Joaquin, director of To the core of things, is a monitoring, evaluation, researcher and programme manager of multimillion regional programmes and projects specialised in human rights, media, gender, community tourism and children/youth.

As the director and principal consultant of To the core of things consultancy firm, I bring over two decades of experience in results-based management, monitoring, and evaluation of international development programs, with a deep familiarity with EU and UNEG norms and standards. Throughout my career, I have developed and refined evaluation systems, policies, and related guidance for various DGs, national authorities, international NGOs and UN agencies. My work spans multiple regions, including Africa, Latin America, and Asia, focusing on human rights, media, gender, and education and youth programs. Notably, I have led strategic consultancies for different EU instruments including EIDHR, the EU social fund and also outside the EU for UNESCO and OHCHR. These consultancies focused on monitoring, evaluation, and reporting functions of international organizations including the assessment of these functions of UN agencies, OECD, the Council of Europe and the European Union.

My methodological expertise includes mixed-methods approaches and quasi-experimental designs that emphasise client and partner ownership, coherence with learning curves, and pragmatic solutions. These tools, developed under the Creative Commons IP from To the Core of Things, include research guidelines, organisational capacity assessment, modular reconstruction and adaptation of theories of change, stakeholder network maps methodologies, case study guidelines and approaches, outcome harvesting through Most Significant Change stories and implementation of machine learning approaches to development cooperation programmes.

The principles I apply in all my works are ownership of the works and the processes by the client and partners (through a strong participatory approach); alignment with latest trends in the field (including ICT4D, statistical techniques and humanistic considerations); coherence with the learning curve of the clients, and; pragmatism, proposing solutions in line with the interests, philosophy and capacities of the clients and its partners.

Key relevant work that reflects this range of skills and passions include ROM reviews for multi-country EU programmes, consultancies for UNESCO (evaluaitons, periodic reporting consultancies or MEAL system TA). Also for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) I have developed as well another strategic consultancy assessing their in-house monitoring and reporting function plus other programme and country evaluations. Other donors, include USAID, with consultancies carried for US Internews setting up the methodologies, managing seven multicultural teams and producing seven research products for their Rooted in Trust programme and leading several programme evaluations. Some other relevant examples of my works are the evaluation of an agriculture cooperative based project in Ethiopia funded by NORAD, the evaluation of a community radios programme in Zambia funded by the Netherlands; the research manager position for ECORYS and also academic publications in the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation.

For more information visit https://tothecoreofthings.consulting; check our track of projects.

Head of Operations at the Vienna-based Innovation in Politics Institute and CEO of the European Capital of Democracy NPO. Work experience in the non-profit, start-up, business and political field. Leadership skills in managing mixed and networked teams with a focus on developing disruptive products and growing innovative organisations.

Zainabe Dadá is a HIS specialist and Projects Coordinator at Jembi Health Systems since 2016. Although she started with the Mozambican program, where she currently supports other Jembi projects in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. Her great management skills and expertise in the HIV business led her to successfully managed and supported long term projects funded by CDC, under the HIS portfolio, such as Implementation of the Mozambican Electronic Patient Tracking System, GBV electronic quality Assurance system, VMMC patients tracking system, Zimbabwe OVC Management Information System, Mozambique HIV Data visualizations Dashboards, Ethiopia Central Data Repository, Ethiopia National Health Data Warehouse and many more. Zainabe is also responsible for the internship program in Mozambique, receiving and guiding dozens of interns from diverse universities across the globe.
Zainabe has a degree in Clinical Psychology and Counselling and a MA in Health Psychology, both by the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Técnologias in Lisbon, Portugal.
Before joined Jembi she worked for over 9 years, during the life-time of the projects as a National Program Manager of HIV and Gender Based Violence Prevention programs for soldiers in collaboration with FADM (Mozambican Armed Forces), MoD and MoH under the funds of DoD/DHAPP/PEPFAR. Zainabe is a bright, committed, multi-talented individual, who is able to very effectively manage large and complex programs and successfully lead multi-disciplinary teams. Her exceptional capabilities as a program manager, supervisor, and educator/trainer is a greater value that has been increasing consistently and engaging in more challenging programs over the years and participating in many conferences, webinars and workshops such as DHIS2, OpenMRS, BA Summit, HIV specific forums, and many more.