Towards defining and advancing ‘Made in Africa Evaluation’

Omosa, Oladayo; Archibald, Thomas G.; Niewolny, Kimberly L.; Stephenson, Max O. Jr.; Anderson, James C. II

Towards defining and advancing ‘Made in Africa Evaluation’

dc.contributor.author	Omosa, Oladayo	en
dc.contributor.author	Archibald, Thomas G.	en
dc.contributor.author	Niewolny, Kimberly L.	en
dc.contributor.author	Stephenson, Max O. Jr.	en
dc.contributor.author	Anderson, James C. II	en
dc.date.accessioned	2021-11-10T13:36:55Z	en
dc.date.available	2021-11-10T13:36:55Z	en
dc.date.issued	2021-11-09	en
dc.description.abstract	Background: Most evaluation in Africa is rooted in dominant neoliberal Western approaches. Imported Western evaluation frames may lack multicultural validity and can lead to wrong conclusions and poor development outcomes. They may also reinforce subjugation and cultural hegemony through neo-imperialism and colonisation of the imaginations of those concerned. The Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) concept has received attention in recent years as a way to address this challenge. As a relatively nascent construct, however, interested scholars and professionals continue to seek to define and operationalise MAE more effectively. Objective: The objective of this study is to provide a working definition of MAE. Methods: We used the Delphi technique to solicit informed views from expert evaluators working in Africa. We interviewed two additional experts to triangulate and test the validity of those findings. We also tested the Delphi derived definition of MAE through the analysis of six illustrative evaluation reports. Finally, we asked the same panel of experts to complete a survey aimed at clarifying next key steps to advance the construct. Results: The results of our efforts to elucidate a concise definition of MAE yielded the following definition: Evaluation that is conducted based on African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) standards, using localised methods or approaches with the aim of aligning all evaluations to the lifestyles and needs of affected African peoples whilst also promoting African values. Conclusion: We posit that this working definition, however tentative, has the potential to influence the practice, study, and teaching of evaluation in Africa.	en
dc.description.version	Published version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Omosa, O., Archibald, T., Niewolny, K., Stephenson, M. & Anderson, J., 2021, ‘Towards defining and advancing “Made in Africa Evaluation”’, African Evaluation Journal 9(1), a564. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej. v9i1.564	en
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v9i1.564	en
dc.identifier.eissn	2306-5133	en
dc.identifier.issn	2310-4988	en
dc.identifier.issue	1	en
dc.identifier.orcid	Archibald, Thomas [0000-0002-3567-9143]	en
dc.identifier.orcid	Niewolny, Kimberly [0000-0002-0376-8416]	en
dc.identifier.orcid	Stephenson, Max [0000-0003-1711-8438]	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/106577	en
dc.identifier.volume	9	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	AOSIS Publishing	en
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Made in Africa evaluation	en
dc.subject	Indigenous evaluation	en
dc.subject	Culturally responsive evaluation	en
dc.subject	African evaluation	en
dc.subject	culture-centered evaluation	en
dc.title	Towards defining and advancing ‘Made in Africa Evaluation’	en
dc.title.serial	African Evaluation Journal	en
dc.type	Article - Refereed	en
dc.type.dcmitype	Text	en