Grace Kagendo I.
About me
| Grace Kagendo I. | |
| Social Policy and Social Work | |
| Public Administration | |
| Taught Postgraduate | |
| Wentworth | |
| 2010 | |
| Kenya |
My employment
| Evaluation Officer | |
| United Nations World Food Programme | |
| Kenya | |
| Charity and voluntary sector | |
| Large business (250+ employees) | |
| 2004 |
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A day in the life of a Evaluation Officer in Kenya
Progressively consolidating knowledge, skills and work experience is key to career development. The choice of what courses to study while working should be guided by this so that everything builds up over time
My career goals when I graduated
To get a stable middle level position that involves working on developing policies, strategies, programmes and performance management.
My career history
I have moved from being a software developer, to programme planning (as assistant), to heading the monitoring and evaluation unit and to my current position as evaluation officer. In a span on 11 years I have moved up 4 steps (2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2014) within the United Nations career levels, which is considered fast progress.
What has helped my career to progress
First, deliberately planning career moves including willingness to lose some $ if the move is strategic. For example my move from UNICEF to UN WFP in 2004 involved a reduction in salary since I was moving to a position that was lower. However it was strategic move since the new position was in programme planning which was more diverse and thus offered potential for growth.
Second, being very reliable and letting the people I work for (my supervisors) and with (my team members) be my career sales people. There are few things that are useful in career progression than being consistently reliable. This is especially useful in organisations that are large systems like the UN. Soon people will start saying things like 'if you want the best officer, I know one and she is so and so'. Third, choosing to study subjects that consolidate my knowledge, skills and experience.
Having a undergrad degree in computer science gave me skills in managing information from a technology view; studying a post grad diploma in project management combined the systems thinking that comes with being a software developer with the process-oriented approach that is project management.
And finally, studying public administration gave me the big picture knowledge of why the UN was doing what it was doing, why the Governments that we support design their policies the way they do, and most importantly why performance management is big deal in the public sector. By the end, I had a solid set of knowledge and skills that are very complementary,.
Courses taken since graduation
Started PhD in governance and public policy.
How my studies have helped my career
Progressively working to build solid understanding of world development issues and acquire skills that are useful makes career moves smooth.
What surprised me about my career so far
How useful my skills in information technology continue to be even when my job does not require me to perform technical tasks.
Where I hope to be in 5 years
A senior policy analyst with the UN or any other international organisation or the Government.
My advice to students considering work
First think of how you see what you have studied and the job you are looking for coming together; If you have a dream job, identify as soon as possible the gaps you have in knowledge and strategize how to fill those gaps.
Your career is your project that you need to manage very well, starting from now; While being flexible and trying new things is fun, it is counter-productive to spend some years studying one thing and then get a job that has nothing to do with that which you have studied.
Likewise, while seeking the best paying job may be the most sensible thing to do (economically speaking) it is also counter-productive to choose a job that is in no way leading you to where you see yourself in 2, 5, 10 years. So if you have a choice of a lower paying job which makes best use of your skills and is in line with your long-range plan/dream, take that and build on it. You will be glad you did this when with time your knowledge, skills and experience consolidate and build up to enable you to reach where you want to be. If you are young, you certainly have time to allow for this.
Other advice
We learn so we can know and use that knowledge to live better lives and contribute to a better world. Never stop learning.
What I do
As evaluation officer with the United Nations world food programme based in Rome Italy, I manage evaluations of different programmes in different countries. I also provide technical support to staff at country level who commission and manage evaluation.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Understanding of public policy processes and international development concepts. My masters study at York gave me a good foundation on these, but I have had to continually update my knowledge as the world evolves. Project management skills are very critical in my current job because evaluation is the last leg of the project cycle management, and it is process-heavy. I have honed these skills over several years working as a Monitoring and Evaluation officer as well as taking a post-graduate diploma course in PM. Negotiation and problem solving skills are also vital because my job requires working with consultants from across the globe to carry out evaluations in different countries; a lot of time is spent negotiating rules of engagement, roles and responsibilities of many stakeholders in the evaluation process and solving problems as they arise. The best way I have acquired these skills is to observe and work with people that are good at doing this. I have been lucky to be supervised by some great problem solvers. Finally, patience is needed given that one evaluation can last from between 6 months to one year from the day a decision is made to evaluate a programme to the day the final evaluation report is presented.
What I like most
First, the systematic nature of evaluation process allows for a logical flow of work and most importantly for long-range planning; I know one year in advance which project in which country will be evaluated so I can start studying all I need to know about that country. Second, the fact that each evaluation is conducted by a different set of consultants which means I get to work with lots of different people from different cultures. A lot to learn all the time. Third, evaluation is a fairly new profession, so there are on going debates about its practice, methodologies and professionalization. This means I have to keep abreast of these developments and engage in the intellectual debates, so no dull moment.
What I like least
That the evaluation policy in my organisation does not allow evaluation officers to be part of the evaluation teams. This means I do not get to travel to the countries where the projects are. I do all my work from Rome, and that can get boring after some time.
What surprised me most
I was quite surprised to find out that there are NOT many good evaluation consultants out there. I used to think that with all the think tanks and consultancy firms around the world, there should be excess supply of good evaluators. I suppose this is because evaluation is fairly new field and also because it is very multi-disciplinary in nature. A good evaluator of education programmes may not be necessarily a good evaluator of agriculture programmes and so on. This is what makes it exciting.
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