Changing the Game for Evaluation Education in Africa: The Collaborative Curriculum Development Project
Introduction
Unlike other professions such as accountants or doctors, the field of ‘Monitoring and Evaluation’ is relatively new and non-standardised. Employers and recruiters of M&E staff don’t always know what they’re looking for, and presently in Africa, there is no harmonisation of competencies, resulting in the variable quality of practitioners. Academic and non-academic training programmes are also not standardised and there is very little harmonisation or deliberate consensus across institutions in terms of curriculum content and instructional design.
As part of Twende Mbele’s initiatives to improve the quality and number of evaluators in Africa, CLEAR AA and Twende are partnering to explore what a harmonised post-graduate curriculum should look like. This initiative encourages a collaborative development and harmonization of M&E competencies and curriculum in Africa, while aiming to bring more consistency to the standards of M&E training available on the continent. In September of 2016, Twende and CLEAR-AA began the initiative with higher education institutions (HEIs), public sector training institutions, government and various Voluntary Associations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs). What followed were two workshops in Kenya and Ghana and then further engagements with 11 African countries in 2017.
Two problems were identified that provided the catalyst for initiating this project. Firstly, the absence of harmonised competencies across Africa obscures any certainty of the skills and capabilities needed for quality evaluation practice. Secondly, a lack of agreed upon standards hampers the progression of the profession as a whole, but especially when creating frameworks to develop Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) programmes. There is value in building consensus towards harmonising evaluation education in Africa as that would contribute to the standardisation and professionalization of Evaluation Capacity Building. Improved individual and institutional capacities for M&E evidence production and use would support more effective National Evaluation Systems (NES), which are linked to improved governance systems.
Discussions, Findings and Deliverables
During the various workshops held over the last two years, discussions involved some of the major players in evaluation education who were particularly focused on the state of evaluation training and evaluation education in Anglophone Africa. There was consensus on the ‘homeless’ nature of the discipline, with extensive conversation on the need to decide on the foundational building blocks to better position education and training. Improving the capacity within universities for teaching on evaluations (including providing hands-on experience) and the best approaches to evaluation education for the continent were also hot topics of conversations.
There were some concerns over the quality of teaching in M&E and the absence of a standardised M&E curriculum, while some people stressed that the existing curricula are overly western and not inclusive of African scholarship. During these discussions it became clear that collaboration amongst HEI’s and other stakeholders involved in evaluation education was necessary to build consensus and fill in gaps in knowledge. At the end of consultations, three deliverables for the project were identified:
- construct a framework for harmonising M&E competencies for the African continent
- create a curriculum framework for post-graduate qualifications in M&E
- establish guidelines on the institutional arrangements/mechanisms that will support the wide-spread use of the competency and curriculum framework.
Progress so far…
Three task teams have been constituted, however, more inclusivity and consultation is needed. The task teams are tackling the development of discussion documents on the three aforementioned deliverables.
The drafting of the discussion documents is part of a broader consultation process, as collaboration is key in developing harmonised competencies and curriculum for the continent. Increasing the level of collaboration is the primary goal of this year as universities (and other institutional evaluation capacity building role-players) need to be partners and co-owners in order to adopt and roll out the proposed competencies and curriculum framework. To this end, a write-shop will be held in October 2018 to engage on and review the contents of the three deliverables.
This is a contested space, where intellectual property concerns bring into sharp focus questions of public good vs financial sustainability, particulalrly as the higher education sector grapples with declining revenue levels across the continent. High-demand programmes (such as M&E) are therefore a key source of revenue, and intellectual property is the currency of HEIs. It is also important the initiative is not hampered by questions over leadership and mandates, and therefore CLEAR AA and Twende are committed to playing a coordination role, but will not dicatate the direction or content of the final outputs. Some key questions that the collective would need to reflect on include the following:
- Are there some unique elements to the African context, which need to be built into a collaborative competency framework for M&E practitioners? How are these different to other, existing, competency frameworks in individual partner countries (such as South Africa) and globally? This is against a rising tide of the Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) philosophy as well as the South to South Evaluation (S2SE) concept gaining ground in the global South and beyond.
