Ambassadors asia

Angelica Austin is currently an economics consultant with Intelligent Energy Systems, Advisory team in Sydney Australia. Angelica has spent the last twenty years evaluating energy policy in Australia and the Asia Pacific for both the public and private sectors. She has worked for the Office of Environment and Heritage in NSW as a senior economist assisting with the energy efficiency programs evaluation.

Angelica has also worked overseas on energy and climate change security for an NGO, the East West Institute. She also worked in the International Energy section at the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics. She also worked for the Queensland Resources Council as an economic adviser on energy and climate change policy.

Effective evaluation will lead to many opportunities in the private and public sectors in the design, implementation and evaluation of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and policies. Angelica would like to contribute to the improvement the theory, practice, understanding and utilisation of evaluation and its contribution to public knowledge and to promote cross-sector and cross-disciplinary dialogue and debate.

Verena Pichler is a qualified climate scientist, economist and lawyer specialising in development, implementation and evaluation of best practice economic environmental policies.  With a career that spans the private, public and not-for profit sector, Verena brings a multidisciplinary and diverse perspective to the consideration of policies. With a strong background in energy demand-side management, Verena currently leads the project team evaluating Australia’s largest energy efficiency certificate trading program (the Victorian Energy Upgrades program). This follows from her previous project, which quantified costs and benefits of the program to date over its ten year lifetimes, and set ambitious new emissions reduction targets. Verena specialises in evaluating programs from a technical, environmental, social and economic perspective, including how they can best support consumers, but also governments, in transitioning to a net zero carbon economy.  While her focus lies in strategic evaluation, Verena has also worked extensively in evaluating technologies, including evaluating baselines for deemed, and measurement & verification upgrade methodologies. Verena’s recent focus is in evaluating market dynamics associated with small certificate trading programs in order to promote price efficiency and reduce program costs.

Marie Couture-Roy is the Program Evaluation Director at Econoler, an international consulting firm with 35 years of experience in the design, implementation, evaluation and financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and projects. She has extensive experience in the energy efficiency sector and more specifically in the evaluation of energy management programs both in Canada and abroad. Marie has participated in the evaluation of numerous energy efficiency programs in most provinces around Canada, as well as on the international market (Mexico and Chile), to measure energy impacts and help improve processes, among other.

With the ultimate goals of shifting the market toward more EE technologies and transforming behaviors, ratepayer-funded programs represent one of the most successful and cost-effective solutions to reducing energy usage and fighting climate change. Achieving these objectives requires regular program evaluations to continuously improve impacts on the market and ensure programs are on track to cost-effectively achieving long-term objectives.

Currently, Mariana Pavón is the Deputy Director of the Sustainable Energy Agency of Chile, an NGO that promotes, strengthens, and consolidates the energy sustainability in the country – contributing to a sustainable and competitive development through the design, implementation and measurement of energy efficiency and renewable programs.

Mariana has a Masters in Economics, along with 10 years of experience in the energy efficiency field. She worked in the Ministry of Energy, where she led the work on methodology and guidelines to evaluate energy efficiency programs, evaluated the impacts of the Labels and Standards programs, and measured the impacts of different energy efficiency incentives. Also, she collaborated on different studies measuring the impacts of the investments in energy efficiency program developed by the Ministry and the Agency.

Jialing has worked at Energy Foundation China for 8 years focusing on industry energy efficiency, and appliance energy efficiency and labels. Her experience includes policy research and analysis, program design, implementation and evaluation, grant making, project management, and developing relationships with donors, business enterprises, research institutes and other stakeholders.

Jialing holds a master’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Boston University, a master’s degree in Material Science and Engineering from University of Science and Technology Beijing and a B.S. in Inorganic and Nonmetal Material from University of Science and Technology Beijing.

