EvalIndigenous and The 10 Evaluation questions
Channel: JTN Arts
Date: 2022-10-01

The development of the national evaluation system in Zambia and many developing nations is donor driven. Though the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness has a principle of transferring ownership to the locals, not much has changed in the past two decades. African states and the African Union are too reliant on external funding for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Developing nations carry out M&E believing they have to show donors and external institutions that there is good governance. African governments are not champions for the Made-in-Africa Evaluation Methodologies. Voluntary Organisations for practitioners of Evaluation (VOPEs) on the African continent talk about the local methodologies in conference and academic spaces but cannot defend to use them in practice. They mainly struggle with the challenge of sustaining their daily operations. In the global south where opportunities for evaluation consultancies are limited, the local practitioners depend on opportunities that are availed to them if they please the commissioners of evaluations. African VOPEs do not survive on mobilising resources for their operations from members or local philanthropists but external donors and governments. They cannot even afford to ensure that practicing evaluators conduct evaluations of high quality and protect the interests of all stakeholders. Many of the African governments depend on handouts from external donors and businesses for the development of national M&E capacity. Therefore, they are not able to protect the interest of their people and especially the weakest of them; the indigenous peoples. Traditional rulers and their establishments that have historically been used by powerful external forces to exploit the land and indigenous people continue to collaborate with these forces to unfairly obtain access to natural resources and exploit them on the land they hold in trust for their subjects. Before national independence, there were Arab and Portuguese slave traders and British colonialists who used our local rulers. In this current neo-colonial era, it is  unscrupulous politicians and business men and women that are using them.  This power system has led to the current underdevelopment of developing nations. The M&E fraternity has been complacent in this maintaining of the status of underdevelopment. However, as the world tethers on the brink of catastrophe due to unbridled consumerism, bad governance and climate change, we are hearing more cries for inclusiveness and fairness in development; not leaving anyone behind. There are cries that the global-north does not have solutions to all of our various global challenges and in their complexity. It has been the cause of many of the challenges that developing nations are facing such as poverty, droughts and deforestation. The global-south can also be a teacher to the global north. There is no one with a monopoly on wisdom. Indigenous knowledge such as the African Ubuntu philosophy is an example. The teaching that I am existing because you exist teaches us to love one another and our communities. The teaching of love for each other fosters sustainability and the continuation of the human race. 

The development plans and programs implemented in Indigenous communities are not meeting the indigenous peoples' aspirations. This maybe due to them being evaluated using transient evaluators. They are unfamiliar with the cultural realities, protocols and community contexts.  It is now time for Indigenous peoples to reclaim their evaluative frameworks and processes in order to strengthen and make evaluation more authentic in both Indigenous and nonindigenous communities. It is time to recognise what has been done to bring both worldviews together, to provide an authentic approach to cultural responsiveness. 

Indigenous Evaluators came together and formed a global network in  2017 called EvalIndigenous. It is a multi-stakeholder partnership formed as part of EvalPartners and built on the foundation of the knowledge and expertise of indigenous peoples around the world. EvalIndigenous seeks to bring awareness to, include, and celebrate the cultural traditions and values, languages, legal/political governance practices, and ways of life of Indigenous peoples wherever they live. 

Therefore, EvalIndigenous has prepared a short guide to help Indigenous and tribal communities that may not be able to effectively participate in the developmental and evaluation processes in their communities. These are questions that they may want to ask institutions and evaluators that come to work with them. These ten questions can be found on the below links.

https://evalpartners.org/evalnetworks/evalindigenous/
https://evalpartners.org/sites/default/files/10Qs4evaluatorsA4.pdf
https://www.evalforward.org/

This video is about the dissemination of the guide to people of the Nyalugwe basin of the South Luangwa basin in Zambia. The work was carried out by John T. Njovu, one of its members