Evaluation student's data collection is driving nonprofit's impact in South Sudan

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Hailing from Uganda, Western Michigan University student Victor Onama always knew he wanted to support humanitarian work. He felt an intrinsic pull towards it.

"I personally came from a context where there a lot of people in need. And when you see the way things are happening in communities, you feel you need to be part of providing that support, providing that hope," says Onama.  

Onama, a student in Western's evaluation, measurement and research (ERM) doctoral program, has been working with nonprofits serving Africa and the Middle East for more than a decade. After completing his first degree at Makerere University, he started his career implementing geographical information systems that provided data for emergency response mapping and food security innovations in Uganda.

"From that experience, I kept building on that work and kept on progressing," explains Onama. "The more time I spent working in nonprofit, the more interested I became."

"There is always that feeling especially when you know that whatever you are doing is contributing to helping someone."

Developing in South Sudan

Currently, Onama is a monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) manager for Dan Church Aid (Folkekirkens Nødhjælp), a Danish nonprofit organization supporting emergency response to disasters and long-term development in poor regions. Primarily focused on monitoring and evaluating their work in South Sudan, he also ensures program quality, learning and supports evidence-based decision-making.

"My role is basically to evaluate programs that we are implementing, to continuously use evidence to make decisions and improve programming to learn from our process," says Onama. "Working with data sets we sometimes need to change the course of action and whether what we're doing is actually making sense or not." 

In South Sudan, the organization is addressing the country's food insecurity needs. According to the UN World Food Programme, more than half of the population is facing "crisis-level" hunger which is compounded by several factors including economic instability, climate change and ongoing political conflict.    

"People are not able to farm, people are not able to access food and there is limited access to a regular source of income," says Onama. "So that means, continuously there is a food insecurity situation."

A recent project Onama worked on helped to reduce food insecurity, focusing on providing multi-purpose cash assistance to the most vulnerable households in South Sudan.

"I really picked a keen interest in this particular project funded by ECHO (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations); documenting the process right from the time beneficiaries were selected to a point where we went through the monitoring process, documenting stories of change and evaluating the project," says Onama. "When I looked at the final results of the project against the key indicators, it's a point where I realized that actually the change that we wanted to see, we were able to achieve that."

"I really felt happy that I was part of that journey, from ensuring that we documented everything that we're doing and also learning from the implementation process.."

International learning

Wanting to further his education in the field of program evaluation and support organizations better, Onama found Western's EMR program.

"I started looking for universities that offer the opportunity for online courses and got a number of options. But I had my checklist that I was using for validating the universities," says Onama. "I was looking at whether the universities were accredited or not, and whether the courses offered were high quality. So when I rated these different options, Western Michigan University met all the conditions that I had listed and also the possibility of studying while not having to leave my job."

Since joining the program, Onama says the most valuable experience beyond the classes have been the networking opportunities with peers. Virtually offered and accessible to anyone, his classmates in the program come from different parts of the world.

"I've felt that difference from the time I joined up to now," explains Onama. "There are opportunities for collaborating with the doctoral students from other countries and exchange ideas, as well as being mentored by the best professors. This enhances sharing of real-world evaluation experiences within that network and learning. It provides that opportunity of sharing experiences to create that network."

Contributing to the field

Understanding how evaluation is the foundation for the work of nonprofits, Onama has a special interest in training the next generation of evaluators. He also hopes to professionalize and continue to strengthen the evaluation practice, especially in the international development and humanitarian settings.

"In the field, there are so many people who are providing evaluation consultancy services without proper training and experience, says Onama. "So, I'm looking at myself as a person who will contribute to standardizing and developing the evaluation practice and profession."

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.