INTRAC Newsletter August 2021

Welcome to our August 2021 newsletter

In wealthy countries, the thoughts of many people are increasingly turning to a time beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. While numbers of cases and deaths continue to be troubling, successful vaccination programmes raise the possibility of a return to relative normality in countries like the UK. However, it is vital that we remember the terrible impact that the pandemic continues to have around the world. In many countries in the global South, vaccination rates are extremely low and an end to this disruption seems distant.

Given the enormous challenges posed by the pandemic, and by deeply concerning situations in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Hong Kong – to name just a few – the role of civil society is as vital as ever.

As INTRAC continues to work to support civil society in these challenging times, we have recently welcomed five new members to our Board of Trustees. The board will not only support the achievement of our priorities but also help us to address the cross-cutting question of diversity in our programme content, and this is the subject of our viewpoint article in this issue (page 2). In it, new board member Smruti Patel and our Training and E-Learning Officer Liezel Longboan discuss what INTRAC is doing to promote diversity and inclusion. You can read more about Smruti, and our other new Board members, in the Our People section (pages 8 and 9).

Elsewhere in this issue, Jeremy Astill-Brown provides a guest contribution on the challenge and privilege of undertaking a developmental evaluation (page 3), we provide updates on four recent pieces of work (pages 4 and 5), and we share new publications, including new Praxis Series and M&E Universe papers (page 6).