The current supply of skilled monitoring and evaluation (M&E) professionals - especially in lower income and fragile countries of the world - is insufficient. Investing in building the capacity of a new generation of local evaluators is essential to strengthening developing country M&E ecosystems and creating opportunities for new and diverse voices to enter the field. Young and emerging evaluators (YEEs) bring a fresh perspective on innovation and have the potential to drive change in the M&E field, helping it become more responsive to the many overlapping challenges in today’s world, like climate change, poverty, and food insecurity. Unfortunately, YEEs often face challenges with accessing M&E skills, career opportunities, and professional support.
To help address some of the challenges faced by YEEs, GEI has launched the hands-on internship program, which aims to strengthen practical M&E skills and soft skills of young evaluators through hands-on learning and mentorship. The program exposes local young evaluators to various areas of M&E system development, aligning with GEI's objective to strengthen national M&E systems, develop M&E competencies, and expand professional networks.
The internship program was designed in collaboration with EvalYouth and other GEI partners. It was launched in 2022 and welcomed its second cohort of interns in the fall of 2023. The six-month program is open to young evaluators with graduate degrees in relevant fields of study. The selection process, which takes place during the summer, is carried out by the CLEAR Centers, with priority given to graduates of local universities in low- and middle-income countries. Interns are selected competitively and work in the CLEAR Centers in Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, Lusophone Africa, and Brazil. The internship program is also expanding to include national evaluation agencies, with the first phase including Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
If you are interested in applying to GEI's Hands-On Internship Program, please check the websites of the CLEAR Centers and GEI's social media channels.
