Given Hapunda

21  Third AfrEA Conference held in 2004  Fourth AfrEA Conference held in 2007  Fifth AfrEA Conference held in 2009  Launching of the Centres for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR)  Sixth AfrEA Conference held in 2014 The evolution of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) has to a large extent, been influenced by donor demands that have stimulated the development of M&E practice. In Africa, the development of M&E started to build momentum in the 1990s (Louw, 1998; Potter, 1999). M&E has been a relatively late entrant into Africa (Naidoo, 2010). The entry of M&E into Africa has been largely through donor programmes, but this has been accompanied by an import of theories and methodologies that are largely northern in origin. In the past years there has been exponential growth in terms of M&E in Africa. According to Basheka et al ., (2015), ‘since the early 1990s, monitoring and evaluation has seen a steep climb within Africa in terms of practice, profession and academic study’. In most of the countries in Africa, there has been an increased demand for the evaluation of policies, projects, programmes and interventions. In Africa, some of the governments have created central M&E units in order to ensure that M&E becomes an integral part of operations within the public sector. Porter et al ., (2013), document and analyse the M&E Units that were set up by the governments in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Their paper shows that these six case countries demonstrate that M&E structures and systems, and their demands on governments are in a process of development and are not yet coherent. This shows that there is still room for improving government-driven M&E systems. From Traditional M&E to Results Based Monitoring & Evaluation Frameworks The genesis of M&E in Africa has seen an evolution from the traditional M&E model to the results- based M&E (RBM&E) framework that has become a buzz word from all key stakeholders, from both the Non-profit Organisations (NPOs) and government sectors demanding evidence beyond monitoring to output, outcome and impact results indicators. RBM&E is a public management tool that can be used by policy-makers and decision-makers to track progress and demonstrate the impact of the programme to the community. RBM&E differs from traditional implementation-focused M&E as it goes beyond the emphasis on inputs and outputs to outcomes and impacts (Kusek & Rist, 2004; UNDP, 2009; NDOH M&E Unit, 2004). Figure 1 depicts the conceptual relationship between traditional M&E and RBM&E. In summary, traditional approach to monitoring and evaluation focuses on monitoring how well a project, programme or policy is being