Steivan Defilla is a visiting Professor at the School of Architecture in Tianjin University. He has been the Assistant President of the APEC Sustainable Energy Center (APSEC) since 2018. He is the lead author of a recent report on the topic “APEC Sustainable Urban Development Annual Report – From Models to Results.” At APSEC, he will focus on empowering cities to do results-oriented monitoring of the key Sustainable Development Goals related to energy, CO2 emissions and disaster risk reduction.

He is the former Director of the Energy Charter (2010-2016), an intergovernmental energy organization with 50 Member states, headquartered in Brussels. He managed the expansion of the Energy Charter to include 30 new observer states, among them China, who all signed the International Energy Charter declaration in May 2015 in an ad hoc Ministerial conference in The Hague, The Netherlands. He also supervised or co-authored 26 studies and analyses and 2 books on energy-related subjects.
As Senior Energy Advisor to the Swiss Economics Minister (1999-2010), he contributed to the reform of the Swiss electricity sector, the Swiss infrastructure strategy and the Swiss foreign energy policy. He wrote a book and co-authored 13 articles in English, German, French and Russian languages. He also attended Governing Board meetings of the IEA and co-chaired multilateral negotiations at the Energy Charter.

Steivan holds a Master degree in Statistics and a Bachelor degree in Economics from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He also holds a Postgraduate degree on Energy from the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Lausanne.

Dr. Archana Walia is a practicing development professional with over twenty-four years of core experience of working on issues across the sectors ranging from climate change; clean energy, energy efficiency, urban development, water management and integrated resource management.

She has served in several leadership position as a country director, deputy office director, senior climate change advisor and a team leader with demonstrable experience to lead teams of professionals and administrative staff, planning strategies and programs, managing the portfolio for results, planning budgets and financial management.

Serving as the Director of India program at CLASP, she provides leadership, management, and strategic direction to all program activities to ensure the efficient use of resources and achievement of results. She oversees strategies and activities for India’s participation in the Global programs such as Superefficient Appliance and Deployment program (SEAD) under the Clean Energy Ministerial as well as actively develops business development strategies.

Archana served as the deputy director of the Office of Clean Energy and Environment at USAID/India. In this capacity, she served as the senior energy and climate change advisor at USAID providing intellectual leadership, advisory and analytical inputs in the development of climate change program strategies including clean energy, sustainable landscape and water. Her experience ranges from developing program strategies and analyzing the financial, economic, institutional, technological and environmental costs and benefits of various regulatory, policy and technological changes especially relating to clean energy and energy efficiency. Prior to this, Archana worked with the Department for International Development (DFID), UK bilateral agency for over four years managing the first ever Power Sector Reform Program in India in the state of Orissa. She worked with the British Council division as Project officer for three years administering and managing projects and training program in the field of Natural Resources and Environment.

Ripu comes with 15 years of international multi-disciplinary experience in facilitating India’s clean energy transition. He specializes in design and development of both on-line and off-line monitoring and evaluation and program and knowledge management systems. Past decade of his specialized experience is in the clean energy sector, during which he has worked with a variety of donors and institutions, including U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Developed (DFID), Government of UK, and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). While framing M&E systems has been Ripu’s forte, leading continuous improvement efforts and knowledge management within organizations and programs has been an equivalent mission all through his career.

Most recently, Ripu has been the Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Management Specialist for USAID Greening the Grid (GTG) Renewable Integration and Sustainable Energy (RISE) Initiative, implemented by Deloitte Consulting. It is a five-year program implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Power (MOP), Government of India (GOI) that aims to support GOI’s efforts to manage large-scale integration of Renewable Energy (RE) into the grid. Previously Ripu served as the M&E Specialist for USAID/India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy – Deployment (PACE-D) Technical Assistance Program. His key responsibilities in these roles have been to develop results-based, gender disaggregated strategy and define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including collection of baseline data to demonstrate quantitative results and progress; develop strategy to sustain and scale program interventions including cross cutting initiatives such as gender equality and private sector engagement; provide strategic advisory inputs to the Chief of Party (COP) and USAID for effective program operations and management in light of dynamic global scenario and U.S. and India government priorities; Enable program coordination and joint work planning among U.S. Government (USG) activities, Government of India (GOI) stakeholders; consolidate content and develop weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports to USAID on program performance measurement; guide a dedicated support staff for M&E/KM activities along with working closely with the engineering team to deliver agreed deliverables.

