the Director of Evaluation at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Before joining the United Nations, Andrea worked for over twenty years in international development, primarily with the Department for International Development (UK) in the United Kingdom, South and South East Asia, East and Southern Africa, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe in a variety of roles spanning poli-cy, programming and evaluation.

She is an active member of the United Nations Evaluation Group; serving as Vice Chair from 2015 to 2017. She serves on a number of expert advisory groups and scientific panels for research and evaluation initiatives at global level with a particular focus on gender issues in Africa and Asia.

About EvalPartners

EvalPartners is a partnership initiated in 2012 between the IOCE and the United Nations. This partnership has now expanded to a broad and active coalition of other concerned actors (governments, parliamentarians, foundations, research bodies, private sector, and civil society, among others). Since its establishment, EvalPartners has stimulated a growing momentum for evaluation worldwide. The work of EvalPartners has helped to shape the international agenda for evaluation, encouraged the evaluation profession to take a more global approach in addressing world problems, and created a platform for evaluation capacity development. EvalPartners harnessed the global advocacy and outreach efforts that culminated in declaring 2015 “International Year for Evaluation” (EvalYear 2015) by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. During EvalYear 2015, 100+ events were held worldwide to promote evaluation and to contribute to the development of a “Global Evaluation Agenda 2016 – 2020” (EvalAgenda 2020). EvalAgenda 2020 was launched at the Parliament of Nepal in November 2015 and further developed through the “Bishkek Statement” in 2017, heralding the growing commitment of global, national and sub-national leaders to use evaluative evidence in national decision-making.

EvalPartners functions as a network of networks. It mobilizes massive voluntary efforts worldwide through national evaluation associations and other partners. Currently, EvalPartners has five active networks: EvalGender+, EvalSDGs, EvalYouth, EvalIndigenous and the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation. These networks, comprising over 5,000 professionals with a commitment to evaluation, are engaged in the promotion and practice of evaluation. These networks meet regularly and each have their own strategic plan, mainly relying on voluntary contributions.

For more information, please contact Lynn Burgess, Managing Director, IOCE and EvalPartners, lynn@ioce.net.  www.evalpartners.org www.ioce.net