11th Africa Evaluation Association (AfrEA) Conference 2024 – Post Event Report

In the Opening Presidential Strand of 20 March 2024, the now former President of AfrEA, Ms Rosetti Nabbumba Nayenga, highlighted that there are over 600 registered participants in attendance from 45 countries, from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, North America and Europe. This significant attendance demonstrates the world’s interest in the growth of evaluation practice in Africa, a developing region that remains seized with key development challenges: unemployment, poverty, cycles of political instability and violent extremism, economic stagnation, economic growth that is slow to translate into social change that can uplift millions out of the claws of poverty.

A Special Address by Prof Prof Omotade Aina of the University of Ghana emphasized Africa’s time bomb of a youth bulge, high unemployment, poverty and development thinking that is not localised. The key proposition of this Special Address was for the African evaluation community/coalition to take decolonisation seriously beyond rhetoric, and position evaluation as a key tool to address governance challenges and unrealized development potential across Africa.