The need and feasibility of a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach.

The purpose of this article was to assess the need and feasibility of a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach. There is a growing concern across the globe that a one-size-fits-all policy programme evaluation approach, based on the Western evaluation model, is not appropriate in culturally and developmentally different environments. These concerns have increased calls for culturally sensitive or culturally competent programme evaluation approaches. As a result, the call for a special Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach has increased. This article aims to analyse the literature in order to determine whether it is practically possible to establish a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach on a continent that comprises 54 countries with multiple cultures, customs, traditions, races, tribes, ethnicities, religions and languages. A qualitative approach based on a robust desktop review of available literature was used in this analysis to assess the need and feasibility of a separate Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach in Africa. The main finding in this research was that there is currently no clarity on what the Africa-rooted programme evaluation approach will look like and how it would differently evaluate the aspects that are currently being evaluated through Western evaluation approaches. This article recommends the domestication and universalisation of existing Western programme evaluation approaches. Evaluators must consider the socio-economic and environmental context of indigenous African people, without isolating their need for better goods and services from the broader national and international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]