New AfrEA board elected

Outgoing President Dr. Florence Etta
congratulates newly elected Nermin Waly  

Late last night at its meeting on the sidelines of the conference, AfrEA elected a new Board of nine. Nermin Waly was elected new President to succeed Dr Florence Etta. Adiza Quando was elected Secretary and Issa Adam Treasurer.

Other members elected to the Board comprise Boureima Goudo, Serge Eric Yakeu, Ahmed Bencheikh, Jennifer Mutua, Adeline Sibanda and Jennifer Bisgard.

Hello, Welcome, Goodbye

Volunteers at the 6th AfrEA conference

With these smiles, volunteers who have been performing various roles as guides and assistants at the conference, have welcomed participants and guests.

The smiles have been sustained throughout the five days of the conference and as it closes today, the same smiles will be there to say goodbye, safe travel and meet you again.

Our Success, Our Challenges

The AfrEA of 2012 has a stable, well managed Secretariat housed in a publicinstitution of repute and should be able to maintain the functions and running of the administration business of AfrEA,” says Dr Florence Etta, President of the African Evaluation Association. This was contained in her Stewardship Report for the period 2009 -2012 when she held the office.

Describing funding as the tool that remains a precarious challenge for the Association, Dr Etta, suggests generating project ideas and activities that would ensure sustainability. Having initiated a capacity project herself, it is her hope that the conversations on it will continue even after a new Board sets in. 

Dr Etta recounts establishing the Board Task Team structure as one of the major achievements of the first year of her tenure. This is based on eight Task Teams headed by one Board member supported by another in a role of co-responsibility so that all members had a direct line of work and reporting.

Two other achievements chalked in the first year are the completion and submission of two project proposals namely Institutional Strengthening & Organizational Development supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and Communicating Change & Development supported by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.

AfrEA activities and the Board’s management was strengthened, deepened and expanded in the second year with a number of successes chalked including the drafting of the 5-year AfrEA Strategic Plan as well as the establishing the AfrEA Secretariat – a physical home for the Association – at the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies.

Much of the third year, says Dr Etta, “was spent planning for, as well as raising awareness and funding for the 2012 conference.” In that time also, the final draft of the 5-year Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 and the launch of the 6th AfrEA Conference website was some of the milestones achieved. 

It is her hope that the next Board term will be “a balance of experience and dedication,” and that its members “must have time to devote to building and strengthening the Association, not the ‘One-person Staff ’ like I did, spending up to 70% of my private time on AfrEA business."

M&E and the Gender question

Women working in a cocoa farm

Gender in equality still persists in much of the world. In poor and middle income countries, females are more likely to be poor than males while primary and secondary school enrollment is lower for girls than boys.

In developing countries, women are more likely to work as unpaid labourers than men. Frequently, women have less control over assets and decision making than men. This year's World Development Report “Gender Equality and Development” argues that greater gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative.

What is the role of M&E in delivering gender equality and social inclusion? A robust, effective monitoring and Evaluation system will deliver prudent management and accountability practices. In turn, these practices will lead to effective and efficient delivery of services to the benefit of all people.  The use of M&E tools to provide reliable information on which government can base its decision making is fundamental to good governance.

Without effective M&E how will we have evidence to support claims regarding gender equality? How can we hold decision makers to account for the investment decisions they make on our behalf ? Some of the challenges to implementing programmes and policies successfully relate to M&E. There is often a lack of reliable data to base these policies on. This leads to an incomplete understanding of the exact nature of what is being addressed.

This makes planning the policy difficult. Frequently, there is no Monitoring and Evaluation framework so it is not possible to understand what has worked, where and why. Resources to implement the policy and to monitor its impact are also inadequate.

One major obstacle that has consistently hampered progress towards gender equality and social inclusion is the inability to mainstream these issues in developmental activities and monitor progress over time at the national, regional and district levels. This can be addressed by integrating gender into M&E frameworks as women and men have different needs and face diverse constraints due to different social and economic roles.

