Positionality in Made in African Evaluation: Race,Geography,and Epistemology

Introduction

As the Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) approach has grown as both a methodological and epistemological orientation to encourage the relevance, validity, and usefulness of evaluations in an African context, evaluators have become more invested in thinking about what it means to be African in the field of evaluation, as well as what perspectives and experiences define an African evaluation approach (Chilisa, 2024; Gaotlhobogwe et al., 2018; Masvaure & Motlanthe, 2022). It also frames how we relate to and apply African approaches and discourse in our evaluation careers (Tirivanhu, 2022). This article shares the collective reflections of participants in the MAE strand of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association conference in 2024, considering how positionality both shapes and is shaped by the MAE agenda. The article reflects what makes the context of governance and development being evaluated in Africa unique, the complexities of essentializing either race or geography for an African identity in evaluation, and finally, the commonly held worldviews and values that shape an African evaluation approach.

Authors represent a wide spectrum of identities, including diverse sectoral backgrounds, racial identities, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, origins from all over the world, and career stages ranging from emerging to established practitioners—a range that itself reflects the intergenerational collaboration at the heart of the MAE agenda. We have all seen examples of evaluation as a brave act, challenging power and promoting justice (Gaotlhobogwe et al., 2018). We have also seen evaluation fall prey to the neocolonial industrial development complex that perpetuates rubber-stamping and co-option (Furubo, 2018). This article explores themes in positionality that have shaped and been shaped by the MAE agenda, and includes individual authors’ experiences to discuss what they mean for African evaluation approaches.

What Do Our Governance and Development Challenges Mean for Evaluation?

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 16% of the world's population, but 67% of the people living in extreme poverty, while the region holds more than a third of all global mineral reserves (Teseletso & Adachi, 2023; Tetteh Baah & Lakner, 2023). This is not due to a failure of people in Africa to facilitate development, but a history of exploitation that has had profound economic, social, and environmental consequences (Candido & Green, 2022). Despite this being widely recognized, the global development industry has strong patrimonial tendencies, from savior complexes, to blaming the victim (Yadav et al., 2023). African evaluators are uniquely well-positioned to see the structural drivers of development results and look beyond simplistic yet incorrect causal explanations. Such structural challenges demand that African evaluation practice be rooted in lived experiences of those who have experienced the individual consequences of unequitable political and economic systems.

Francois Mbiere Sakata works on evaluation in South Africa, but often reflects on the governance challenges in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other French-speaking Central African countries.

Here, evaluation remains an emergent profession, often viewed as a tool for policing failures rather than a means for building capacity and fostering a culture of learning, reflecting the colonial histories of the incentives within our government institutions. Strengthening evaluation practice in these contexts is essential for building a more accountable governance framework.

Mokgophana Ramasobana's journey from living in the village in Limpopo to the city life of Johannesburg has continued to inform his personal and political understanding of inequality, and has influenced his urgency to indigenize evaluation. He reflects on how this background has shaped his understanding of evaluation.

As an economic migrant, I have an inquisitive mind nurtured by observations I made while growing up in the village. Why do some kids have many pairs of shoes while others do not have a single pair, and why is it that poverty has colour? These questions have transcended into global spaces and are at the heartbeat of my involvement in initiatives to indigenize evaluation.

African Evaluation, Race, and Intersectionality

African identity and blackness are intertwined, and yet not the same (Ndlovu-Gatsheni & Ndlovu, 2021). Black consciousness, pan-Africanism, and other philosophical movements have informed African epistemologies and diaspora identities (Frehiwot, 2019). At the same time, not all people living in Africa are Black. The historical diversity means there are Indigenous people of a range of races who have a legitimate claim to an African identity, as well as migrants both to and from Africa. While race is a critical theme in understanding African identity, the politics of power and identity are both deeply entrenched and incredibly complex across the continent, and a reductionist focus on race can mask stereotypes based on accent, national origin, sexual orientation, class, or other identities that are less visible (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2021).

Jamie Robertsen, a white South African evaluator, reflects on these dynamics in her work across the continent.

