Professor Mamudu Akudugu, Project Lead, Indigenous Evaluation Project in Africa, speaking during the workshop in Tamale, said the aim of the design workshop under the project was to bring together experts and taught leaders, practitioners, gender and youth, and indigenous knowledge keepers to provide deeper knowledge and insights into the scope of literature towards developing strong inclusive Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) tools.

These were rooted in local contexts and were culturally relevant and sensitive with the aim of improving the ways evaluation was perceived, designed, and used in Africa.

He said the workshop followed a maiden workstream of the PoC project, which aimed at promoting indigenous evaluation of projects in Africa, involving landscaping analysis of indigenous MEL approaches in 15 countries across the North, Central and West Africa.

He said the landscaping analysis scoped literature on the state to play underpinning the tools, approaches, and methods of indigenous MEL in Africa including the key issues, players, and funders; the local and indigenous impact thought leaders and knowledge specialists; leading thinkers of decolonialisation production on and in Africa; and practitioners of African indigenous evaluation.

Professor Seidu Al-hassan, Vice-Chancellor, UDS suggested that Africa should advance the process of developing evaluation approaches that prioritised African knowledge systems, local ways of knowing, and cultural practices over the hegemonic Eurocentric ones while remaining sensitive to the diverse cultural context of Africa.

He said indigenous knowledge played important roles in the lives of contemporary Africans, adding the traditional leaders continued to play a significant role as stewards of indigenous knowledge despite the impact of colonisation, rural-urban migration, and globalisation.