Earlier, while at TERI, Ripu travelled across rural India villages, South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa on energy access issues working closely with the rural communities, especially rural women at the grassroots level. He worked with a variety of state and local governments, public and private sector stakeholders and donor agencies. He also led multiple key Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects for a variety of public and private corporate donors as the Principal Investigator, including ICICI Foundation, Rural Electrification Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, Power System Operation Corporation, and GAIL India Limited.

Ripu is a great believer in forming alliances. In his most recent engagement at USAID GTG-RISE Initiative, he has been instrumental with on boarding of leaders, experts, international agencies and think-tanks in forming interest groups such as the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) aimed at enhanced private sector engagement in the clean energy transition; and South Asia Women in Energy (SAWIE) Initiative aimed at accelerating representation of women at the leadership levels in the energy, industrial and manufacturing sectors in the South Asia Region. Ripu is an expert reviewer for REN21 Global Status Report and Mentor for POWERED Accelerator, an initiative by Shell Foundation, DFID, Zone Start-ups

Ripu loves to interact socially and can be found at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

Rislima Sitompul has been working as a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), with over 20 years of experience in solutions-driven technical research, project leading, and team management. Her research focuses on energy policy, renewable energy studies, energy related CO2 emissions, and the application of appropriate technologies for community development.She has a number of experiences researching and evaluating various industries within Indonesia, and has a firm understanding of the local contexts in which she works. Rislima has conducted research and evaluation on energy financing, reforestation and bio-energy, and promoting regional innovation in Indonesia. She has also experienced working with the World Bank, the Danish Government, the UN Development Program, USAID and the Asian and Pacific Development Centre, mostly on renewable energy issues.

The use of renewable energy has been an important issue in Indonesia’s energy policy as part of the government policy to reduce the use of fossil fuel and also as an effective tool to reduce GHG emissions. A number of policies on renewable energy that have been enacted recently have shown significant increase in renewable energy use, reaching about 12.52 percent in 2017. However, Indonesia aims to achieve the target of 23% renewable energy use by 2025 and 31% by 2050. There are still a lot of efforts that should be done to achieve these target within the remaining few years. Evaluation is crucial in this effort so that any energy development activities can be directed to achieve the target. Evaluation is also important in gaining sustainability of energy development.

Rislima is glad to become a member of the EEAP ambassador team and being able to use her expertise and skill to contribute on making a successful team work on energy evaluation.

Currently, Tubagus Iqbal is an Ambassador for Energy Evaluation Asia Pacific and an affiliate at the Centre for Energy Security Studies, Indonesia Defense University. He is working with colleagues around the world in developing a community of evaluators of energy programs in the Asia Pacific.

Evaluation is a sequence in the process that is very important because it ensures sustainability for a cycle to get improvement. Through this improvement, the quality of life will increase over time. Evaluation in the field of energy will ensure that the quality of life is improving, using the development of new technologies based on the assessment of previous technologies.

Effective evaluation will lead to many opportunities in the private and public sectors in the design, implementation, and evaluation of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and policies.

The area of energy evaluation is interesting because it opens the opportunities for improving society. Tubagus is excited about working with new and experienced individuals and organizations in this effort. Hopefully, his contribution to the future of the world, and especially to his country Indonesia, will bring Indonesia to be similar to developed countries through future-oriented and sustainable programs and policies.

Hidetoshi Nakagami, Ph.D. founded the Jyukankyo Research Institute Inc. in 1973, he is a certified and authorized first class architect in Japan. He has been working in the energy evaluation field for over 50 years on various subjects: policy, strategic options, technology, monitoring, evaluation for energy efficiency.

He served in the early 1990s on the Energy Efficiency Standard for Appliances in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and as Chairman of Implementation Study Committee for Daylight Saving, Energy Conservation Center of Japan. He is a member of Science Council of Japan (SCJ), and he serves as the Chairman for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee, Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI). He is a member of Central Environment Council, Ministry of Environment (MOE) and a member of Council for Social Infrastructure, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). He is the President of Japan Association of Energy Service Companies (JAESCO).

Ms. Asanova is currently a project coordinator in the private sector. She started her career as a lawyer with the State Department on Land Management and registration of Rights on Real Estate in the Kyrgyz Republic. She provided consultancy services in energy efficiency and waste management projects in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2016, and was involved as an expert in water management project in Kyrgyz Republic in 2018.

Ms. Asanova is interested in Climate Change, Monitoring and Evaluation of projects. She has completed courses in Monitoring and Evaluation, and, in 2017, she completed an e-learning course, “National Evaluation Capacity Development for Country-led Monitoring & Evaluation Systems,” organized by EvalPartners.

In her view, evaluation and adjustment should be applicable not only in a project cycle but also on policies and strategic measures, so that outcomes of joint efforts on national, regional and international levels could be coordinated and rapidly moved in the right direction. She is particularly interested in decreasing GHG emissions from the fossil-fuel combined heat and power plants by using various methods such as improving fossil fuel technologies at the production stage as well as ensuring effective distribution and rational consumption of heat and power through the installation of customized heat supply stations. She notes that developing countries in Central Asia are not industrialized, but are on the beginning of their path to the renewable resources. In this regard, the balance of interests among communities, governments and businesses at all levels is crucial for achieving common goals together for the greater good of lives, species and our planet Earth.

Somphanh Phomma has more than 20 years working experience on different development projects in Lao PDR. He has studied in Thailand and Laos, having a M.Sc. in Social Science for Development (Thailand) and B.A. in English Language and Literature (Laos).

His project experience includes Lao Evaluation Network, Sustainable Forest Management (SUFORD), ICT capacity building for forest governance (ICT for FLEG), training for socio-economic data collection and analysis in ADB project (ADB RETA), agricultural development (WB), but also hydropower and land titling projects. In these projects, He has worked as a project manager, advisor and procurement specialist, while successfully acting as a link between project stakeholders and providing trainings on a variety of issues required for success in these projects.

Mohammad Ezzani Iswan Ismail or better known as Ezzani, is an analyst at Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGTC). He completed his BEng (Hons) in Biochemical and Biotechnology Engineering at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). He is an AEMAS Certified Energy Manager and Assessor, having years of experience in the water and environmental quality industry as well as oil, gas and mining sector specifically on chemical analysis and process optimization. He has supervised more than 50 EMGS assessments up to date and is always eager to help organizations be more efficient and reduce more energy.

Currently, Sarah Sharuddin is an affiliate with the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) in Malaysia and has been involved in energy efficiency programs and workshops for Malaysia since 2017. Started her career with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) in 2014 and has been involved in assisting policy making for the ministry particularly on oceanography issues.

She was a National Science Fellowship receiver majoring in Marine Science while in tertiary education. Environmental issues have always been close to her heart. Sarah was involved with a few NGOs like WWF and Save Our Seahorses (SOS) Foundation during her university days.

Itha Sánchez Ramos is a researcher at the National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energy (INEEL), a public enterprise dedicated to innovation, technological development and applied scientific research.  Her work involves the development, coordination and direction of energy efficiency projects.  Itha has worked on methodologies that have been used for evaluating technical, economic and environmental energy assessment impacts derived from federal demand management programs implemented in México (such as an energy efficiency standardization federal program and the replacement of appliances federal program).  She has also worked on the efficiency of end-use equipment as part of energy audits and optimization in industrial processes.  Itha has been involved in developing the methodology of technical-economic evaluation to determine the profitability and relevance of the savings options portfolio in more than 15 industrial facilities. She has also been involved in other research topics such as standby power, life cycle cost analysis, controllable demand, and energy efficiency indicators of public policies.

She is a representative of INEEL in several state and national energy saving committees.  Itha has also worked on international collaboration projects on evaluation methodologies with Colombia and the United States.

Dr. Gana Pati Ojha, a national of Nepal, has about 30 years’ experience in development in different capacities in several countries. For the last 20 years he has been actively involved in research and evaluation with state and non-state actors as a team leader. He has used different approaches of evaluation in his work including contribution analysis, appreciative inquiry, and value for money in addition to other common approaches to evaluation. He also has experience in developing M&E guidelines, promoting quality evaluation through knowledge generation in evaluation, evaluation capacity development, and organizing international and national conclaves, workshops, network meetings and seminars. He is also experienced in managing evaluation organizations, and creating enabling environments for evaluation by contributing to the formation of evaluation policy framework, a M&E Bill, motivating parliamentarians to be evaluation sensitive and helping organize evaluation forums of parliamentarians. He has over three dozen publications and was awarded an Award of Excellence by EvalPartners in 2015 for his outstanding work in evaluation.

Dr. Ojha is the Founder and President of Imagine Nepal and Capital College and Research Centre as well as the President of the Association of Fellows, Students, Trainees and Residents of the International Rice Research Institute (AFSTRI) for 1997/98 in the Philippines. He was one of the key persons to establish the Community of Evaluators-Nepal and served as its Chairperson from 2014 to 2017.

Dr. Ojha is on the Board of Trustees of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), and he is a member of the Management Group of EvalPartners, a global Network for the promotion of Volunteer Organizations for Professional Evaluation. He is also serving as an Adjunct Professor at the Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal.

I have been working in research, evidence-based insights and evaluation for the last 25 years. My current role includes supporting and advising on the development of evaluation frameworks for projects and programmes in New Zealand that are looking to alleviate energy hardship among the vulnerable populations.

I am also part of a wider network of data experts, technical specialists, economists and social scientists, all aiming to reduce our dependence on fossils fuels while exploring opportunities to increase the use of economically-viable renewable options for sustainable energy generation. Current programmes to decarbonise emissions-intensive industries in New Zealand will provide substantial lessons that can be shared across the region and wider. In the same context, we continue to learn from countries who are forging the path to mitigate the effects of climate change through better use of renewable energy sources.

Hur has 15 years of experience in designing and conducting evaluations in and around fragility, conflict and violence. He has lived and worked in some of the worst contexts in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Hur has designed, commissioned and conducted research and evaluations for projects funded by the UN agencies, European Commission, private donors and governments of the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands and Norway. Hur is an expert in experimental and quasi-experimental designs, participatory and theory-based evaluation approaches and has developed innovative tools that have been used on the face of the conflict and presented internationally.

He is an elected Board Member at the International Development Evaluation Association [IDEAS]. At IDEAS, Hur convenes the Thematic Interest Group on Evaluations in Fragility, Conflict and Violence [EvalFCV]. Hur has 15 years of experience in designing and conducting evaluations in and around fragility, conflict and violence. He has lived and worked in some of the worst contexts in Asia, Middle East and Africa. Hur has designed, commissioned and conducted research and evaluations for projects funded by the UN agencies, European Commission, private donors and governments of the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands and Norway. Hur is an expert in experimental and quasi-experimental designs, participatory and theory-based evaluation approaches and has developed innovative tools that have been used on the face of the conflict and presented internationally.

He is an elected Board Member at the International Development Evaluation Association [IDEAS]. At IDEAS, Hur convenes the Thematic Interest Group on Evaluations in Fragility, Conflict and Violence [EvalFCV].

Romeo is interested in how evaluation can further influence policy-makers and corporate practitioners into getting the right understanding that the true results of energy efficiency programs are not just reducing loss and reaping windfall profits, but that of uplifting the welfare and lives of people.

Romeo Santos strongly believes in the cross and trans-disciplinary fusion of corporate, academia, and community practices. It brings good benefits to individuals and society. After all, living is actually a cross and trans-disciplinary mixture of life pursuits.

Romeo’s affiliation with the College of Architecture, University of the Philippines as a professor helps him develop diverse exposure in the industry and international development fields -including community extension services. The evaluation career that he now practices enables him to work in league with practitioners in national government agencies (NGAs); local and international NGOs; the UN, financial intermediaries; development organizations, and many other professionals in the public, private, and plural sectors. He works with the global evaluation community in advancing the cause of evaluation in all disciplines, but specifically in energy efficiency, which is very relevant to his education in architectural engineering.

Dr. Ricky Lozari is the President of the Pilipinas Monitoring and Evaluation Society. He is also the President of the Results-Based Initiative Consultancy Services and a faculty member of the John Gokongwei School of Management of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Ricky holds a PhD in Economics and specializes in Behavioral Economics.

Ricky has been working in M&E and applied economics for over 20 years and has produced, quality assured and implemented over 100 reports, studies, plans and systems in the areas of economic and social development, governance, education reforms, human resource and organizational development, MSME development and public-private partnerships.

Ricky has, for over a decade, been advising and capacitating Philippine government agencies and private organizations on matters related to Results-Based Management and M&E. He has been working with multilateral and bilateral organizations including IFC, GEF, ADB, UNDP, IFAD, DFAT, USAID, CIDA and GIZ. He is an alumnus of the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET), Ottawa, Canada; and J-PAL Executive Education Course in Evaluating Social Programs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Ricky hopes to contribute his expertise and help analyze past and present evaluation studies to find social behavioral change-based approaches to reaching energy, environment and climate change goals.

Hae-in is working on the evaluations of various programs from energy to international development field, Hae-in has been involved in the entire process of monitoring and evaluation. Working with diverse partners such as utility and government, Hae-in has designed a monitoring and evaluation framework, defined indicators, and developed methodologies for impact evaluations. Currently, Hae-in is focusing on the evaluation of demand side management programs, and has been assessing (or estimating) the impact of the programs.

Good evaluations of energy programs in Asia-Pacific will definitely help to use energy efficiently and achieve a transition to clean energy.

Dr. Kim, Kang-won is the team leader of the renewable energy policy team at KEA (Korea Energy Agency), a government agency under MOTIE (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy), which is in charge of overall energy policy in Korea. He holds a Ph.D. in the field of “Energy System and Power Economics.” While working at KEA, he has worked mostly in renewable energy policy areas, such as a dispatcher at MOTIE renewable energy. He has an expertise for planning of government’s mid-to-long term renewable energy policy. Specifically, he was in charge of the institutionalization of Korea’s Feed-in Tariff and RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard), which are the core components of renewable energy supply policy in Korea. Additionally, he has a variety of experiences to expand renewable energy such as the RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard), the renewable energy guarantee program and the RE100 implementation system.

Ilya Dolmatov is Director of the Institute of Pricing and Regulation of Natural Monopolies (link). He also works at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.

He is Head of scientific-practical and expert-consulting work in the field of evaluation of the effectiveness of investment programs, tariff policy and tariff setting for utility services (electricity, gas).

Since 2017, he has been a Member of the Expert Council the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for Energy. Since 2011, he has been a Member of the editorial board of the journal “Electric Stations.”

Chitra has more than 17 years of experience in advisory/consulting services in the development sector, particularly in the areas of energy (power sector) and climate change. For the past 10 years, she has been deeply involved in conducting monitoring and evaluation as part of technical assistance related to power projects, both off-grid and on-grid, and climate change/low carbon development sector.

Chitra is currently leading a team of Independent Verification Agents to verify the performance of the PLN (Indonesian electric utilities) distribution network against the indicators of PLN’s result-based lending from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank’s Program for Results.  In this assignment, she also acts as the lead auditor to verify PLN’s achievements of the results framework (both Disbursement Link Indicators (DLIs) and non-DLIs) and of the program action plan.

Chitra was the monitoring and evaluation specialist in an ADB technical assistance project, “Scaling Up Renewable Energy Access in Eastern Indonesia,” where she developed the monitoring and evaluation plan for the “Sumba Iconic Island Initiative,” a program that aims at scaling up energy access in Sumba Island in eastern Indonesia, by using renewable energy sources. The program consists of fifteen sub-programs including scaling up small-scale hydro projects, solar power and biomass power generation.

In a World Bank-funded assignment, Chitra led a team in conducting the evaluation of micro-hydro project operations that had been developed under PNPM (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (National Program in community empowerment)) green block grants. The evaluation covered 15 micro-hydro locations in Sumatera and Sulawesi, Indonesia, and it included an evaluation of the financial analysis of the operation (investment and revenue), the socio-economic benefits and the operation and management quality of micro–hydro projects.

Chitra’s monitoring and evaluation experience in climate change issues includes assistance to carbon credit transactions and verifications, greenhouse gas accounting and audits for oil and gas industry and cement manufacturers. Her regional coverage of working experience covers China, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Chitra received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Indonesia. She earned her Master’s degrees in Energy Technology from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and in International Project Management from ESCP Europe, France.

Jeong Won is a Research Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute (ESI), National University of Singapore (NUS). She has a number of years of experience in energy and environmental policy research and sustainable development project management in international organizations and research institutes based in South Korea and Singapore. She has written several academic publications about climate and renewable energy policies, including assessing urban energy transition and climate change adaptation strategies of South Korea, analyzing the competitiveness of energy storage system (ESS), and estimating required funding for achieving renewable energy targets of developing countries. After joining the ESI, she participated in government-funded research projects about renewable energy curtailment and energy efficiency financing models.

Believing rigorous evaluation is essential to raise the effectiveness of policies, she seeks to analyze the effects and diffusion mechanism of climate and energy policies with various methods. She is currently conducting research on green finance at the international, national and local levels, and cost-benefit analysis of hydrogen transportation.

Asela Kalugampitiya is a Sri Lankan lawyer currently working as EvalPartners Executive Coordinator. EvalPartners is a Global partnership of civil society evaluation capacity development. He manages evaluation capacity building initiatives around the world.

Asela has been working in the M&E field for over 15 years particularly in gender equality and policy development. He has worked for international organizations including International Development Law Organization (IDLO), UN Women, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), International Labor Organization (ILO) and CARE International as Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist.

Asela was instrumental in launching International Year of Evaluation 2015 and organizing Global Evaluation Forum held at the parliament of Nepal and parliament of Kyrgyz Republic. He was also instrumental in initiating parliamentarians’ movement promoting evaluation culture: Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation. The first ever parliamentarians evaluation forum was held in Colombo in Sep 2018 with participation of over 250 delegates from over 70 countries where parliamentarians committed for the Colombo Declaration.

He has worked as the (honorary) Director- Center for Evaluation, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He is a member of the teaching faculty of the Post Graduate Diploma in Evaluation course run by the same university.

Thusitha Sugathapala is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering of the University of Moratuwa (UoM) in Sri Lanka; and a Chartered Engineer. He served as the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UoM from 2005 to 2008; Director – Undergraduate Studies; Chairman – Academic Committee and Chairman – Curriculum & Evaluation Committee of the Faculty of Engineering from 2008 to 2011, the Director General of Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority from 2011 to 2015, and the founding Director of Enterprise – the Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and University-Business Linkages of UoM from 2016 to 2019. He has also worked as a consultant for several national & international programmes under multilateral development agencies. His key research areas of interest cover Renewable Energy (RE), Energy Efficiency (EE), Air Quality and Waste Management, Sustainable Transport, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

