Abstract Information: ‘Malicious compliance’ and ‘monitoring masquerading as evaluation’ are phrases used to illustrate the skewed overreliance on monitoring at the expense of evaluation in Africa; and why there must be heightened efforts to build emerging evaluator’s capacity to shift this narrative. This paper narrates the lead author’s nostalgic reminiscence and personal account on what he could have done differently as an evaluator. He asserts that the inadequacies arose from a structural skill gaps and an evaluation culture that promotes compliance at the expense of organizational learning. Through his personal account, the lead author equips that many evaluators in Africa are accustomed to only monitor programs while neglecting evaluation. Malicious compliance negatively influences practice as it limits evaluator and stakeholders’ monitoring and evaluation distinction capabilities and their evaluation practice implications. The overall objective is to highlight, through personal accounts and stories, the capacity and skill gaps that many evaluators experience, and which subsequently impede quality evaluation outcomes. Methodologically, we will use existing literature and lead author’s accounts to tell the story of most emerging evaluators in Africa. The overall outcome is more targeted evaluation capacity building and utilization programs tailored for different contexts and to meet Africa’s development needs.
Relevance Statement: In Africa, there is an increasing demand for evidence-based decision making and performance-based management; although government-instigated evaluations (unlike donor-driven) are not widespread (Goldman et al., 2018; Porter & Goldman, 2013). African governments increasingly employ monitoring and evaluation as a means to good governance, responsive leadership, inclusive, and generally addressing stakeholder needs in the wake of public sector reforms and “ever-rising expectation from ordinary citizens” (Kanyamuna et al., 2020; Makadzange, 2022, p. 1). Additionally, the need for accountability has prompted African governments to formulate evidence-based policies and utilize evaluation outcomes to budget and design programs or review public policies (Chirau et al., 2020). However, Porter and Goldman (2013) determined that monitoring is very dominant in all six African countries under their consideration (Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Benin, Senegal, and South Africa). This position was confirmed by Abrahams (2015) who stated that the South African government emphasized more on monitoring. Decrying the donor influence at the expense of country-led evaluation needs, Porter and Goldman (2013, p. 8) noted that “monitoring information is all that is available through government systems, and so there is a danger of ‘monitoring masquerading as evaluation’.” Surprisingly, however, nearly ten years later, leading African countries in monitoring and evaluation practice still focus more on monitoring at the expense of evaluation despite having formal national evaluation policies. Chirau et al. (2020) however argues that despite the imbalance, existing National Evaluation Policies (NEPs) influences a gradual shift towards evaluation. Existing African NEPs are still, relatively, in their infancy stages hence being a good time to introduce epistemic changes and possibly strike a balance between monitoring and evaluation. According to Chirau et al. (2022), malicious compliance is an indicator for over-reliance on monitoring and emerges when reporting is done for adherence but not for progress measurement. This is common practice in evaluation practice in Africa, partly brought by donor influence (Porter & Goldman, 2013). Essentially, there is need to strike a balance between monitoring and evaluation because both are critical for all economies. Monitoring, in particular is quite important for the African context given the governance and decision-making challenges governments face. The need for accountability, transparency and prudent use of resources is as important as organizational capacity, learning, and adjustment. Over-reliance on either monitoring or evaluation causes an imbalance that leads to malicious compliance and mis-aligned government priorities. The lead author will share his story practicing as a malicious compliant evaluator in Africa and how, through evaluation capacity building, emerging evaluators can change their worldviews to generate actionable evaluation recommendations and emphasize organizational learning and progress.
