Eric Smith

Project Manager, ENGAGE: Women’s Empowerment and Active Citizenship

Eric joined Coady in 2016 and has rich experience in project development and management, monitoring and evaluation, and research. He enjoys exploring how participatory quantitative and qualitative MEL methods can transform power and agency to empower people, organizations and partners. He is strongly committed to learning with others in a collaborative fashion. In practice, this means taking a holistic approach to working across departments and programs to ensure purposeful systems that meet internal and external needs. As Coady’s Manager of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) from 2018-2020, Eric led the design and implementation of Coady’s MEL strategy, processes, and tools across its programs, facilitated MEL sessions for partners and in courses, and conducted research on Coady’s programs.

Eric is currently the Project Manager for ENGAGE: Women’s Empowerment and Active Citizenship. ENGAGE works in five countries to advance gender equality and poverty reduction by enhancing women’s capacity to participate in the social and economic life of their communities. It was co-designed by Coady and five of its partner organizations.

Prior to joining Coady, Eric worked with Genuine Progress Index Atlantic, supporting youth learning and environmental initiatives in Northern India. He also worked with the International Development Research Centre’s Canadian Partnerships and Fellowships and Awards programs. There, he carried out research on higher education programs in the global South and organizational learning in the civil society sector, as well as providing program management and monitoring and evaluation support to both programs.

Eric holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Carleton University and a Bachelor in Humanities and Philosophy from Carleton University. Outside of work you can find Eric cycling, volunteering at Keppoch Mountain, and enjoying the outdoors.

Selected Publications

Smith, E. (2019). Enhancing partnerships and expanding opportunities: Off-campus courses. Coady Institute. (1.3 Mb pdf)

Smith, E. (2019). Testing, documenting and sharing innovations for community-led change: A cross case study. Coady Institute. (1 Mb pdf)

Smith, E. (2019). Update to Learning from Stories of Change. Coady Institute. (1.2 Mb pdf)

Smith, E. (2018). Applying social network analysis to Coady networks: The case of South Africa (Innovation series no. 12). Coady Institute. (818K pdf)

den Heyer, M., Smith, E., & Irving, C. (2017). Learning from Stories of Change: An internal evaluation study. Coady Institute. (3.4 Mb pdf)

Smith, E. (2017). The learning needs and experiences of Canadian civil society organizations in international cooperation for development. In L.J.A. Mougeot (Ed.), Putting knowledge to work: Collaborating, influencing and learning for international development (pp. 145-184). Practical Action & IDRC.