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Tamara Velasquez, President of MECA 2021

Opening remarks from our annual conference, April 16th, 2021


As many of you may know, Monitoring and Evaluation is the engine that keeps the impact sector running. These tools that M&E gives us allow us to measure whether or not a program is achieving its stated goal and how we can create road maps for social change. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has transformed our sector in ways we could not have anticipated before this. Everything has moved online. Global travel has been halted. Field visits, once a normal procedure, are a risky endeavor that requires additional precautions. We have been forced to adapt and reimagine what M&E looks like in a time of COVID. And adapt we have.

Indicators and data are the life cells of M&E processes are also key to understanding the world we live in and create initiatives to improve it. From poverty reduction to fighting climate change to measuring the impacts of gentrification on urban environments, data informs everything we do and how we do it. These processes are the bread and butter of professionals in NGOs, Civil Society, government, and international organizations. Nowadays, data indicators have become crucial to combating the pandemic. How can we use data to flatten the curve and ensure hospitals don’t reach capacity? How do we keep track of how many people we are vaccinating? How can we measure which policies are best at controlling the virus? These are all key questions that policy professionals must ask ourselves every day.

Today, we will hear from many brilliant young evaluators from around the world who will discuss and share their experiences using M&E for social impact across different sectors. We will imagine together what M&E could look like in this Pandemic and Post-Pandemic world.

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