Adapting realist evaluation for Made in Africa evaluation criteria

African Evaluation Journal

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Adapting realist evaluation for Made in Africa evaluation criteria
 
Creator Mbava, Nombeko P. Chapman, Sarah
 
Subject — Africa-centric evaluation; adaptation; realist evaluation; evaluation cycle; evaluation model; Made in Africa evaluation
Description Background: Globally, the theory and practice of evaluation largely emerged from Euro-Western worldviews and continue to evolve in a manner that addresses the needs of Euro-Western interests. The extent to which the closely held values and general outlook of diverse stakeholders underpins how evaluation is processed and designed is interrogated, given the global and multicultural nature of evaluation.Objectives: We summarised contemporary debates on Made in Africa evaluation and reflected on what these debates might mean for evaluation practice. We also reflected on what it might mean to adapt a quintessentially Euro-Western evaluation method as an integral part of indigenising evaluation theory and practice in African contexts.Method: Research that adopted a case study approach and a realist evaluation meta-analysis framework was conducted in South Africa, which aimed to provide better understanding of the methodologies and approaches used in past programme impact evaluations. The aim was to reflect on the usefulness of evaluation findings to policy decision makers and to determine the suitability of the realist evaluation method in the implementation of evaluations.Results: While potential constraints were involved in its application, the realist evaluation held promise in addressing some of the requirements of Made in Africa evaluation. A model of an adapted realist evaluation cycle was presented. It was suggested that the model might enable better implementation of the realist evaluation framework in some African contexts.Conclusion: Adaptation of evaluation models, theories and instruments, towards contextual relevance and cultural appropriateness was a progressive continuum towards originating indigenous African evaluation approaches.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-12-09
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/aej.v8i1.508
 
Source African Evaluation Journal; Vol 8, No 1 (2020); 11 pages 2306-5133 2310-4988
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/508/956 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/508/958 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/508/957 https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/508/959
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Nombeko P. Mbava, Sarah Chapman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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