Siyanda Magubane joined IYF in 2020 as the Measurement, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) Officer for the High Gear initiative. He has nearly 10 years of experience working in the development sector, six of which have been spent in a senior MERL role supporting various projects in early childhood development, education, child protection, child rights governance, and health & nutrition.

Siyanda is systems-orientated and has spent most of his career developing and strengthening MERL systems to collect credible evidence on the effectiveness of projects. He takes a participatory approach to his work as he believes MERL processes require collaboration and are the foundations on which we can all learn from our experiences, improve our projects, and ultimately improve the quality of impact on our
beneficiaries.

He earned a Bachelor of Social Science degree in philosophy, politics, and law and a Bachelor of Social Science Honours degree in international relations from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.