Given Hapunda

4 Rationale of this Book Since the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development Conference in 1987, held in Paris, France which gave donors and beneficiaries an opportunity to discuss evaluation and subsequently, the Abidjan seminar which was held in 1990 in Ivory Coast, which among others discussed evaluation needs and capacities for each country, increased the recognition of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in Africa. However, it is only in the last decade that utilisation of monitoring and evaluation systems increased. In Africa like in other developing continents, development and utilisation of M&E in decision-making has been slow. In Africa, M&E utilisation has been slowly increasing, a trend predicted to continue especially with political recognition of the importance of M&E to good governance and development (Mofolo, Mkuyana & Skade, 2014). Globally, the international status of M&E has been influenced by the United States of America discourse (Basheka & Byamugisha, 2015). As a result, M&E as a discipline, practice and profession is influenced by the perspective of the USA and other developed countries, which we call etic M&E. M&E influenced by local discourses embedded in local politics and socio-economic cultures also known as emic M&E is lacking. The development of emic M&E in Africa will largely depend on the development of literature with African M&E discourses, training programmes anchored on African experiences, development of M&E professions in African universities using African materials and supporting development of M&E practitioners with a rich background of local political and socio-economic culture. However, this handbook does not claim that only etic M&E is needed for African M&E practitioners. Domestic and global forces will all contribute to the growth of this discipline. We cannot deny that this discipline in growing, especially with the shift towards more performance-based management of policies, programmes and projects. This growth has also seen the development of M&E associations in almost all African countries. Despite this increase in the development and utilisation of M&E, some countries and institutions still find themselves with top political leaders and managers who are unaware of the benefits of M&E. The trickle-down effect of this lack of awareness of top leadership, is slow development and appreciation of M&E. Unfortunately, academics who are supposed to be the engine to drive the development of the field equally lack thorough understand of the field (Khan, 1998). Among countries and organisations within Africa utilising M&E, some are only conducting monitoring activities which also masquerade as evaluation. Monitoring is the dominant part of government’s and organisation’s [especially local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or civil society organisations (CSOs)], monitoring and evaluation systems (Porter & Goldman, 2013). Monitoring is confused for evaluation. Some governments and organisations with full functional M&E systems tend to be donor-led rather than country or organizational led systems.