The Tanzania Evaluation Association (TanEA) was established in 2006 and registered as national chapter of the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) in 2009, bringing together monitoring and evaluation professionals from the public, private and civil society sectors, academia, and development practitioners, to promote and strengthen evaluation practices in Tanzania through capacity building, advocacy, professional development and networking. It operates as an autonomous and independent professional association that in the evaluation circles is known as a registered Voluntary Organization for Professional Evaluators (VOPE) aiming to promote the culture for evaluation and evidence-based policy making in Tanzania. The then Steering Committee comprised of members from Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA), United Nations Fund on Children (UNICEF), President’s Office Public Service Management (POPSM), TRACE, KIMARA PEER EDUCATORS, Foundation for Civil Society (FCS) and KIM Consulting. TRACE became the host institution from inception but from 2014, Mzumbe University, Dar Es Salaam Campus became the host of TanEA.
TanEA’s specific objectives are to encourage the development and publication of high quality evaluation practice, to advocate the Government of Tanzania to create and maintain a regulatory framework for monitoring and evaluation, to advance capacity development of the monitoring and evaluation profession, to facilitate networking and information sharing on evaluation and act as a reference point for evaluation resources and practice in Tanzania. Further to the above, TanEA specifically aims for the following:
- Facilitate networking and information sharing on monitoring and evaluation in Tanzania and other parts of the world.
- Advocate to the Government of Tanzania to create and maintain an appropriate regulatory framework for M&E in Tanzania
- Promote useful evaluations that support development in Tanzania
- Encourage the development and publication of high quality evaluation practice, research and theory development based on Tanzania experience and expertise.
- Advance capacity building in professional monitoring and evaluation in Tanzania.
- Remain as a strategic reference centre for expertise and best practice for evaluation information relevant to all social economic circumstances of Tanzania.
- Promote and share Tanzanian evaluation expertise and experience at relevant national, regional and international forums and events.
The organization is a result of a series of inspirational conferences on evaluation and development organized by the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) in 2002, 2004 and 2006. The organization has evolved from the momentous world agenda on sustainable development and governance by evaluation. This is a new policy style where integration (trade-off) and Multi-level governance are the major guiding principles. At this interface, monitoring and evaluation becomes an important tool for decision making, legitimization, moderation, learning and accountability to achieve sustainable development.