Trends in African MERL Tech: Insights from a Landscape Scan

In 2021, we conducted a landscape study, funded by the Mastercard Foundation Impact Labs, on how existing and emerging technologies are being used for Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) in African contexts. We identified more than 100 partners, initiatives and solutions in Africa that support MERL with a focus on equity and inclusion, youth and community empowerment, indigenous knowledge and practices, real-time decision making, and future-focused scenarios. We used desktop research and qualitative data collection methods to collate trends and case studies. At this session we will share our findings, including broad continental and regional trends and country specific case studies and what these “bright stars” suggest for the wider field of evaluation.

This will be a learning-and sharing-focused session, true to gLOCAL evaluation week’s eval evolve theme, where we explore how technological innovations are influencing and enriching the MERL practice and how these approaches, if designed and implemented responsibly, can support equity, inclusion, participation, and evaluative processes that are rooted in context. We will invite participants to share their own experiences and to consider ways that decolonization, new players, and emerging technologies are influencing evaluation on the African continent and globally.