Gender sensitive M&E requires that gender becomes an integral part of monitoring, evaluation and review exercises. Gender needs to be considered in the design of development processes. Fundamental to the achievement of gender equality is the use of sex-disaggregated data as well as gender analysis at all stages of programme and project life-cycles, in order to identify and address the implications of gender is sues through appropriate gender sensitive interventions. Data is critical.

More support is needed to improve the availability of gender disaggregated data and to foster more systematic evaluation of mechanisms to improve women’s access to markets, services and justice. This means that programmes and projects should ensure that there are gender sensitive indicators and baseline information/data is systematically monitored.

Data and its’ analysis should feed management decisions for political action, social and economic considerations. A partnership approach is needed to address gender equality. It should extend beyond government and development agencies to include the private sector, Civil Society Organisations and academic institutions in developing and rich countries.

Given the fact that the challenges are multifaceted, gender equality will only be achieved if there are concerted, consistent and sustainable efforts by all.

When volunteers make the world go around

Omoyemi Timson

Perhaps left to Omoyemi Timson alone, she will always pick the current 20 volunteers that she’s been working with at the Accra AfrEA conference for all other tasks. “These volunteers have performed beyond my expectation,” she told Reportage during her coffee break last Thursday. “They have been extremely pro-active and I have received a lot of commendation on their behalf from participants.

As conference Administrative and Research Assistant, Yemi has been directly responsible for ensuring that volunteers play their roles well to guide participants “to get what they want or to tell them how to do

without them.” She attributed the successful performance of her volunteers first to their passion for being hospitable and second, to the daily briefing and de-briefings that

they receive.

On the first day, she said, they were a few hiccups here and there but by the mid-morning break, everyone had found their rhythm and things were cruising smoothly. Having been a volunteer herself at a number of conferences, Yemi places considerable premium on briefing at which volunteers are encouraged to indicate and migrate towards their natural leanings. “So by the end of our last meeting, we knew who was best at doing what and in no time we were good to go,” she said. She was particularly impressed with the manner in which each volunteer was willing to step in for another whenever any of them was not available.

With regard to time management, Yemi said that they fared well. “Of course, there were a few times that a volunteer was late because of one thing or another but on each of these occasions, other volunteers covered for them admirably.

Yemi was also happy about the good relationships the volunteers have built among themselves. “We are like one big family and whenever work was over, we chat and laugh together. I’m glad everything has come this well.

Vice Prez challenges African evaluators

Dr Etta confers with Vice President Mahama

The Vice President of Ghana Mr John Dramani Mahama has challenged African evaluators to develop a unique valuation system in Africa that addresses the peculiar needs of the continent. “The methods, tools and orientation for conducting evaluations have been oriented more towards norms and standards determined by outsiders rather than those emerging from Africa-rooted evaluative thinking and practice”.

The Vice President was speaking at the official opening ceremony of the 6^th AfrEA Conference in Accra yesterday.

He said that “the emergence of more democratic institutions, notably an increase in Parliaments; the deepening of civil  society organisations and NGOs and the increased demand for accountability of governments  and regional institutions, and the very emergence of the African Evaluation Association present an opportunity for developing and strengthening a unique evaluation for Africa”. Earlier in an address to welcome participants and invited guests to the opening ceremony the President of AfrEA, Dr Florence Etta drew attention to the theme of the conference – Rights and Responsibility in Development Evaluation.

Dr Etta said that the theme of the conference was an attempt to place humans at the heart and centre of development practice and in particular, development evaluation.

“It is our hope”, she said, “that in asking and attempting to answer the question of rights and responsibility of the few who act in the name of development on behalf of the many who are expected to benefit from development, we might begin a journey of claiming the true future of development”.

The 6^th AfrEA Conference began last Monday January 9, 2012 with pre-conference workshops and will end on Friday, January 13.

Hard work pays off

Dr. Pealore

“We must always put rights and responsibility in all areas of development. That’s the key message we want everybody to take away from this year’s conference,” says Dr Dominic Pealore, AfrEA Board Member in charge of Finance.

