Indigenising Evaluation Knowledge: Exploring the Epistemic Identity of African Evaluators

Tirivanhu, Precious; Mapitsu, C.B.

doi:10.18820/9781928480198/07

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…Moreover, an authentic MAE approach needs to be grounded on African-rooted epistemologies, which address the development peculiarities in African contexts. This calls for deconstructing existing methodologies and approaches that continue reproducing the coloniality of knowledge to a more transformative evaluation practice (Tirivanhu & Blaser Mapitsa 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, the grounding of evaluation theories, case studies and other methodologies reflecting African contexts and their nuances is pivotal. In addition to the building and legitimisation of evaluation scholarship in the continent, more still needs to be done to increase the supply of skilled evaluators in the African continent to ensure less dependence on qualified evaluators from the global north (Tirivanhu & Blaser Mapitsa 2020) as a requisite to facilitating African evaluation practice. Hence, building evaluation capacity through mentorship and training opportunities and peer-to-peer exchange across local evaluators cannot be overstated.…”

Section: Legitimising African Knowledge Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of coloniality and international development assistance on Made in Africa Evaluation: Implications for a decolonised evaluation agenda

Khumalo¹

2022

Afr. eval. j.

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Legitimising African Knowledge Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of coloniality and international development assistance on Made in Africa Evaluation: Implications for a decolonised evaluation agenda

Khumalo¹

2022

Afr. eval. j.

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“…In Africa, this has been because of the neocolonial nature of the development industry in general and what it means for evaluation to operate primarily in this donor-driven context (Auriacombe & Cloete 2019;Robinson 2021). This has made reliable and valid evaluation findings difficult to obtain in a context where evaluation practitioners often know little about the local culture, political system and developmental context within which a programme is being implemented (Tirivanhu & Mapitsa 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evaluation research, on the other hand, often critiques hegemony from the positionality of a 'neutral' third party in the development space. This gives both areas of exploration a certain legitimacy in their voice, although there is much research that still needs to be conducted to better understand how positionality, identity, indigeneity and other factors are expressed in the applied research space(Tirivanhu & Mapitsa 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

A scoping review of intersections between indigenous knowledge systems and complexity-responsive evaluation research

Mapitsa

2022

Afr. eval. j.

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Background: Acknowledging the need to transform the evaluation sector in Africa, locally generated approaches have been a recent area of contestation for both researchers and practitioners. Whilst the need for an African evaluation approach has been well established in the literature, there are still significant gaps in a proactive response. One of these gaps is the role of indigenous knowledge systems in these evaluation approaches. Indigenous knowledge systems have been a priority research area for decades, often in fields of science and technology, education and in research methods. Despite these strong overlaps with areas of interest to evaluators, there has been relatively little intersection between research on evaluation systems and that on indigenous knowledge systems.Objectives: This article brings together these two areas of research to see what lessons for African-rooted evaluation approaches emerge from the body of research on indigenous knowledge systems.Method: To do this, a scoping review was conducted, applying a thematic analysis to literature identified for inclusion in the study.Results: This study found that there is considerable scope for the evaluation sector to draw on indigenous knowledge systems research, particularly drawing on process and methodological lessons from designing studies, as well as defining power dynamics and critical systems approaches.Conclusion: This analysis can contribute to a needed debate about how to define and promote localised, contextually relevant evaluation tools and methods. It can also contribute to building a research agenda around African evaluation approaches.

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“…Hoje compreende-se que as bases que sustentam os modelos de avaliação praticadas na África, assim como na América Latina, seguem os padrões estabelecidos pela episteme europeia colonizadora, com desdobramentos para a definição de métodos e enfoques privilegiados. O movimento de indigenização do conhecimento na África tem buscado compreender as dinâmicas de reprodução destes valores e descolonizar a avaliação da episteme europeia, trazendo para o centro do debate o conjunto de conhecimentos e valores culturais de raízes africanas para subsidiar a avaliação e torná-la mais relevante para o contexto específico deste continente (Tirivanhu & Mapitsa, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Para decolonizar a avaliação: uma análise crítica a partir da teoria da decolonialidade

Ribeiro¹,

Gasparini²

2021

Rev. Bras. Aval.

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Indigenising Evaluation Knowledge: Exploring the Epistemic Identity of African Evaluators

Abstract: These philosophies, world views and paradigms share relational ways of perceiving reality and of being, ways of knowing and value systems (Chilisa et al., 2016:317).

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

The effects of coloniality and international development assistance on Made in Africa Evaluation: Implications for a decolonised evaluation agenda

The effects of coloniality and international development assistance on Made in Africa Evaluation: Implications for a decolonised evaluation agenda

A scoping review of intersections between indigenous knowledge systems and complexity-responsive evaluation research

Para decolonizar a avaliação: uma análise crítica a partir da teoria da decolonialidade

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