Ian is an International Advisor on Evaluation/M&E and Evidence Systems, President of the International Evaluation Academy and an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town
Ian Goldman has worked for 44 years on issues of rural development, decentralization, sustainable livelihoods approaches, community-driven development, and evidence-informed policy and practice, applying the disciplines of planning, evaluation, research and action-learning. He has worked in 20 countries in Africa, Europe and Latin America; with national, provincial and local government; and in the NGO and SME sectors. From 2011 to June 2018 he was the Head of Evaluation and Research in South Africa’s Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), where he led the establishment of South Africa’s national evaluation system, and in 2017 became Deputy Director General for the new Evaluation, Evidence and Knowledge Systems Branch.
In 2015 Ian was the founding Chair of the Twende Mbele African M&E Partnership, with founding partners Uganda, Benin, South Africa, CLEAR AA and African Development Bank. he is on the Board of the International Evaluation Academy and South African Parliamentary Institute, and was on the Board of the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) from 2012-2022, and SA M&E Association 2020-2023.
Ian is President of the International Evaluation Academy (IEAc), an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading in the UK. He is an Advisor on evaluation and M&E systems with the Just Energy Transition programme management unit in South Africa’s Presidency, with the Global Evaluation Initiative, with Operation Vulindlela in South Africa’s National Treasury/Presidency, and with the regional Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results for Anglophone Africa (CLEAR AA), based at the University of Witwatersrand.
