Evaluation development in Senegal

Abstract

Background: This article outlined the diversified history, the current state and future prospects of planning and evaluation in Senegal.

Objectives: The aim was to nurture debate on the quest for a more ‘African-rooted evaluation practice’.

Method: The article was based on an extensive grey literature review, the author’s involvement in SenEval and personal interviews. The literature on development evaluation and evaluation capacity development helped to frame the overall analysis.

Results: Donor policies and practices have heavily influenced evaluation practice in Senegal but recent changes are shifting the emphasis to more context-specific practice. Some encouraging signs are the creation of a high-level commission for evaluation, the impulsion of results-based management in public administrations and the improved monitoring of poverty reduction strategies. Also promising are the individual evaluation capacities of some local actors and more diversified, professionalised training. The last flagship activities promoted by SenEval, a voluntary organisation of professional evaluators, and the prospects of its formalisation, could be a turning point in the development of evaluation in Senegal. Nevertheless, evaluation practice remains today focused more on accountability and controlthan on learning. Moreover, the institutional setup is not coherent and consolidated to ensure a perennial system to manage, conduct and use evaluations, ensuring their quality and inclusion in the policy cycle.

Conclusion: We argued that SenEval has a significant role to play in boosting demand, strengthening the policy and institutional framework and promoting exchanges with the African and international evaluation community.