Background: Since 2015, the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) has implemented more than seven diagnostic tools to better understand monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in the region. Through the process of adapting global tools to make them more appropriate to an African context, CLEAR-AA has learned several lessons about contextually relevant definitions and boundaries of M&E systems.Objectives: This article aims to share lessons learned from adapting and implementing a range of global tools in an African context, and puts forward certain key criteria for a ‘Made in Africa’ tool to better understand M&E systems in the region.Method: This article reviews CLEAR-AA’s diagnostic tools, as well as global good practice diagnostic tools, and compares the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. It further looks at the implementation of specific tools in context and proposes components on the basis of these lessons.Results: This review has found that most M&E tools have a heavy focus on the technical and contextual aspects of M&E but very few do a thorough job of accommodating the institutional factors. Furthermore, the relationship between the technical elements, the institutional elements and the organisational culture elements has not been made apparent.Conclusion: A contextually relevant diagnostic tool for M&E systems will balance technical considerations of capacity, institutional factors and issues of organisational culture. Drawing on approaches from organisational change may be of help to strengthen our tool development endeavours.
Background: It is imperative to recognise the effects of the intrinsically Eurocentric development agenda on attaining transformative evaluation that appropriately addresses development priorities in Africa. The role of international development agencies as critical anchors in African evaluation practice needs examination to advance the Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) discourse.Objectives: This article critiques the dominance of a Eurocentric lens to evaluation in Africa, illustrating how this impedes MAE. It harnesses the importance of MAE as a transformative, contextually relevant approach to espousing Afrocentric values in evaluation theory and practice.Method: Through a desktop review, the article examines the intrinsic power relations inherent in Western knowledge systems and how the effects of coloniality on African knowledge systems can deter the progression of a transformative, decolonial evaluation agenda.Results: The article recognises positive strides towards legitimising African knowledge systems and harnessing a more African evaluation agenda, for example, through the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), leading the standardisation of African evaluation competencies and guidelines.Conclusion: It establishes, however, the adverse effects of long-standing power imbalances, with the development agenda in Africa being primarily set by international development organisations, such as donors. This leaves little room for African evaluators to manoeuvre and define contextually appropriate approaches to the evaluation outside of the dominant Eurocentric evaluation standards. The article contributes to understanding the role of the dominant international development agencies on evaluation in Africa and proposes recommendations for achieving a more decolonised evaluation agenda. It highlights the importance of the legitimisation of African knowledge systems, a multidisciplinary approach to monitoring and evaluation (ME), ensuring inclusivity and representation in evaluation and negotiating power balances with international development agencies.
Percentages calculated on small figures and are shown for illustrative purposes.
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