HAC Chair Kartik Kulkarni and SIGHT Chair Sampath Veeraraghavan attended the PowerAfrica Conference from 20 – 23 August in Abuja, Nigeria. Mr. Kulkarni organized a panel on “Impact Assessment: Design and Diagnostic” in which Mr. Veeraraghavan participated, along with HAC & SIGHT Project Leader Mr. Lwanga Herbert and Founder & Executive Director of Africa Development Promise Ms. Monica LaBiche Brown.
The Panel focused on how impact assessment enables project teams to question assumptions, better determine good practices, adapt, improve, and also be able to more effectively tell their project’s story in order to attract more support. Panelists spoke about impact assessment, focusing on Social Return on Investment (SROI) – the theory, examples of SROI assessments that are currently underway with IEEE sustainable development projects, and questions of how it can be best utilized.
SIGHT Chair Sampath shares about his experience:
“This trip we have laid a strong foundation to grow HAC & SIGHT efforts in Africa through open conversations with key stakeholders and Section leaders, including the members of the IEEE Africa Council, and delegates from delegates from Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Zambia. We hope to see new SIGHT groups in Zambia and Rwanda soon! Our goal is to support these leaders and their Sections, equipping them to address the challenges they identify in their local communities.
Kartik and I also met with members of the Nigeria Section SIGHT team, who have recently been working on a SIGHT-funded project. We spoke with the Nigeria Section Chair Raphael, John Funso, Abdul and Chief Tunde to see how we could support them in strengthening their current and future sustainable development activities.
I’m happy our efforts are establishing stronger partnerships and look forward to seeing the impact we can achieve together.”
More pictures and a video can be found on the IEEE SIGHT Facebook group.