{"id":24818,"date":"2026-07-10T16:44:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/the-institutionalisation-of-evaluation-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T16:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:56:33","slug":"the-institutionalisation-of-evaluation-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/the-institutionalisation-of-evaluation-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New Publication: The Institutionalization of Evaluation in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The book The Institutionalization of Evaluation in Africa, edited by Reinhard Stockmann, Wolfgang Meyer, and Tanja Stockmann, is the fourth and final volume of the project Evaluation Globe \u2013 Compendium on the Institutionalization of Evaluation.<\/p>

With this volume, the book series that was started in 2016 has been completed. The first volume on Europe was published in 2020, followed by a German edition in 2021. The second volume on the Americas was published in 2022, and the third volume on Asia-Pacific in 2023. The fourth volume, on Africa, has now been published as an eBook; the print edition is expected to follow in August. The aim of the project is to provide an interdisciplinary audience with a better understanding of how evaluation is institutionalized across different countries, continents, and sectors. At the same time, the series offers a foundation for comparative learning in order to better understand and further advance the institutionalization and use of evaluation worldwide. <\/p>

The new volume examines the development and current state of the institutionalization of evaluation in Africa. It covers 12 country case studies: Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In addition, four transnational organizations and networks are examined that play an important role in shaping the institutionalization of evaluation in Africa: African Development Bank Group, CLEAR-AA, CLEAR-FA, and UNICEF. <\/p>

The studies are based on an analytical framework developed by Reinhard Stockmann and Wolfgang Meyer, which was used across all four volumes of the book series to ensure the comparability of the country reports across world regions. The framework distinguishes three dimensions of the institutionalization of evaluation: the political system, the social system, and the professional system. <\/p>

These three dimensions represent central areas in which evaluation can become institutionally embedded: the national political system as the key arena of political decision-making, civil society which plays a role in controlling and supporting political governance, and the professional system, in which evaluation knowledge, competencies, quality standards, and professional practice are further developed. More specifically, the volume examines legal and administrative frameworks, organizational anchoring and evaluation practice, societal demand, use and awareness of evaluation, as well as education, professional organizations, standards, and academic discourse. <\/p>

The detailed country and organizational reports were written by selected authors from the respective countries and organizations; overall, 34 authors contributed to the volume. Their insights are brought together in a comparative synthesis that identifies key differences, commonalities, and development trajectories in the institutionalization of evaluation in Africa. In addition, the volume includes a concluding chapter that broadens the perspective to all four GLOBE volumes and shows which pathways of institutionalization emerge in global comparison, as well as which enabling and constraining factors play a role. <\/p>

With regard to Africa, it becomes clear that the institutionalization of evaluation is a multifaceted and dynamic field that varies across countries and systems. In the political system, evaluation is strongly institutionalized in only a few countries. No country could be identified that combines a high degree of institutionalization with a high level of evaluation use. In the social system, evaluation has so far hardly been formally institutionalized. The use of evaluation by civil society actors is often shaped by external requirements, and the understanding of what evaluation is and what function it can fulfil remains limited. By contrast, the professional system is developing particularly dynamically, for example through the establishment of university-based training programs as well as professional associations, networks, and communication structures. Overall, political will, national implementation capacities, and professional networks prove to be enabling factors, while unclear frameworks, limited resources, and a limited understanding of evaluation constrain institutionalization. <\/p>

Globally, evaluation is primarily institutionalized through political or policy-driven processes. Civil society does not emerge as a central driver of evaluation. Moreover, a high degree of professionalization does not necessarily go hand in hand with high demand for evaluation \u2014 and vice versa. Overall, it becomes clear that the institutionalization of evaluation alone is not a sufficient condition for its comprehensive use in the political system; at the same time, such use hardly takes place without at least a minimum degree of institutionalization. Where evaluation is used, this often occurs in the context of budgeting, financial control, accountability, and performance management. Evaluation is used much less frequently as a basis for evidence-informed policymaking, political legitimation, or public and parliamentary debate. In many countries, there is therefore a risk that routinization and bureaucratization narrow evaluation to the function of an administrative control instrument. <\/p>

<\/p>

Book title: The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in AfricaEditors: Reinhard Stockmann, Wolfgang Meyer, Tanja StockmannPublisher: Palgrave Macmillan ChameBook ISBN: 978-3-032-06301-4Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-032-06300-7 (available from August 2026)Publication year: 2026<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The book The Institutionalization of Evaluation in Africa, edited by Reinhard Stockmann, Wolfgang Meyer, and Tanja Stockmann, is the fourth and final volume of the project Evaluation Globe \u2013 Compendium on the Institutionalization of Evaluation. With this volume, the book series that was started in 2016 has been completed. The first volume on Europe was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":24817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24821,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24818\/revisions\/24821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceval.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}