The Khana Group
The Khana Group
Location : Kampala Email : leadership@thekhanagroup.com

Brief History of VOPE

Founded in 2008, The Khana Group (TKG) is now Liberia’s largest and most rigorous research firm, conducting over 20 research projects annually, including about 4 large nationally representative surveys (1000+). TKG recruits and trains over 300 data collectors/researchers annually, manages multiple development projects/programs and provide support to various projects/programs.

The Khana Group has worked in 18 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and have offices in Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. The firm is known and has a strong reputation across Africa for its quality project delivery, rigorous data collection, research and M&E services that support evidence-based policy development.  

Profile of VOPE

The Khana Group (TKG) is a social impact advisory firm with a mission to develop sustainable solutions to positively impact and transform communities in Africa.

With offices in Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria and the United States, the firm focuses on delivering customized solutions and quality services in research and policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), capacity development, technology and innovation, and strategy across various sectors, including health, agriculture, education and economic growth.

Our consultants have both private and public-sector experiences with local expertise, informed by global perspective. Our experts have worked with a variety of international agencies, multinationals and Fortune ranked corporations including the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations, Deloitte, McKinsey & Company and others.

The Khana Group has completed numerous of these types of projects. Our experience ranges from research to report writing and everything in between – rigorous data analysis, data quality assessments, data collection and report dissemination, capacity development, ICT and Innovation.

Vennessa K. Smith

Our Point of Contact, Vennessa Smith, is a Research and Operations Coordinator at The Khana Group. She is responsible for operational coordination for research and project activities, including logistics, financial and human resource management for the Liberia office.

With a B.Sc in Development Studies, Vennessa has managed and deployed teams for research data collection for over 30 research and evaluation projects in Liberia. She ensures that all Standard Operating Procedures for data collection are adhered to, project finance is efficiently managed, and field work implementation is successful. She has experience delivering projects for international donors such as UNMIL and USAID, Unicef and several other international NGOs and private philanthropists across Africa.

Our Core Areas

  • Strategy and operations
  • Research & policy analysis
  • ICT& innovation
  • Monitoring & evaluation
  • Capacity development

Our Partners

CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS

Rosetti Nabbumba Nayenga
President

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Dr. Awuor PONGE
Vice President

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Isaac Kiwango
Treasurer

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Dr. Shylock Muyengwa
South Africa Representative President

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Eddah Kanini
East Africa Representative

Until 1999 there were few opportunities to network and share evaluation experiences in Africa. Evaluators worked in isolation. They were seldom trained in evaluation approaches, methodologies and standards, and tended to be technical specialists or management consultants recruited to serve as evaluation consultants.

Although a few national evaluation networks existed, they were isolated and often unable to mobilize the capacities and resources to facilitate effective networking and sharing of knowledge within and between countries. Evaluation capacity building efforts were sporadic and mostly driven by international development organisations.

There were few attempts to nurture advanced level evaluation expertise, to promote training placed in African contexts and evaluation approaches, or to highlight African evaluation expertise on international platforms. Demand for evaluation was low and the use of evaluation for learning and decision-making limited and dominated by accountability to international aid agencies.

AfrEA was founded in 1999 to address some of these challenges. It was established as an umbrella association for national evaluation associations and networks, and as a resource for evaluators in countries without such networks. Like other evaluation associations around the world, AfrEA is not exclusive. Its constituency consists of national associations and networks that include professional evaluators as well as policy makers, academics, government officials, researchers, development practitioners and any other individuals interested in evaluation.

AfrEA Founder, who presented a keynote address at the 8th AfrEA Conference in Uganda, had this to say about AfrEA’s early days:

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Download the early day history from Dr. Mahesh Patel here.

Some early day AfrEA highlights for the period 2003 – 2008 include:

  1. Since 1999 the number of formal and informal national evaluation networks and associations in Africa has increased often established or nurtured with AfrEA advice (from six to around 30)
  2. AfrEA coordinated several contributions to the literature, including the UNICEF/IOCE publication on Creating and Developing Evaluation Organizations: (http://www.ioce.net/resources/case_st udies.shtml)
  3. AfrEA facilitated the development of the African Evaluation Guidelines (AEG), adapted from the International Programme Evaluation Standards to suit African contexts. Seven African evaluation associations developed the guidelines in 2002. They were updated in September 2006 by 25 representatives from 14 evaluation associations. The Guidelines provide a checklist  of 30 items essential for quality assurance and ethical conduct in evaluation
  4. An AfrEA website (www.afrea.org) was established. It contains database with detailed skills profiles of evaluators in Africa, evaluation training materials and other evaluation resources, information about associations and networks, news, training and evaluation opportunities
  5. An African evaluation information network is operating through the AfrEA listserv. It brings news and opportunities to share information, issues and queries for professional support to a growing list of more than three hundred subscribers in Africa and elsewhere (to subscribe, post a blank email to afrea-community@googlegroups.com
  6. AfrEA has established funding and other forms of partnerships for its main activities with over 35 organizations, thus avoiding being beholden to one or a few selected sponsors
  7. AfrEA has raised funds to stimulate the exposure of African evaluation specialists to international expertise. Between 2003 and 2007 it has fully or partially sponsored more than 30 international evaluation experts to come to African evaluation  events

Sîm-Yassah Awilêlo BADJO

Chief of Secretariat

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Abigail Korda

Operations Manager

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Anthony Klokpey

Office Manager

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Kevin French

Information Technology

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Company Information
Contact Name:
Contact Email: leadership@thekhanagroup.com
Contact Phone: +1 877-581-7616
Contact Fax: +233 027 895 7718
Since : 14-12-2008
Company Size:
Address1: 36 Kofi Annan Avenue, North Legon, Accra Ghana
Address2: