Speaker bio: Harsha Dayal

The Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL) 2022 conference:  
Strengthening evidence use during the pandemic and beyond

Tuesday 22 – Friday 25 March

Register here: cedil2022.eventbrite.co.uk

Speaker biography: Harsha Dayal

Harsha Dayal, Director of Research and Knowledge Management, Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), Presidency of South Africa

 

Ms. Dayal is the Director of research and knowledge management at the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) within the Presidency of South Africa. She is trained in the medical sciences and worked for 14 years as a public health professional (1993-2007), before migrating to the social sciences during her employment at the Human Sciences Research Council (2007-2014). In 2012, she was seconded to the Presidency to project manage the country-level Twenty-Year Review as a milestone in SA’s democracy. She then became employed full time at DPME in 2014 to provide evidence support in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of South Africa’s developmental priorities and implementation of the National Development Plan (2030 vision). In collaborating with the wider research community and the national system of innovation, she developed various strategies to bridge between researchers and policy-makers in the process of knowledge production, management and translation. She introduced evidence mapping and synthesis methodology in the public sector to advance policy-relevant research and has further developed processes, systems and infrastructure to build public sector research capacity. She serves on several advisory bodies and reference groups nationally and internationally.