Facilitators for this workshop include:

• Michael Woolcock, World Bank's Development Research Group, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

• Diane Dyson from WoodGreen Community Services

• Fred Carden from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

• Jim Lavery from St. Michaels Hospital

• Sanjeev Sridharan, The Evaluation Centre for Complex Health Interventions.

Michael Woolcock  is Lead Social Development Specialist in the World Bank's Development Research Group, and (part-time) Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder of the World Bank's global 'Justice for the Poor' program, which examines interactions between formal and informal justice institutions from a user's perspective. This work has given rise to a particular interest in strategies for assessing the efficacy of complex policy interventions. His most recent books are Contesting Development: Participatory Projects and Local Conflict Dynamics in Indonesia (Yale University Press, 2011) and History, Historians and Development Policy: A Necessary Dialogue (Manchester University Press, 2011).

Diane Dyson is a social activist, researcher and blogger interested in issues of neighbourhoods, schooling, and poverty. She is currently Manager of Planning and Research at WoodGreen Community Services, a large neighbourhood-based multiservice agency in east end Toronto, where she is leading a staff team on developing Local Immigration Partnerships and a funding grant stream for grassroots seniors’ groups. Prior to this, Diane worked at United Way of Greater Toronto, where she co-authored Losing Ground, worked on the Strong Neighbourhood strategy, managed the Social Research Grants, and was Allocation Manager to a panel of community agencies.

Fred Carden is Director of Evaluation at the International Development Research Centre (Canada). His particular expertise is in the development and adaptation of evaluation methodology for the evaluation of development research. His current interests centre around the evaluation of systems change.

Jim Lavery is a research scientist in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health (CRICH) and Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR), Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, and faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto.