Establishing an African Identity in Evaluation

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

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

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. 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

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)

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

14. WHERE GHANA STANDS • The next panels will examine M&E from various dimensions in Ghana