Thusitha Sugathapala has been involved with development of many levels of formal as well as informal and non-formal educational programmes, from early childhood to professional.
Thusitha Sugathapala’s contributions to other sectors at national level include, among others, the development of National Policy & Strategy on Sustainable Development of Sri Lanka; National Policy on Sustainable Consumption & Production (SCP); National Energy Policy & Strategies of Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka Vehicle Emission Testing programme; Feed-in tariff for non-conventional RE sources; Vehicular exhaust emission standards; Stationary sources emission standards; SCP Education Plan for Sri Lanka together with SCP course module & Resource Pack for university education; Clean Air Action Plans; NDCs for Transport, Energy & Waste sectors; Regulations for EE of appliances; EE Building Code; Sri Lanka Standards Specification on Criteria and Indicators for Sustainably Produced Fuel Wood.

He obtained the BSc Engineering Degree from UoM and PhD from University of Cambridge.

Boonrod Yaowapruek is currently the Director and Head of climate finance practice at Creagy, a result-oriented consultancy specialized in energy and climate change.He has over 18 years of experience in clean energy and financing in Asia. Recently, Roonrod was the investment mobilization lead at USAID Clean Power Asia and the clean energy finance team leader at USAID PFAN-Asia, where he led the team to work with policy makers, developers, investors, and financial institutions in identifying barriers and facilitating the clean energy investment across Asia. He also served in various roles as originator, structurer, analyst and consultant at GDF SUEZ (Engie), Eneco Energy Trade BV, ABN AMRO Bank NV and ERM-Siam.

Since 2015, Boonrod has been focusing his work on monitoring and evaluation for clients to ensure that their programs/projects are effective, efficient and sustainable. Creagy supported the Ministry of Energy to monitor and evaluate national energy policies and their energy projects funded by the Energy Conservation Fund (Encon fund) in Thailand. Some people still don’t understand differences between ‘evaluation ‘ and ‘audit’, and think an evaluator is an evil trying to catch their bad. Boonrod believes evaluation is a very important step that we can’t ignore. It is the whole game to understand more and gain lessons learned & feedbacks to grow and to become better, wiser, and stronger. He really hopes we grow this evaluation community to make our world grow sustainably.

I am currently an Affiliate at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), where I was involved in the evaluation of energy efficiency programs and technology performance measurement for over 36 years. I have been working with colleagues around the world in developing a community of evaluators of energy programs in Asia Pacific. As part of this effort, I have been involved in organizing workshops in Asia, as well as organizing our first conference in Asia in Bangkok in November 2017.

Evaluation is critical for improving our way of life: Developing new energy programs and policies as well as improving existing energy programs and policies, for implementing the path to sustainability.
My work and career is evaluation! My close network of colleagues are involved in evaluation, and I look forward to working with others (especially the “next generation”) in promoting evaluation.

Effective evaluation will lead to many opportunities in the private and public sectors in the design, implementation and evaluation of renewable energy and energy efficiency programs and policies.
I am interested in this area of energy evaluation because of the opportunities for improving society, and I am excited in working with new and experienced individuals and organizations in this effort. Evaluation is often misunderstood and under appreciated: I hope this community of evaluators will change that image.

Mr. Hoang Viet Dung is an Energy Expert and Project Coordinator for the World Bank/Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Project: Vietnam Energy Efficiency for Industrial Enterprises, and he is responsible for oversight and coordination of project implementation. He has been working in the energy efficiency area for 13 years on various subjects: policy, green finance, technology, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation for energy efficiency.

He is also involved as a consultant to the MOIT’s Vietnam National Energy Efficiency Program where he is responsible for the evaluation of energy labeling/MEPS program and is supporting capacity building activities related to energy efficiency. His past work has included evaluation of labeling applications (including site audits) and monitoring and evaluation related to energy efficiency labels, standards and policies.