Soma De Silva has been working to promote evaluation for the last 20 years. She started her career in the development field with the Government of Sri Lanka where she headed the Census of Population and Housing Division of the Department of Census and Statistics. She moved to the field of evaluation by joining UNICEF Colombo as Head of Monitoring and Evaluation. Subsequently, during her work as Regional Adviser, UNICEF South Asia, she promoted the role of evaluation in achieving development results through the UNICEF-Government programmes of cooperation in South Asia.

Among her work in promoting a culture of evaluation is the founding of the Sri Lanka Evaluation Association with other development partners and the conceptualisation and management of the programme ‘Teaching Evaluation in South Asia’ (TESA) which is designed to institutionalise evaluation training at graduate level in academic institutions in South Asia as a sustainable strategy for professionalising evaluation. She also initiated the establishment of the United Nations Evaluation Development in Asia and Pacific (UNEDAP) and spearheaded the production of the South Asia Evaluation Journal, 2007.

Since 2007, she is retired but actively engaged in promoting evaluation through IOCE, as President of the Sri Lanka Evaluation Association and Coordinator of the programme of Teaching Evaluation in South Asia.