Zimbabwe Evaluation Association

Zimbabwe Evaluation Association ZEA exists to bring together evaluators and stakeholders to share knowledge, skills, and best practices so as to promote quality evaluations

The purpose of ZEA is to promote practices that will ensure:
• Programmes are evaluated
• Evaluation findings are used to inform policies/ development interventions
• Credible evaluations
• sustainable development

"Africa cannot evaluate its way to 2030 using only yesterday's evaluation and last decade's tools."That's how 19-year-ol...
18/09/2026

"Africa cannot evaluate its way to 2030 using only yesterday's evaluation and last decade's tools."

That's how 19-year-old David Junior Tadiwanashe Mhambare closed his MEL Week 2026 presentation — words every MEL practitioner should hear.

ZEA is proud to spotlight David — one of our newest members, a Young Emerging Evaluator, and increasingly a name to watch in Zimbabwe's evaluation space. He received the Young and Emerging Evaluator Award from the Office of the President and Cabinet and UNDP at the recently concluded MEL Week 2026.

His paper presentation, "From Code to Community," introduced AIDA — an AI-driven analytics engine he developed and ran unmodified across three completely different settings: a rural water and agriculture programme, a government department, and a mining compliance system.

Each time, it surfaced a correlation nobody had programmed it to find:

💧 A failing water point predicting rising school absence — girls spending more time fetching water, missing school.
👥 HR vacancies signalling service delivery collapse before it became a complaint.
⛏️ A mine fully compliant on paper, while community grievances over dust rose in parallel.

None of these links were anticipated. The system found them simply by looking at data that already existed — just never side by side.

His message: Africa doesn't need new technology. It needs to redirect what already exists — with young evaluators as builders, not just users.

His own record backs the argument — O-Levels at 13, A-Levels at 16, now pursuing a BSc Honours in Informatics at NUST while interning in Data Science and AI. First software at 14. Own company at 17. A presentation to Parliament's Health Portfolio Committee at 19 — the same year he built BasaApp, now used by over 36,000 people.

His words after receiving his ZEA membership: "The journey has only begun."

We couldn't agree more. Welcome to the fraternity, David!

ZEA President Dr. Shylock Muyengwa: "The ZEA platform is an excellent opportunity to develop home-grown skills that will elevate the MEL space into one that recognizes young talent."

ZEA is where talent like David's gets a platform, a fraternity, and a future.
If that's the space you want to grow in — join us.

MEL Week 2026 may be over, but the real work is just getting started. This year's theme said it best: advancing Vision 2...
10/09/2026

MEL Week 2026 may be over, but the real work is just getting started.

This year's theme said it best: advancing Vision 2030, the SDGs and Agenda 2063 through stronger MEL and data systems. It wasn't just talk — it was a room full of people figuring out how Zimbabwe actually tracks its own progress.

And with NDS2 (2026–2030) now setting the pace for national development, good MEL matters more than ever — it is how we will know if the strategy is really working.

So what came out of it? Evaluators, government, academia, civil society and development partners all met in Masvingo and agreed on a few big things:

🔹 One shared home for evaluation evidence — so good research stops gathering dust
🔹 M&E units in all 92 local authorities, parastatals and government agencies
🔹 A push for government to fund MEL directly, not just rely on partners
🔹 Learning trips with Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya
🔹 Evaluations that actually get used, not shelved
🔹 Turning M&E into a recognised profession
🔹 Space for young emerging evaluators to grow into that profession

Small steps, but a real roadmap.

ZEA is proud to have been part of the conversation — and is looking forward to working with the Office of the President and Cabinet, UN Zimbabwe and the wider MEL community to see it through.

United Nations Development Programme - UNDP

Happening now in Masvingo:MEL Week 2026 is closing the way it should — not in conference rooms, but with action. MEL Wee...
04/09/2026

Happening now in Masvingo:

MEL Week 2026 is closing the way it should — not in conference rooms, but with action. MEL Week conference delegates have joined an ongoing clean-up campaign by Masvingo City Council, out cleaning and picking up litter across the city right now.

All week, the message was: evidence must be felt in people's daily lives, not just written in reports. A cleaner Masvingo is that promise, kept.

That's what Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning is really about — turning good ideas into visible impact.

The Zimbabwe Evaluation Association (ZEA) was proud to participate at the MEL Week 2026 in Masvingo (31 Aug–4 Sept), the...
03/09/2026

The Zimbabwe Evaluation Association (ZEA) was proud to participate at the MEL Week 2026 in Masvingo (31 Aug–4 Sept), themed "Advancing Vision 2030, SDGs and Agenda 2063 through Public Sector Delivery: Transformation of MEL and Data Systems."

At the plenary on strengthening local authority service delivery, ZEA Vice President Ms Cynthia Mawema spoke on backing young and emerging evaluators — placing them on national platforms alongside international evaluators, removing membership fee barriers for the unemployed, and linking them to EvalYouth.

She was honest about the gap: evaluation work still goes mostly to senior, often internationally-experienced evaluators, leaving few opportunities for emerging evaluators to break in. ZEA's fix: when a senior evaluator lands a big assignment, ZEA now ensures young evaluators get real, hands-on roles — so they learn evaluation by doing it.

