Academic Publications

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Our work is intended to support and improve M&E, contributes to enhance governance and improved development outcomes across the continent. This is linked to a deliberate research and learning agenda. Here you will find our research contribution through books, journal articles, case studies and working papers.

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2012 - 201921

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Start date: 2012End date: 2019

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 21
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    African Monitoring and Evaluation Systems: Exploratory Case Studies
    (CLEAR-AA, 2012-09) Porter, Stephen; Djidjoho, Aristide N.; Houinsa, David G; Amoatey, Charles; Machuka, Samson; Okumu, Boscow W.; Muteti, Francis; Simwa, Vivienne C.A; Himbara, David; Momar, A. Ndiaye; Boubacar, A.W; Latib, Salim; Goldman, Ian; Byamugisha, Albert; Asingwire, Narathius
    This publication is comprised of six monitoring and evaluation (M&E) case studies from Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. Together these case studies formed the basis of discussion at an African M&E Systems Workshop held in March 2012, in Pretoria, South Africa. While the individual case studies detail learning from specific African country contexts, the accompanying synthesis paper entitled The Growing Demand for Monitoring and Evaluation in Africa captures some of the broader trends and issues that are emerging across the cases. So why African M&E case studies? Although prior studies do exist, the African governance terrain is changing rapidly; governments are responding to increased demand for results and accountability from citizens, and M&E systems are evolving to generate information that can be used by civil society, the executive, and the legislature. As a pan-African community of practitioners, substantive case studies are needed to provide an evidence base for learning from each other’s experience. The case study exercise itself grew out of cooperation at Ministerial level between Burundi and South Africa. Minister Chabane subsequently tasked the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) in the South African Presidency, to undertake a learning event on M&E systems across a range of African countries. In partnership with the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR) housed at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, the DPME hosted a conference to which four senior officials from each of the six participating countries were invited. Using open dialogue techniques, delegates were able to reflect on the case studies, analyse M&E within their own country in terms of what was working well, and identify potential areas for learning and improvement. The event concluded with a call for further exchange opportunities, and a deepening and widening of cross-country learning. The case studies should not be read as definitive diagnostics on the state of M&E in the countries concerned, but rather as first steps in building an evidence-based approach to M&E across the continent. More importantly, they represent a commitment from government practitioners to reflect and learn from the practice of M&E, and establish local solutions to M&E challenges confronting African countries
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    Assessing gender responsiveness of the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System in South Africa
    (Development Southern Africa, 2017-11-11) Dr Tirivanhu, Precious; Mr Jansen van Rensburg, Mandri
    There is growing recognition of the critical role that National Monitoring and Evaluation Systems can play in achieving sustainable development through enhancing effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of policies and programmes. The South African government legislated the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System (GWMES) in 2009. The extent of gender responsiveness of the system has not been assessed yet gender mainstreaming ensures that gender needs, realities and issues are consistently and specifically considered in policies, programmes and projects. The study utilises data from document reviews and key informant interviews to assess gender. mainstreaming in the National Evaluation Policy (NEP) and the GWMES using a gender diagnostic matrix. Results indicate that the GWMES and NEP rank low in most gender-mainstreaming dimensions. However, the study concludes that existing policies and institutional frameworks if well supported by multiple stakeholders are conducive for effective gender mainstreaming within the GWMES in South Africa.
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    Assessing Evaluation Education in African Tertiary Education Institutions: Opportunities and reflections
    (South African Journal of Higher Education, 2018) Dr Tirivanhu, Precious; Dr Chirau, Takunda; Ms Waller, Cara; Mr Robertson, Hanlie
    The demand for knowledge from evaluations to inform evidence-based policy making continues to rise in Africa. Simultaneously, there is increased recognition of the role tertiary education institutions can play in strengthening evaluation practice through high quality evaluation education. This article investigates the status quo of evaluation education in selected tertiary institutions in Anglophone African countries. The article utilizes a mixed methods research methodology that blends secondary data review, an online survey using a structured questionnaire and two regional workshops. Data was collected from 12 Anglophone African tertiary education institutions. Findings indicate that evaluation education in Anglophone African tertiary institutions is mostly in the nascent stages and there are mixed feelings on the appropriate entry levels (undergraduate or postgraduate). The study highlights the need for developing a specialized evaluation curriculum as evaluation education still borrows from theories and methodologies from the North. Institutional, operational and policy-related challenges are highlighted as well as the potential for collaboration among various stakeholders in strengthening the design and implementation of evaluation education. Key tenets for strengthening evaluation education are highlighted and discussed.
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    Advancing Evidence-Based Practice for Improved Public Sector Performance: Lessons From the Implementation of the Management Performance Assessment Tool in South Africa
