Zenda Ofir

Zenda Ofir is an independent South African evaluation specialist with a PhD in Chemistry. Since 2000, she has worked on the intersection of evaluation, development and science for development, and has led and conducted assignments from local to global level in more than 40 countries across the world, with a special focus on Africa and Asia.

At present, Ofir is Vice-President of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), Lead Steward of the SDG Transformations Forum Evaluation Working Group, and Steering Committee member of the South-South Cooperation in Evaluation (S2SE) Initiative. She is also a former President of the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA). Since 2014, she is an Honorary Professor at Stellenbosch University, an appointment that recognizes eminence in practice. She is on the editorial boards of two evaluation journals and a prominent blogger on evaluation for development.

She has collaborated with multiple bilateral, multilateral and government agencies, foundations, NGOs, universities and science councils. Her work has spanned many areas - disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation, conservation, food production, rural development, higher education, HIV/AIDS, child labour, and many more. She has also advised many international organizations on evaluation or knowledge management matters, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the global vaccine alliance GAVI, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.

Before turning to evaluation in 2000, she was a senior manager of university grant funding programs at a South African science council and later Director responsible for all research and international affairs at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.


Last updated: 2018