Equitable Evaluation: Voices from the Global South
Panel Discussion | Online
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Organized by:
CLEAR-Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA)
About the Event
In light of the current resurgence of the “Global South versus Global North” power imbalance narrative in global politics and economics, and the recent crises over the last few years, together with the fostering of a transformed and decolonized evaluation practice in Africa, the publication of the book “Equitable Evaluation: Voices from the Global South” by CLEAR-AA is timely.
This is a two-volume book series aimed at promoting practices and approaches that facilitate the generation of relevant, context-sensitive, and transformative evaluation evidence that is useful to effective decision-making and policymaking in the development sector in Africa. It is well known that development challenges in Africa require equitable solutions, which is reflected in national development plans of African countries and the Sustainable Development Goals. The core message of the book is that for evaluation to effectively facilitate transformation towards equitable development in Africa, it needs to interrogate the systemic and structural causes that have shaped development challenges, whilst also reflecting on the limitations of mainstream evaluation theories and approaches in addressing these complex issues. The book touches on the epistemic injustices that have dominated the evaluation field in Africa, shaped by the power dynamics between the Global North and Global South. It argues that the judgement of the success of development interventions in Africa has historically been rooted in the theories, approaches, paradigms and cultures of the Global North, undermining the value of indigenous African knowledge systems, African philosophies and cultures in the production of credible evaluation evidence.
This session will be a panel discussion with various authors from volume 1 and 2 of the CLEAR-AA equitable evaluation book, to discuss: 1) the challenges in the current evaluation practice in Africa affecting the production of fully effective evaluation evidence, and 2) what equitable evaluation approaches and methodologies offer to the field and the development sector in Africa.
This is a two-volume book series aimed at promoting practices and approaches that facilitate the generation of relevant, context-sensitive, and transformative evaluation evidence that is useful to effective decision-making and policymaking in the development sector in Africa. It is well known that development challenges in Africa require equitable solutions, which is reflected in national development plans of African countries and the Sustainable Development Goals. The core message of the book is that for evaluation to effectively facilitate transformation towards equitable development in Africa, it needs to interrogate the systemic and structural causes that have shaped development challenges, whilst also reflecting on the limitations of mainstream evaluation theories and approaches in addressing these complex issues. The book touches on the epistemic injustices that have dominated the evaluation field in Africa, shaped by the power dynamics between the Global North and Global South. It argues that the judgement of the success of development interventions in Africa has historically been rooted in the theories, approaches, paradigms and cultures of the Global North, undermining the value of indigenous African knowledge systems, African philosophies and cultures in the production of credible evaluation evidence.
This session will be a panel discussion with various authors from volume 1 and 2 of the CLEAR-AA equitable evaluation book, to discuss: 1) the challenges in the current evaluation practice in Africa affecting the production of fully effective evaluation evidence, and 2) what equitable evaluation approaches and methodologies offer to the field and the development sector in Africa.
Speakers
| Name | Title | Biography |
|---|---|---|