• EvalPartners is deeply indebted to Dr Sulley Gariba for his significant contribution to the field of global evaluation. In a tribute to his life and his legacy, the EvalPartners family, in partnership with WFP and UNICEF, launched in 2021, an annual memorial lecture in his honour.
  • Dr Sulley Gariba was the founding President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) from 2002 to 2005, the President of AfrEA from 2007-2009 and together with Zenda Ofir advocated for “Making Evaluation Our Own” during the 4th AfrEA conference in Niger. This later became known as Made in Africa Evaluation, a concept for which he was a firm advocate.
  • Sulley played a key role in the African Evaluation Journal as one of the editors where he supported the idea of the journal from the very beginning. He contributed to the concept document to raise the resources for getting the journal up and running. He was a founding member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal and continued in this role until his passing.
  • His leadership extended all around the world and it is envisioned that the Dr Sulley Gariba Memorial Lecture will become a rotating lecture at international evaluation conferences, spotlighting the evolution of the evaluation landscape in different regions.
  • For the inaugural lecture, EvalPartners reflected on Dr Gariba’s home continent to assess the evolution of the evaluation landscape in Africa and its adequacy for Africa’s present development realities and priorities, highlighting the role our dear friend Dr Gariba played in promoting Made in Africa Evaluation.
  • The lecture drew on research commissioned by EvalPartners and led by Prof Bagele Chilisa, University of Botswana, supported by a reference group of 15 distinguished academics, evaluators and post-colonial thinkers