Optimistic that participation of local hosts of the on going 6^th AfrEA Conference in Accra will be significant, Dr Pealore is hopeful that the many “participants expected to join in the learning and discussion throughout the week long conference from the various ministries and government departments will take away new concepts and perceptions about M&E.”

Dr Pealore, who was involve in ensuring the smooth planning of the Ghana event, is satisfied with the success of the Conference so far, and particularly excited that all the hard work put in is paying off.

 “I know it is not an easy job in organizing a conference of such magnitude,” he told Reportage on Tuesday, “especially when it involves participants from different continents, but I think we have been up to the task.”

“The conference was initially suggested to take place in Madagascar, however, owing to certain insecurities within that country, the onus fell on Ghana, being the home country of AfreEA, and we had no option than to bring it here. So, the task was thrown to us,” he said.

Having attended several AfrEA meetings in the past, in Niger, South Africa, Cairo, all of which he played some role, he believed that, together with the task team selected to work on the Ghana event, he would be ready to face any challenges.

“Nothing is easy, you have to work hard to achieve everything. We took the challenge and I’m satisfied. Indeed, I am very happy to see so many people attending the conference, and I am also ready to find ways to solve any logistical problems that may arise while we are at it.”

How AfrEA fired me

Ony Rasoloarison

Ony Rasoloarison, an evaluator from Madagascar participating in the Accra conference has revealed how AfrEA fired her interest in Outcome Mapping as a method of evaluation. Ony told Reportage that her first encounter with AfrEA was in 2007 when she participated in the Niamey conference. “It was at that conference workshop facilitated by the IRDC (Canada), that I first learnt about Outcome Mapping. 

“I found the evaluation method very interesting and I wanted to learn more,” she said. Two years later Ony was in Cairo for the 5^th AfrEA Conference where she fully embraced the method. “Back home in Madagascar, I have used the Outcome Mapping method in my role as a person responsible for monitoring SAHA, a rural development programme in Madagascar. 

She said that the use of the method has resulted in behavioural change among the beneficiaries who, because they were involved in the negotiations with donors, now feel that they own the project and thus work towards sustaining it.

Exhibitors eye $5000 prize

Ghana’s Vice President, who was the Guest of Honour at the official opening ceremony of the conference also officially opened the exhibition of the entries of the National Associations Competition.

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the competition is aimed at encouraging national associations and Special Interest Group (SIG) members of AfrEA to present small scale project ideas or other innovations relevant to the conference focus areas as a small but concrete way to contribute to the advancement of evaluation in Africa.

Three cash prizes will be given for the best programme/project idea, product or service already accomplished, and for the best future project/programme idea or innovation. The winning projects will be selected by an independent team of judges and will be given prize money of between US$1,500 and US$5,000.

All together, six national associations and one SIG applied to take part, and four were shortlisted. They comprise AGDEN, AME-Morroco, APEM- Mali and RISE- Cote D'Ivoire. Other  exhibitors include ESK- Kenya, MASSE- Madagascar and SAMEA- South Africa.

L’AfrEA est venue au moment opportun

Dede Bedu-Addo

Madame Dede Bedu-Addo, coordinatrice du Forum de Suivi et d’Evaluation du Ghana (GM&EF), s’est félicitée du fait que le Ghana est le premier pays anglophone à abriter la conférence AfrEA.

Dans son entretien avec Reportage au centre de conférences Mme. Bedu-Addo a affirmé que “C’est un grand honneur et j’estime que cela intervient au moment opportun où nous parlons du suivi puisque nous sommes surtout dans une année d’élection. Je pense que c’est un moment qui aidera à mettre en évidence ce que nous attendons de notre gouvernement”.

