1. GLOBAL CONTEXT, AFRICAN REALITIES IN EVALUATION: Establishing an African Identity in Evaluation
Keynote Presentation
Dr. Sulley Gariba
Institute for Policy Alternatives, IPA-Ghana
1st Regional Forum of GMEF in Bolgatanga, UER, Ghana
August 15, 2017, Sponsored by UNICEF
4/10/2019

2. In this presentation
I will reflect on “what has changed in the global context of development and it’s evaluation, and these have affected African Evaluation” since GMEF’s foundation. I will focus on:
Paradigm shifts in development thinking
Increased demand and leadership by Governments
Enhanced advocacy by Voluntary Organizations in Evaluation – AfrEA, SAMEA
Growing prominence of Parliaments
Supply-side capacities and partnerships to improve evaluation quality
Utilization of evaluations
Set-backs, roll-backs and failures at the continent level
4/10/2019

3. Global Context
Donor paradigms and conditionalities defined development thinking
Evaluation focused on donor demand for accountability and results
Evaluators and evaluations were led by donor-selected “experts,” and Africans (Ghanaians) served mainly as “local” researchers
Theories, Methods and approaches dominated by the donor institutions
4/10/2019

4. Context, then and now: Shifting Development Paradigms
Development as People-centered investments, defined by Constitutions and popular demand
“Where social programs are policy-connected interventions underpinned by the Constitution and Bill of Rights” Mark Abrahams, UCT.
Emergence of democracy and associated demands for participation and accountability
4/10/2019

5. Growing Demands for Accountability from Citizens in Africa
In the last decade, and intensifying in the last 5 years, citizen demand for accountability and associated political reforms have increased dramatically – media, youth groups, collective action movements:
Pressure on Governments to assess existing programs for their effectiveness and impacts
Emboldened representative Parliaments to carefully review their oversight functions
Intensified the expansion of Voluntary Organizations Promoting Evaluation (GMEF, AfrEA, SAMEA, other national Associations = over 30 in the last 10 years)
4/10/2019

6. Government-led Demands for Evaluation
Institutions dedicated to Evaluation at the highest levels of Government emerging or being transformed in a few countries – South Africa, Benin, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana; growing awareness in many more – need capacity to act
Frameworks, Standards and Guidelines for conducting and utilizing evaluations being developed in collaboration with specialized, African institutions – universities, think-tanks, consultants
Actual evaluations are being commissioned and conducted, as opposed to 7 years ago, when landscape in Africa was dominated mainly by MONITORING activities
In Ghana, landscape is still very much dominated by Monitoring; few evaluations are occuring
4/10/2019

7. ARCHITECTURE OF AFRICAN EVALUATION
Making progress at national levels:
Evaluation Units in Government leading monitoring & evaluation processes being strengthened
GoG recently established a Ministry for M&E – unique, but remains a challenging office in many countries
A governance structure for evaluations – involving critical stakeholders still emerging, but rather slow in most countries
Donor-led evaluations reducing in numbers; but donors still prominent in funding evaluations and capacity development
Parliaments having oversight role for programs, through select-committees, but most not yet using evaluation as tools for exercising oversight
Lost steam at the continental level:
A development agenda in NEPAD appears to have fizzled
An associated self-directed evaluation framework – the African Peer Review Mechanism seems to have lost direction and needs revival – but APRM started as a unique, home-grown evaluation method
4/10/2019

8. MAJOR QUESTION & DILEMMA: AFRICAN EVALUATION OR EVALUATION IN AFRICA?
African Knowledge Systems as a basis for Evaluation Theory
African Values and means of establishing valuation: how do we interprete the vision espoused in some of our constitutions – people come first
Purpose of Evaluation -- How do African evaluators cope with the challenges posed by the need to use evaluation as a tool for transformation, not just as ex-post assessment
Who commissions these evaluations?
How and with what standards and ethics are we conducting Evaluation in Africa
What Uses do we put to our evaluation endeavor
4/10/2019

9. Theory-base for African Evaluation
Mobilizing African Evaluation “think-tanks”, academics and practioners to:
Conduct research on indigenous knowledge systems that have bearing on evaluation. Much of the most profound history that have shaped & distorted our development is still rather oral
Publish epistemology and ontology of African Evaluation
Define ethics and standards for evaluation that satisfies Africa’s historical past and its cultural realities and specificities
4/10/2019

10. Evaluation for Transformation
For most of Africa, we cannot afford evaluation that merely registers “causality” for the sake of proving program “impacts” ex-post facto
Our citizens cannot wait, they need to be engaged in assessments that empower them to address the causes of failure and propel their energies for policy, program and budget reforms in a manner that real jobs are created and sustained, and that wealth is created and more equitably distributed.
What are the tools for this transformative evaluation in Africa?
4/10/2019

11. On the Demand-side: Empowering New Commissioners
Parliamentary systems for Evaluating Performance and feeding these into Government Budget Reviews
Civil Society engagement in assessing public policies
Continental systems for independent evaluation of Country Performance – APRM and the popular dissemination of findings
While strengthening current systems, such as Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation processes
4/10/2019

12. On the Supply-side: Growing New African Evaluators
Capacity Development efforts, such as the CLEAR Center, based in Witts emerged:
Core training of African Evaluators, and starting to convene reflections on uniquely African theory-base for evaluation;
Arranging practical internships in different African countries and cultures;
Encouraging and funding partnerships among evaluators, in both the public and private sectors
Sharing lessons across countries and within countries
Networking among training institutions across Africa
4/10/2019

13. EVALUATION ASSOCIATIONS
GMEF – a forum that stimulates ideas and shares knowledge as well as build network of evaluators and public institutions
SAMEA -- An example of how to deepen Evaluation within countries:
Regional and Provincial chapters
Subject-matter groups
Alliances between Government, Academic institutions and Practitioners
AFREA – coming of age
Now became formalized (2009), a headquarters in Accra, with a full-time Executive Director
Been instrumental in the growth of new Evaluation Associations across Africa;
Representing Africa’s voice and contributing to global debates on Evaluation
Has launched the African Journal of Evaluation, up-loading (rather than down-loading) evaluative knowledge to Africa and the world.
4/10/2019

14. WHERE GHANA STANDS
The next panels will examine M&E from various dimensions in Ghana
4/10/2019