    (Journal of Public Administration, 2017-12) Dr Tirivanhu, Precious; Dr Olaleye, Wole; Ms Bester, Angela
    Enhancing public sector performance is on the agenda of most governments. In South Africa, as the analysis of the literature indicates, there is a dearth on studies that systematically assess the implementation of public sector performance improvement tools. This article is based on the study that explores the implementation of the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) within the South African public sector for the period 2011-2016. It borrows from implementation science and assesses the critical components in the implementation process. It utilises a secondary data review, experiential knowledge from action research and semi-structured interviews. The critical implementation components are outlined and lessons from the implementation process are drawn to inform future practice.
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    Rooting Evaluation Guidelines in Relational Ethics: Lessons From Africa
    (American Journal of Evaluation, 2019) Ms Blaser Mapitsa, Caitlin; Ms Polzer Ngwato, Tara
    As global discussions of evaluation standards become more contextually nuanced, culturally responsive conceptions of ethics have not been sufficiently discussed. In academic social research, ethical clearance processes have been designed to protect vulnerable people from harm related to participation in a research project. This article expands the ambit of ethical protection thinking and proposes a relational ethics approach for evaluation practitioners. This centers an analysis of power relations among and within all the different stakeholder groups in order to establish, in a contextspecific manner, which stakeholders are vulnerable and in need of protection. The approach also contextualizes the nature of “the public good,” as part of an ethical consideration of interest tradeoffs during evaluations. The discussion is informed by our experiences in African contexts and speaks to the “Made in Africa” research agenda but is also relevant to other global contexts where alternatives to “developed country” ontological assumptions about the roles of researchers and participations and the nature of vulnerability are being reconsidered.
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    African Review of Economics and Finance Conference
    (AREF Consult and Wits Business School, 2018) Professor Alagidede, Paul; Associate Professor Obeng-Odoom, Franklin; Dr Mensah, Odei Jones
    This paper endeavours to examine the impact of FDI on income distribution in South Africa. The study utilized annual time series data covering the period 1970–2016, and employed an Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) and the error correction method (ECM) to investigate the long –run and the short-run parameters between the observed variables. The regression results suggest a long-run cointegration relationship among the variables. While FDI, education, domestic investment and trade openness have negative and statistically significant coefficients which suggests that these variables reduce income inequality in South Africa in the long run; financial development has a positive and a statistically significant coefficient and this implies that there is still a gap between the rich and the poor as far as access to credit markets is concerned, and this aggravates income inequality. This study recommends that more investment-inducing activities for both domestic and foreign investments be encouraged in parallel with increased investments in human capital development, as well improved access to capital markets through allowing the poor to invest in high return investments in order to achieve inclusive economic growth.
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    Local Politics of Xenophobia
    (JAAS, 2016) Ms Blaser Mapitsa, Caitlin
    Drawing on research from five peri-urban sites across South Africa on how local government is responding to mobility, this research explores how xenophobia is being produced by local governance processes and structures. Building a better understanding of the mechanisms of exclusion in local government is essential not only for planning interventions that may strengthen democracy, but to understand how the daily practices of local government can promote, or undermine democracy.
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    Gender responsiveness diagnostic of national monitoring and evaluation systems – methodological reflections
    (African Evaluation Journal, 2017-04-26) Caitlin, Blaser Mapitsa; Madri S., Jansen van Rensburg
    This article reflects on the implementation of a diagnostic study carried out to understand the gender responsiveness of the national monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems of Benin, South Africa and Uganda. Carrying out the study found that the potential for integrating the cross-cutting systems of gender and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are strong. At the same time, it highlighted a range of challenges intersecting these two areas of work. This article explores these issues, which range from logistical to conceptual.
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    Designing diagnostics in complexity: Measuring technical and contextual aspects in monitoring and evaluation systems
    (African Evaluation Journal, 2017-04-28) Caitlin, Blaser Mapitsa; Marcel T., Korth
    This article emphasizes the importance of reflecting on the methods employed when designing diagnostic tools for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. It sheds light on a broader debate about how we understand and assess M&E systems within their political and organisational contexts.
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    Evaluation capacity assessment of the transport sector in South Africa: An innovative approach
    (African Evaluation Journal, 2017-05-31) Basia D., Bless; Khotso, Tsotsotso; Eden K., Gebremichael
    This article was based on the study on the assessment of evaluation capacity in the transport sector in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to test the Six Sphere Framework (SSF), which is an innovative evaluation capacity diagnostic tool developed by the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR-AA) based in South Africa.