C’est un moment qui nous apporte également beaucoup d’espoir pour l’avenir, a-t-elle déclaré. « Nous avons l’occasion de faire la connaissance d’autres personnalités impliquées dans le domaine de l’S&M et d’apprendre comment les processus sont pratiqués dans les pays et les institutions d’ailleurs. Nous pouvons partager et apprendre dans cette rencontre avec différentes personnalités venues de tous les coins du monde ».

Alors que la conférence présentera une grande possibilité aux participants d’apprendre de nouvelles compétences et techniques ainsi que de travailler en réseau, nous nourrissons également l’espoir que la conférence permettra de comprendre davantage les faiblesses et les lacunes en matière de suivi et d’évaluation, notamment en Afrique où la pauvreté sévit.

“La pauvreté tend à nous faire penser à des solutions à court terme. Le S&E est une solution de développement à long terme. Nous assistons à une mauvaise affectation et gestion des ressources. Nous espérons qu’après cette conférence, nous pouvons rentrer dans nos pays respectifs et nous interroger sur la manière dont nos ressources sont gérées et nous saurons comment en tenir les autorités responsables », a-t-elle ajouté.

“Quiconque dépend d’un budget ou reçoit de l’argent périodiquement doit faire le S&E”.  Au fond, il faut s’arrêter pour un moment afin de s’interroger sur la manière dont les fonds ont été gérées”.

Cette année la conférence est destinée à aider les participants à mieux s’équiper pour relever les défis de nos jours. Il s’agit d’un forum qui permettra de renforcer les capacités qui seront bénéfiques à long terme.

En tant qu’association locale, le GM&EF a constaté que le suivi et l’évaluation suscitent beaucoup d’intérêt, notamment dans les milieux gouvernementaux. Malheureusement, il semble que “l’on ne passe pas de la parole à l’action parce que les capacités sont insuffisantes et que les outils avec lesquels l’on travaille ne sont pas disponibles, en particulier les ressources financières”.

Toutefois, Mme. Bedu-Addo est persuadée que le travail en réseau et le dialogue qui résulteront de cette conférence aideront à créer des moyens de formuler d’autres outils qui aideront les praticiens à prendre des décisions en connaissance de cause.

Mes souvenirs du Caire

Issahaq Mohammed Jalaludeen

Les souvenirs du Caire, en Égypte, le pays des pharaons, sont toujours présents dans  mon esprit. Les couchers du soleil de chaque soir, les diners au bord du Nil, les visites aux sites naturels de renommée mondiale, les pyramides, le musée de la ville, la Mer Rouge et l'Université d'Alexandrie avec son imposante bibliothèque !

La ville a abrité la Cinquième Conférence d’AfrEA, tenue du 29 mars au 2 avril 2009 à Semiramis  Intercontinental Hotel. Le thème retenu pour la conférence de Caire était : « Perspectives d’Evaluation d’Impact – Approches  de l’Evaluation de l’Efficacité du Développement».  

Cette conférence  a réuni un important contingent d’évaluateurs, des décideurs, des politiciens, des responsables de la mise en application des politiques et des agents de développement qui ont tous fait le déplacement de la ville antique afin de prendre part à la Conférence semestrielle co-organisée par l'Initiative Internationale pour l’Evaluation d'Impact (3ie), l’UNICEF et le Réseau des Réseaux pour l’Evaluation d’Impact (NONIE).

En dépit du charme époustouflant de la ville   qui nous  a tellement inspiré,  nous avons, de toute façon, pu retenir les principaux faits saillants et les résultats de la Conférence, qui ont compris l’officialisation du dixième anniversaire de l’AfrEA qui a abouti à l’élection des membres du Conseil d’administration pour 2009 avec Dr Florence Etta comme Présidente, le lancement de son Journal dénommé Efficacité du Développement et la publication  du Projet de Guide de NONIE sur  l’Evaluation d’Impact.

D’autres points saillants ont compris les progrès significatifs réalisés dans la cadre du débat sur le lancement du Journal Africain d’Evaluation et des indications relatives aux initiatives de création des Centres d’Excellence devant permettre de renforcer les capacités en S&E en Afrique par le Groupe Indépendant d’Evaluation de la Banque Mondiale.

