The African M&E Hub
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/27946
The Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results in Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) is one of the six regional centers housed in academic institutions across the globe. We work to improve the way in which monitoring and evaluation is done in the Anglophone Africa region. We help clients and governments build capacity at national, regional, and local levels to measure development progress and outcomes, strengthen evidence-based policy-making, and increase government accountability and transparency.
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Twitter: @CLEARAA1 LinkedIn: CLEAR Anglophone Africa Facebook: CLEAR Anglophone AfricaWebsite: http://www.wits.ac.za/clear-aa
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Item African Parliaments: Systems of Evidence in Practice (vol 2)(Sun Press, 2022-01-20) CLEAR-AAItem Evaluation Landscape in Africa(Sun Press, 2021-06-01) CLEAR-AAItem Using Evidence in Policy and Practice(Routledge, 2021-08-01) CLEAR-AAItem African Parliaments: Evidence systems for Governance and Development (vol 1)(Sun Press, 2021-06-01) CLEAR-AAItem CLEAR-AA 2022 Annual Report(2022-01-01) CLEAR-AAItem Strengthening and measuring monitoring and evaluation capacity in selected African programmes(African Evaluation Journal, 2022-12-15) Masvaure, Steven and Fish, TebogoStrengthening the capacities of countries and organisations to perform monitoring and evaluation (M&E) functions is gaining momentum in the Global South. However, there is limited literature on the effectiveness and impact of these capacity strengthening initiatives in Africa. Across the continent, there has been a global push to strengthen M&E capacity both within the state and non-state sector. The rationale for the push and investments is based on the premise that M&E capacity is critical for assisting public officials, non-state sector development managers, non-governmental organisations, and donors to improve the design and implementation of their projects, improve progress, increase impact, and enhance learning. Despite considerable investments to build M&E capacity in the African context, literature shows that the measurement of these initiatives is non-existent. To explore M&E capacity strengthening initiatives and how their effectiveness is being measured. The study adopted a qualitative research approach, specifically using semi-structured interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of capacity-strengthening approaches and how capacity strengthening activities are measured. A sample was drawn from Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Results: This study found that M&E capacity strengthening in the selected countries is ad hoc, indiscriminate, haphazard and mainly focuses on developing individual skills and abilities. The significance of strengthening M&E system capacity in Anglophone Africa has been strongly supported by this study, considering the critical impact that effective M&E systems have in enabling countries to reach their development goals.Item VNRs and SDG Evaluations in Anglophone Africa and Latin America: A mapping of common challenges and emerging good practices.(2022-12) Hoffmann, Dirk; Dlakavu, Ayabulela; Retama, KarinaOne of the most distinctive features of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development lies with its detailed follow-up and review, guided by a global indicator framework and prominently reflected in Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted by governments. This discussion paper has been produced by a cross-continental Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) evaluation working group, constituted by three officials from DEval, CLEAR-AA and the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results-Latin America and the Caribbean (CLEAR-LAC). The primary objective of this paper is to assess the extent of use of evaluative evidence by governments when compiling their respective Voluntary National Reviews, the latter an implementation tool used to track countries’ progress and achievements vis-à-vis the SDGs. A second objective is to understand other sources of evidence that feed into the development of country VNRs. Third, the document puts forward key findings regarding evidence sources into VNRs, particularly highlighting best practices and challenges from eight sampled countries in Africa and Latin America. This paper purposively sampled four African countries in which CLEAR-AA undertakes evaluation capacity development (ECD), and four Latin American countries where CLEAR-LAC and DEval (through its Focelac+ project ) undertake or support country ECD initiatives. The discussion paper employed a research methodology consisting of an extensive desktop review of VNR, planning and public policy processes, and the state of evaluation capacities in the eight countries. The desktop review is triangulated by key informant interviews of stakeholders involved in the VNR, planning and public policy processes and national evaluation system of each country. Key findings, relative to the paper’s objectives, are as follows: performance monitoring and statistics are a primary source of evidence for VNRs across the African and Latin American countries; government and non-governmental stakeholders have not internalized the value of SDG evaluation in VNR processes and its value in terms of their own internal assessment of progress toward SDGs; limited integration of SDGs and their indicators in the countries’ public policy and national and sector planning cycles; slow response of national evaluation systems in responding to SDGs. Despite these challenges, the authors highlight key emerging best practices from the sampled countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador that can be built upon to integrate SDG evaluation in VNR development, national and sector development planning, as well as national evaluation systems more generally. Lastly, the paper proffers key recommendations for entrenching SDGs in public policy and planning, and promoting evaluative evidence use in VNR development by stressing the value of evaluative evidence in VNR guidelines provided by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA).Item Indaba programme(2022) CLEARAAItem Indaba Competition Template(CLEAR-AA, 2022-11-14) CLEAR-AAItem Approaches to embedding indigenous knowledge systems in Made in Africa Evaluations(African Evaluation Journal, 2022-09-13) Nedson Pophiwa; Umali SaidiThis article calls for enrichment of the MAE in setting the agenda and bring agency to evaluation practices in Africa against centuries of unsustainable developmental practices that continue to underdevelop the continent. In this article, the authors make a case for weaving indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) with monitoring and evaluation of interventions targeted at communities on the African continent. Current efforts do not make explicit reference to indigenous knowledge in Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE). Indigenous knowledge systems are implied as the defining aspect of MAE, being called upon to be fused with existing evaluation systems and practices in order to enhance evaluation in African communities.