Monitoring and evaluation systems should inculcate IKS

Leonard Ncube, Features Reporter
MONITORING and evaluation systems which are key to the country’s achievement of the National Development Strategy (NDS1) objectives should inculcate indigenous knowledge systems to ensure that they speak to community needs in the wake of challenges brought about by Covid-19.

This was revealed when Lupane State University, through its Centre for Evaluation Science in collaboration with United Nations Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Evaluation Association (ZEA), recently hosted a national evaluation conference in Victoria Falls with the aim of deliberating on the state of evaluation in Zimbabwe under the Covid-19 pandemic.

The theme was “Evaluation That Leaves No One Behind: Empowering Progress Towards the Africa We Want”, and was premised on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which speaks to United Nations’ spirit of leaving no one behind which endeavours to reach the furthest behind first.

This is the same pledge made by the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa, to leave no one behind as the country forges towards attaining an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

In practice, this means taking explicit action to end extreme poverty curb inequalities, confront discrimination and fast-track progress.

Focus was on how to address climate change issues, addressing inequality, evaluation in an emergency context, avoiding manipulation of evidence, emerging technologies, made in Africa evaluation, governance and evaluation systems and achieving the critical milestones.

The workshop served as a platform to weigh how far the country has been able to make use of evidence from monitoring and evaluation to inform policy reforms and decision-making, as well as for researchers and academics to learn from each other’s experiences, situate practices and roles against the context of a larger monitoring and evaluation ecosystem and develop capacities that can nurture a culture of deep reflection and action.

The conference was modelled along the thematic focus of evaluation that leaves no-one behind, empowering progress towards the “Africa we want” amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and the other crises and opportunities facing the country.

It brought together stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation including private sector, academics, consultants, Government representatives, ZEA members and the often left behind groups.

The keynote speaker was LSU acting dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Dr Nozizwe Dhlamini who said the conference was an opportunity to explore the evolution of monitoring and evaluation in the Zimbabwean context particularly under the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic to learn lessons and chart the way forward.

“As one of the pioneers in monitoring and evaluation instruction, Lupane State University continues to offer evaluation services to our nation as a way of contributing towards achievement of national priorities including the National Development Strategy 1.

“As to the question of where we want to go and how do we get there, it is important to recognise that monitoring and evaluation systems are dynamic and evolving and require constant update from a broad set of ecosystem inhabitants. Lupane State University remains committed to contributing to an increased sense of awareness of self and others in this newly defined space of interaction,” said Dr Dhlamini.

The conference’s recommendations implored evaluation practitioners and commissioners to listen, explore and reflect on the voices of the marginalised or excluded population groups, consider new ways of undertaking evaluations within the context of emergencies using culturally appropriate evaluation theories, methodologies and instruments which embrace indigenous knowledge systems.

It also called for maintaining of dialogue between evaluation practitioners and a broad range of stakeholders who use evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Stakeholders comprise legislators, the executive, political leaders, monitoring specialists, philanthropists, impact investors and ordinary citizens.

Dr Dhlamini said LSU organised the conference in line with its contribution and consistent with the Government’s Education 5.0 philosophy which calls for a radical shift towards innovation and industrialisation in all community engagements.

Education 5.0 calls for promotion of programmes and innovations that satisfy the human basic needs and provide context-based solutions for communities, and calls for purposed and structured community engagements.

She said evaluation practice on the continent must be truly inclusive and reaching to those furthest behind, rooted in local values and ways of knowing, embracing the diversity of stakeholders, perspectives and approaches.

“These stakeholders could indeed contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for evaluation and generate data that can be used for evaluation, including opening access to the evaluation profession to new and young people through academic training, recognising and embracing the diversity of African evaluation communities and integration of the same communities across language barriers as well as supporting development and implementation of policies and programmes that will make Africa a continent where no child, woman or man is left behind,” she said.

The country needs to develop new, co-created solutions that address fundamental human needs and desires and growing societal challenges with equity-focused, inclusive and gender-responsive evaluation systems all round.

