Research Linda Khumalo

Abstract

The Global South, particularly Africa, continues to grapple with the enduring legacy of colonization, reinforcing power imbalances and global inequalities. Calls to decolonize development highlight the need to redress asymmetric knowledge production between the Global North and South. This study examines how development evaluation in Africa has been shaped by International Organizations (INGOs) and Western donors, often failing to deliver meaningful development outcomes. In response, the study contributes to transformative evaluation by valuing the pluriversality of knowledges. Rooted in interdisciplinary critical theory, it advances the decolonization of evaluation through the co-creation of the Recentering Indigenous Knowledge Evaluation (RIKE) model. Drawing on experiences from evaluators in Uganda and South Africa, the study explores the integration of Indigenous Knowledges in programme evaluations in health and education—as priority sectors in African evaluation. RIKE engages the broader African evaluation community through multi-actor African evaluation networks such as the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) to deepen understanding of decolonizing methodologies. RIKE will be piloted through critical engagements with researchers, students, and the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI). This work seeks to mediate between theory, practice, and policy, enhancing both social and epistemic justice in development for the public good.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Hecken Gert
• Fellow: Khumalo Linda

Research team(s)

• Development processes, actors and policies

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

While our research group analyses development processes, actors and policies in general, development monitoring and evaluation is one of the crucial aspects hereof and our group has also developed a critical mass of expertise on this topic. To date, however, there is a large gap between the literature in this field and the recent literature on the decolonial turn in development studies. The post-doc challenge can be a welcome opportunity to explore how the literature on decolonization of development questions both thinking and practice in development monitoring and evaluation. To be sure, there are some existing streams of literature that may help in closing the gap between both literatures: This work may involve, among other things, (1) building further on power analyses of participatory or community based evaluation methods (Cooke & Kothari 2001; Cohen et al 2021), (2) engaging with 'indigenous knowledge systems' (Shepherd & Graham 2020) and transformative forms of evaluation (Mertens 2009), (3) adapting evaluation processes to cultural contexts through 'culturally responsive approaches' (Chouinard & Cram 2020), (4) explicitly dealing with the ecological sustainability aspects of development interventions (Patton 2020) and (5) pursuing "aidnography" to analyze the political economy context in which many monitoring and evaluation activities take place, also taking into account the importance of donor involvement in processes of monitoring and evaluation (Lewis & Mosse 2006; Eyben et al 2015; Olivier de Sardan 2021).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Cassimon Danny
• Fellow: Khumalo Linda

Research team(s)

• Development processes, actors and policies

Project type(s)

• Research Project