Yesterday, Government officially opened the 2nd Edition of MEL Week — led by Second Vice-President Dr Kembo Mohadi, join...
03/09/2026

Yesterday, Government officially opened the 2nd Edition of MEL Week — led by Second Vice-President Dr Kembo Mohadi, joined by First Vice-President Dr Constantino Chiwenga and senior government officials.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mrs R. Kalapurakal captured the day in one line:
"NDS2 is the roadmap. Evidence is the dashboard."
Vision 2030 won't happen just because a roadmap exists — it happens when evidence meets leadership and development is felt in people's daily lives.

The big moment: Dr Mohadi officially launched the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Handbook for NDS2 (2026–2030), building on the success of NDS1 (2020–2025). It gives government a clear, standardised way to track indicators, data sources and accountability — so we know what's working, and fix what isn't.

A roadmap without a dashboard is just a direction. Zimbabwe now has both.

Watch this space for the link to the Handbook

United Nations Development Programme - UNDP

Still haven't joined ZEA? MEL Week isn't over yet!This week, you're hearing the case for a stronger evaluation ecosystem...
02/09/2026

Still haven't joined ZEA? MEL Week isn't over yet!
This week, you're hearing the case for a stronger evaluation ecosystem in Zimbabwe. Membership is how you stop watching that conversation from the sidelines and start helping build it.

Here's what joining ZEA among other things actually gets you:

✅ A national professional home — standards, ethics, and continuous professional development for evaluators in Zimbabwe
✅ A voice in shaping the profession — including conversations like the ones happening at this very conference
✅ Connection to the continental evaluation community through our AfrEA affiliation
✅ A community of practice — ongoing knowledge exchange with fellow practitioners, not just once a year

Whether you've been evaluating for years or you're a Young & Emerging Evaluator just starting out, this is your professional home.

📍 Come find us at the ZEA booth before you leave Masvingo.
📲 Couldn't make it to Masvingo but want to join? Scan the QR code below to access the application form.
💬 Want to stay plugged in even sooner? Scan the second QR code to join our WhatsApp group and connect with the ZEA community right away.

African Evaluation Association

"A stool with two strong legs still falls." That's ZEA President Dr. Shylock Muyengwa's blunt diagnosis of Zimbabwe's ev...
02/09/2026

"A stool with two strong legs still falls."

That's ZEA President Dr. Shylock Muyengwa's blunt diagnosis of Zimbabwe's evaluation system at MEL Week 2026.

His breakdown: we have built up supply (evaluators, ZEA, academia, young evaluators) and the enabling environment (policy, data systems, standards) — but demand, actual appetite from government and citizens to ask for and use evidence, is the leg nobody's invested in.

"It doesn't matter how many evaluators we train or how polished our policy looks. If nobody's asking for the evidence, the whole thing collapses."

His challenge to Zimbabwe: "stop planting trees one by one — grow the forest".

He closed with 5 commitments to make starting this week — including signing an ecosystem compact at this conference, to be checked publicly at MEL Week 2027. Not another framework. A real promise with names attached.

ZEA offered to hold that accountability. Who else will sign?

United Nations Development Programme - UNDP

The Zimbabwe Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Week 2026 officially opened in Masvingo yesterday, and what an in...
01/09/2026

The Zimbabwe Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Week 2026 officially opened in Masvingo yesterday, and what an inspiring start!

The day kicked off with a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Awareness Procession, marking the start of a week of reflection, learning, and collaboration — all about how evaluation can drive progress and accountability in Zimbabwe's public service delivery, in line with NDS2. The event is hosted by the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and UN Zimbabwe, in partnership with ZEA.

Delegates dove straight into honest, high-level conversations on:

🔹 MEL's role in strengthening governance and accountability
🔹 Public service performance management and results-based accountability
🔹 The 2026 National Evaluation Capacities Index (INCE) Survey findings for Zimbabwe
🔹 Digital transformation and real-time decision-making, with the UN Country Team
🔹 Evaluability assessments and inception report structuring

A key highlight of the day: ZEA President Dr. Shylock Muyengwa took the floor with a presentation that set the tone for the week — "From Silos to Systems: Building Zimbabwe's National Evaluation Ecosystem for Vision 2030." His message was clear: Zimbabwe's next big leap in evaluation won't come from training more evaluators or writing more policy in isolation, but from deliberately connecting the dots between them.

MEL Week is bringing together rich insights and lessons from across the country — uniting government leaders, policymakers, practitioners, academia, civil society, the private sector, and development partners, all working toward stronger MEL systems and better public service delivery on the road to Vision 2030.

Now in its second edition, National MEL Week has grown into a true flagship national initiative, backed by strong political will and leadership from the Government of Zimbabwe.

Stay tuned, more updates coming all week!

United Nations Development Programme - UNDP

30/08/2026

As we prepare to travel to Masvingo for MEL Week 2026, I want to say a personal thank you to every ZEA member, partner, and colleague making this journey with us.

This week represents something bigger than a conference — it's a chance for Zimbabwe's evaluation community to come together, learn from one another, and strengthen the systems that help our country deliver on its development promises. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in person, exchanging ideas, and building on the momentum we started in Harare last year.

Safe travels to all of you making your way to Masvingo. See you there!

— Dr Shylock Muyengwa, President, Zimbabwe Evaluation Association

Address

Harare

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 08:00 - 13:00

Telephone

+263779970322

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Zimbabwe Evaluation Association posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Zimbabwe Evaluation Association:

Shortcuts

Share

Category