La réunion a été une occasion formidable et a permis aux participants de découvrir les magnifiques sites d’attraction touristiques dont regorge le pays d’accueil. Nous avons donc tous vécu des moments magnifiques !

Sing - song time

Participants singing
at the opening ceremony

A surprise act on the program at the opening ceremony was the performance of an AfrEA composed by New Zealand participants Kataraina Pipi (with guitar) and colleague Kate Mckegg. They were joined by other conference participants.

A break to chit-chat and share a dance

Participants dancing 

Yesterday evening was fun as co-hosts of AfrEA, the Institute of African Studies, treated participants to a song-and-dance cocktail at Yiri Lodge on the University of Ghana campus. There was good traditional music, so good that some members could not help but join in the dancing.

more pictures here

AfrEA is here at the right time

Dede Bedu-Addo

Mrs Dede Bedu-Addo, Coordinator of Ghana Monitoring & Evaluation Forum (GM&EF) has expressed her delight that Ghana is the first Anglophone country in West Africa to host the Conference of the AfrEA.

Speaking to Reportage at the conference centre, Mrs Bedu-Addo said, “It is a big honour, and I think it came at a good time, when we are all talking about monitoring, especially as we are an election year. I think it will help bring focus to what we expect of our government.”

It brings a lot of good prospects for the future also, she said. “We get to meet other people in E&M, and learn how the processes are being practiced in countries and institutions elsewhere. We can share and learn with different people from all over the world.”

While the conference will create great networking opportunities for participants who will pick new skills and techniques, we also  hope that it will create more understanding of the weaknesses and lapses in M&E, especially in Africa, where poverty is rife.

“Poverty has a way of making you think of the short term. M&E is a long-term developmental solution. Where resources go and how they are used is not very good. We hope that after this conference, we can go back and ask how our resources are being used and how we can hold people responsible for it,” she said.

“Anybody who lives on a budget, or has money coming in periodically needs to do M&E” Basically, they need to stop and check, and ask themselves where all the money went.”

This year’s conference is designed to help participants to be better equipped to meet the challenges of the times. It is a forum to use to build capacity for long-term benefit.

As a local association, the GM&EF found there is a lot of interest in monitoring and evaluation, especially in government circles, although, unfortunately it appears the “talk doesn’t go with the walk, largely because, often, there is not enough capacity, and the tools with which to work are unavailable, particularly, funding.”

But, Mrs Bedu-Addo believes that the networking and dialogue that will ensue at this year’s conference will help generate ways of building other tools that will help practitioners make more informed decisions.

So far, So good

Issaka Traore

Not daunted by the hiccups of the first day of the 6^th AfrEA Conference in Accra, the Board member in charge of Programmes and Socials,  Mr Issaka H. Traore is happy with the way things are going having found his rhythm once the meetings and workshops got underway.

As head of the task team putting together the schedule of programs and activities such as the papers, panels and workshops and the social events like the roundtables, one- on-one meetings and lunches, in effect, all the sideline activities, Issaka leads a team of volunteers, who he says have been very helpful.

Keeping to time is a general problem in Africa, but as Issaka says, “We don’t work alone, we rely on other task teams such as the Scholarship team, which takes care of submission of workshop papers. Since some papers came late, we couldn’t release the final program early enough. But, we are working to improve this.”

“You see, while we have been planning this event over a year now, the late arrival of some of the papers and inputs from some of our partners meant we could not have the two clear weeks we wanted to ensure everything was ready.”

That notwithstanding, things are beginning to settle and, “so far, so good” Issaka told Reportage on day two of  the conference. “I think the pre-conference  workshops and meetings, have helped to enhance and improve the skills of the participants. It has been good, particularly for us African evaluators, as we met and shared ideas with our counterparts from other continents. It has been very beneficial, learning of some of the best practices from around the world, and we can only move to build on what we have learned in those first two days.”