- What modes of delivery would most appropriate (e.g. traditional, online?) What other institutional mechanisms might be needed to support other types of capacity development, e.g. mentorships, secondment, internships, online?
Conclusion
The Collaborative Curriculum Development Project, although not complete, continues to redefine imagination around evaluation education by tackling the issues of harmonising evaluation education and creating competencies required for M&E practitioners in the African continent head-on. Twende Mbele and CLEAR AA are commited to ensure that there is robust engagement with all stakeholders in this critical area of M&E capacity development in order to iron out a way forward.
And here’s where you come in….The project requires input from various stakeholders and interested parties alike, in order to ensure a comprehensive consultation and consensus-building process. Interested individuals may join one of three task teams (competencies, curriculum or institutional arrangements) and contribute to the discussion documents. If you are keen to add your views or commit your institution to a longer term engagement, please contact Candice Morkel, at [email protected]
Communique from Benin Evaluation Days/Journées béninoises de l’évaluation
This week saw over 300 participants from Africa, the Americas and India converge on Cotonou, Benin to participate in the 5th edition of the Benin Evaluation Week. Participants included evaluation practitioners, researchers, specialists and professionals from the evaluation of public administration, institutions of the Republic of Benin, communities, local authorities, universities, professional organisations and civil society organisations.
Focusing on the theme, ‘Evaluation to Promote a Development Administration‘ the workshops, roundtables and presentations were an opportunity for sharing and learning on diverse topics such as;
- Evidence and the decision-making process
- Promotion of the culture of monitoring and evaluation in the management of development processes
- Evaluation as a tool for improving the quality of public services provided to the population
- Systematisation of evaluative practice, and
- Managing evaluations
While the participants recommended that the Beninese law on evaluation continues to be drafted and adopted, they also gave support to;
- Adoption of tools to track the use of evaluation findings within government
- Promoting and building the recently released evaluation database
- Strengthening collaboration with networks in academia, civil society and other peer-learning mechanisms such as Twende Meble
- Strenthening training of evaluation practitioners
- Systematisation of a human rights-based and gender-sensitive evaluation approach and methods of data collection and analysis, and
- Development of a Directory of Indicators by the Public Policies Evaluation and Government Action Analysis Office to feed the analysis variables of public programs and to make their rigorous evaluation easier.
Looking for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow- Monitoring & Evaluation
CLEAR AA and Twende Mbele are offering an exciting opportunity for a postgraduate PHD student in their last year of study or a recent graduate to join a multi-disciplinary team in undertaking various research work in the field of monitoring and evaluation. The Post-Doctoral (M&E) Research Fellowship is designed to support the emergence of scholarship by stimulating M&E related research particularly in governance and public policy making. The successful candidate will be expected to play a critical role in advancing and helping carry out some of the research involved in the CLEAR AA and Twende Mbele research agendas, as well as supervising graduate students. The centre is inviting applications from scholars with outstanding capabilities who are interested in the field of monitoring and evaluation with a desire for an academic experience in research. It is expected that the incumbent will take up the position as a full time fellow for one year (renewal-based on performance and progress). Click here for further Details.
Interested candidates should submit their application to Maloshni Naidoo. Applications should include a detailed CV, academic record, certified copies of the PhD certificate (if graduated), two copies of past publications and the names of three contactable referees (at least two academic)
Email: [email protected]
The closing date for applications is 31 July 2018
Looking for a Literature Review Consultant
Twende Mbele is searching for a Literature Review Consultant who’s work will include literature review on plan priortisation and budget alignment, also using M&E evidence, should give a comparative overview of ongoing and innovative efforts in this area. Furthermore, it should provide insight to work being done in contexts similar to that of the Twende Mbele countries (Uganda, Benin, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Niger).
Click here for the full terms of reference.
All proposals should include consultant’s CV, a detailed proposal and an example of previous, similar work and be sent to [email protected] by 23rd July 2018.
Short-listed candidates will be contacted.
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