My race is one of the primary reasons that I do most of my evaluations outside South Africa. This is both because, as a South African, I’m particularly sensitive to the country's historical violence, and also because dynamics of racism are more acutely felt when they reinforce my daily lived experiences. Sometimes, it's an advantage to have slightly less contextual knowledge. However, working as a white South African in other African countries comes with its complexities. I’m often incorrectly associated with international donors, and often feel pushed into playing an intermediary role between stakeholders with different kinds of power. Where possible, I tackle this by challenging stereotypes, such as conducting interviews in seSotho. When the power dynamics in an evaluation setup make me uncomfortable, it's often a strong guide for me to identify underlying problems of equity or inclusion in programme design and implementation.

Where in the World are African Evaluators?

While Africa is a continent and defined geographically, evaluation is a particularly cosmopolitan field. African identity has been shaped by migration and mobility, as has the practice of evaluation in Africa. While it is difficult to measure precisely, the African diaspora includes over 200 million people of African descent living outside the continent, which, if taken together, would be one of the world's most populous countries. As a mobile continent, not all evaluators who were raised or educated in Africa remain in Africa to work as evaluators. Similarly, as a profession that was largely introduced to Africa through the field of international development, not everyone practicing evaluation in Africa was raised or educated there (Mapitsa et al., 2019; Mwampamba et al., 2022). What does the role of geography play in constructing an African identity, and what does this mean for evaluation (Adebayo & Njoku, 2023)?

Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa is a white evaluator who grew up in Nebraska, came to South Africa for higher education, and has lived and worked in South Africa for her entire adult life.

I am a South African permanent resident, but I cannot call myself African, acknowledging that the identity is more than an ID book. However, it is a title often generously bestowed by colleagues as a gesture of inclusion, and perhaps a hope that I will bring contextual understanding to my work. Due to my last name, people often expect I will be Black, and whether people are relieved or disappointed when I am not often gives me a valuable data point about the context of an evaluation. As a feminist, I am occasionally resentful that some of the legitimacy I have writing and thinking about Africa comes through my marriage and acquired African last name. Given that women do not usually change their surnames in my partner's culture, often all I can do is acknowledge how complicated and multifaceted the interface between identity, geography, and worldviews can be. It is so easy to make analytical mistakes with limited data.

What are the Roots and Shoots of Our Worldviews?

Understanding implicit worldviews is central to evaluation, and African evaluators bring to the field an acknowledgment that essentializing Africa risks not reflecting the genuine diversity of languages, cultures, classes, and experiences (Frehiwot, 2022). When development practitioners speak about “communities” or “the voice of women,” there is a common inclination to essentialize certain perspectives that are not shared, and this affects the validity and reliability of evaluation results. Africa has faced epistemic violence and the erasure of indigenous knowledge, and evaluation is increasingly grappling with the results of this in a field that is fundamentally about applied epistemology (Chilisa & Mertens, 2021).

Mercy Fanadzo, a Black female evaluator, was born and raised in Zimbabwe.

I migrated to South Africa in 2006 as a newly-wed, and pursued tertiary education here. My positionality (as a Black female, but most importantly, a new entrant into the practical evaluation space) compels me to think deeply about how I can wisely integrate African worldviews or influence their integration from the conception stages, regardless of funding models. Thus, I approach evaluation with an open mind to learn from it, and with a strong desire for beneficiaries’ lived realities to be acknowledged and valued, and their lives to change for the better forever.

How Do We Bring Our African Positionality to Evaluation?

As we have demonstrated, identity is multifaceted and complex. When tied to MAE, however, it is often through shared principles of equity and justice, informed by historical experiences of colonialism and racism. Having experienced multiple forms of epistemicide, African evaluators bring a strong understanding of the centrality worldviews play in valuing programmatic effectiveness. While these lived experiences have often been of exclusion, whether of people or ideas, African philosophical and cultural principles still return to generosity as an underlying principle. Because of this, we are well placed to recognize and value diverse forms of knowledge.

As a continent, Africa is often reflected as a place of poverty and violence, and as the recipient of aid. African evaluators are particularly well placed to understand the complexities of program “beneficiaries,” and understand that individual creativity and agency are not always acknowledged in development narratives. At the same time, systemic deficits can easily be hidden as stories of individual failure. We understand how people and institutions interact in contexts of uneven trust, and imbalances in knowledge and power.

As the MAE approach evolves, cementing its relationship to positionality will be critical in deepening the methodological innovations that are most critical to Africa's development and governance context, by critically engaging with race and geography in evaluation, and finally, by more actively articulating the values that ground an African evaluation approach. A strong foundation has been laid for this in the existing MAE work, but the individual experiences of the authors here suggest that it is an area ready for further research.