Putting together an international conference with a task team scattered around the globe is no mean undertaking, and this past year working on this project has been very exciting for Issaka. “Of course, we had a great local ground handling team that also helped. I think we have done well.”

Cairo on my mind

Issahaq Jalaludeen

Memories of Cairo, Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs still linger on my mind. The evening sunsets, dining by the Nile, visits to world-renowned landmarks, the pyramids, the city’s museum, the Red Sea and the Alexandria University with its gigantic library!

The city was the destination for the fifth conference of AfrEA, held from March 29 to April 2, 2009 at The Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel. It was on the theme ‘Perspectives On Impact Evaluation – Approaches To Assessing Development Effectiveness’. It attracted a large contingent Of Evaluators, Policy Makers, Politicians, Policy

Implementers and Development Agents all of whom descended on the ancient city to participate in the bi-annual conference co-organized by the International Initiative For Impact Evaluation (3ie), UNICEF and the Network Of Networks On Impact Evaluation (NONIE).

In spite of the breathtaking appeal of the city, which so inspired us, we were still able to go away noting the main highlights and outputs of the conference, which included the formalization Of AfrEA on its tenth anniversary culminating in its 2009 Board elections with Dr. Florence Etta being chosen as President; the launch of its Journal Of Development Effectiveness and the release of the draft NONIE Guidance on Impact Evaluation. Other highlights were the significant progress in the debate around and towards the launch of African Evaluation Journal; and indications of initiatives to develop Centers of Excellence to improve M&E capacity in Africa by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group.

The meeting was splendid occasion set against the backdrop of the exciting tourist attractions the destination had to offer, and we all had a great time!

AfrEA will come away better

Mr Bali Andreatseheno

Mr Bali Andriatseheno, member of the AfrEA Board responsible for the Chair and speakers of the 6th AfrEA conference has indicated that his major expectation of the conference is that the Association will come out in the end as a more credible and stable organization.

“This conference is the first that is being organized directly by an elected Board and I have no doubt at all that AfrEA is on its way to building more confidence.”

Mr Bali was speaking with Reportage during the cocoa break yesterday. He said that starting off the conference with two days of technical workshops before the conference proper will create an opportunity for members to upgrade their skills and knowledge about monitoring and evaluation as well as learn from other participants from all over the world.

The theme of the conference –‘Rights & Responsibility in Development Evaluation - is an attempt to place humans and human agency at the heart and centre of development practice and in particular development evaluation. Development of this kind, is pursued in the interest and for the transformation of the human condition

An innovation at this conference, Bali disclosed, is that while the opening session will have one keynote speaker delivering one topict, the closing session will have a panel of voices which will seek to engage participants, measure their reactions and evaluate how well matters have gone down.

Pre-conference forum in Accra

On the 20th of December, 2011, the Pre-Conference Sensitization forum was held at the British Council Hall in Accra. Present at the meeting was President of AfrEA, Dr. Florence Etta whose visit to Ghana coincided with the forum. Also present were Mrs. Dede Bedu-Addo, Coodinator of Ghana Monitoring and Evaluation Forum, co-organizers of the 6th AfrEA Conference, Professor Akosua Adomako, Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and co-Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee. Welcoming participants and guests was Mrs. Bedu-Addo, drew the attention of all present to the importance of the forum.

From Left Mr. Akunu Dake,
Dr. Florence Etta,
Prof. Adomako and Mrs Bedu-Addo

Dr. Etta briefed the meeting of the history of African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), where it started, how far the Association had come as well as the need for evaluation. She also pointed out that development evaluation has become essential for the growth of individuals, societies, and especially developing countries.

Mr. Akunu Dake, the Conference Manager then introduced Professor Adomako who spoke on the crucial evaluation plays in development and urged everyone to participate in the conference as well as the need for Ghanaians to patronize this great opportunity. She emphasized the emergence of new paradigms and the need to understand these evaluation processes, needs and skills.

A variety of questions were answered by Dr. Etta from the gathering which included invited and special guests, interest groups as well as the media.