The Community of Evaluators – Nepal (CoE-Nepal) and SOPHOI jointly organized a webinar on “Introduction to ESLA Loops” on Monday, 24 March 2025, at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM Nepal Time (GMT +05:45). During the webinar the passing of the EvalTorch ( eval4action.org/evaltorch ) was celebrated.
The webinar begun with the celebration of the passing of EvalTorch as a symbol and a call to action, uniting the evaluation community to build a future where evaluation contributes to a more just and sustainable world. Mr. Khalil Bitar, President of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), handed over the EvalTorch on behalf of the Eval4Action Campaign, which was warmly received on behalf of CoE-Nepal by Mr. Prabin Chitrakar, Chairperson of CoE-Nepal.
The session of the webinar was formally started with the welcome remarks by Mr. Prabin Chitrakar, Chairperson of CoE-Nepal. The webinar was moderated by Mr. Ujjwal Krishna Mali, Executive Committee Member of CoE-Nepal.
In the webinar, Mr. Robbie Gregorowski, Co-founder and Director of SOPHOI, and Dr. Jody Aked, Facilitator & Evaluator of SOPHOI presented their presentation on the Introduction of ESLA Loops – www.eslaloops.io. In their presentation, presenters shared ESLA Loops as an approach to using evidence to inform learning and action on complex challenges. The approach embraces systems thinking and the practical implications of working in complex contexts, where change processes are dynamic and emergent.
In the webinar, ESLA Loops was introduced as an approach, shared its underlying principles and foundational concepts, and illustrated what ESLA Loops ‘look like’ in practice through two project examples. It also explained why complex society challenges are required to design and facilitate Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) processes differently. Additionally, the session demonstrated the role of collaborative sense-making that can play in the process.
Dr. Ram Chandra Khanal, Adviser of CoE-Nepal reflected on the presentations presented by Mr. Robbie Gregorowski and Dr. Jody and shared thoughts on the relevance of ESLA Loops in the context of the Global South.
Participants were engaged in the Q&A session. There were over forty participants participating the webinar making over 62% of total registrants registered from 16 countries for the webinar.