There is need to move away from silo mentality and approach and the presence of Government representatives, academics and development practitioners from United Nations and others was testimony to that.

“I see an opportunity for us to influence each other, our work environment and our contexts. I see opportunities to collaborate, share and create and recreate knowledge on monitoring and evaluation resources and to co-evolve in the midst of Covid-19 disruptions where we should adapt together,” added Dr Dhlamini.

Speaking on the same occasion, various academics and experts presented findings of various studies carried out as part of the monitoring and evaluation process.

Professor Stella Muchemwa presented on authenticity of University Online Assessment in Zimbabwe towards developing a function model and the study focused on the dynamics introduced by Covid-19 that triggered various responses in terms of monitoring and evaluation.

She said in the education sector, online teaching methods were introduced as an alternative to face-to-face classroom teaching and learning. She recommended the use of digital proctoring systems to reduce distortions and manipulations of online processes.

“The study revealed that there is emergence of rampant dishonest threatening integrity of online assessment and that the better-off countries are the ones enjoying the benefits of online approach while less developed ones are lagging behind,” she said.

There have been concerns about how ready the country’s education system is in the wake of the new normal.
Dr Vuyiswa Sandrah Nyathi presented a paper on ‘‘Educational preparedness for virtual teaching and learning during Covid-19 lockdowns: implication for policy innovation’’.

“Thus far, it has been observed that there are a number of challenges and gaps in this emergency response calling for educational policymakers to develop effective and efficient crisis preparedness and response policies.

There are gaps in the legislation of Zimbabwe and these have a bearing on the educational preparedness in virtual learning during Covid-19 lockdown.

The education sector is not adequately prepared for disaster risk reduction in order to minimise vulnerability in the sector and the study recommends intense resource mobilisation and capacity building in order to meet the intended goals in education with no child left behind,” said Dr Nyathi.

Dr Douglas Nyathi said there were challenges and gaps faced in trying to put a human face to remote monitoring and evaluation.

He said digitalisation was promoted but it was leading to exclusion as responses to the pandemic were mainly online based.

“These online based responses are accompanied by exclusion issues and easy manipulation of evidences. As a result, in adjust monitoring and evaluation systems in various crises, inclusion and avoidance of manipulation of evidences should be promoted,” he said.

In his presentation on ‘‘Mimicking the Tonga Culture into Program Evaluation’’ Mr Munyaradzi Nyamande complained about use of foreign evaluation strategies and concepts that at most do not resonate with the local communities.

Mr Nyamande said using local indigenous knowledge systems was critical to conducting relevant and participatory evaluation.

He used critical cultural family system as unit for evaluating project impact at family level and the “mwana wakulindiswe factor” (a concept of local knowledge about local issues), showing potential to amplify the unique Tonga language and culture concepts and values that can inform indigenised programme evaluation.

Other discussions were also around the “African and the Faith-Based Religious Institutions: Evaluation Opportunities and Challenges” presented by Mr Blazio Manobo who said some objectives might not be in tandem with the “intentional religion” of the founding church system.

Youth participation in eco-theology and involvement in climate change issues was also an area of discussion, to emphasise impact of African Indigenous Church (AIC) eco-theological doctrine in inculcating a sense of belonging, ownership, participation and responsibility among the church youths which is evidenced through improved stewardship of the environment.

Ms Nomalanga Dube presented an evaluation of the effectiveness of Intwasa/Pfumvudza in addressing food security and climate change in Umzingwane district, and highlighted that climate change has shocked the world and poor countries have been hit hard.

She said international and national strategies have been developed to address climate-related disasters and in Zimbabwe Intwasa was adopted by as a way to improve food security and combat climate change.
Effects of Covid-19, just like climate change, are varied and cross-cutting.

A study by Mr Fungai Mudzengerere and friends on “assessment of retention of adolescent girls and young women in HIV prevention interventions under the DREAMS programme during the Covid-19 period in Matabeleland South province showed that adolescent girls and young women participation in HIV prevention programmes was erratic during lockdown periods due to movement restrictions.