Bellagio-Report-Vs-Apr-14

egiments in Botswana provided a wayof grouping people and monitoring andevaluating their progression and qualityof life. The regiments were given agroup name and members becameresponsible for one another and forupholding the values communicated tothem during the traditional interventionthat introduced them to adult life.6. Presentation of established, formalisedcommunity and stakeholdersrelationships.7. Holistic construction of evaluationknowledge to produce evidence,through:a. Listening to metaphors on theenvironment that have arelationship to the projectb. Valuing community knowledgeand using it as a basis forfurther improvement andsustainability of projects.8. Explanation of both community-setstandards and stakeholders’ standardsto evaluate worth and merit.9. List and explanation of core valuesbased on an I/we relationshipa. Value validityb. Fairnessc. Reflexivity based on an I/werelationshipd. Community as knowers andcommunity as evaluatorse. Evaluators and funding agentsestablishing long lastingrelationships withcommunities.The Ideal African CommunityDevelopment Evaluation FrameworkThe two branches of the African tree model –decolonisation and indigenisation, andrelational – illustrate the deconstruction thatcurrent evaluation theory and practice need togo through before arriving at truly Africanrootedand African - driven theory and practice.The complementary model of the ideal Africancommunity begins to describe what such apractice would look like. An African lives inand for the community. The individual cannotexist without the community and thecommunity cannot exist without the individual.The conscious interdependence between theindividual and the community is whatcharacterizes that which is essentially African.This model is built on the concept of ubuntu(described earlier), which, in simple terms,means community, and the essence of beinghuman. The ideal African communitydevelopment/evaluation model can bedescribed by five interrelated andcomplementary ubuntu principles.• Sharing and collective ownership ofopportunities, responsibilities andchallenges – Ants united can carry a deadelephant to their cave; a rooster maybelong to one household but when itcrows, it crows for the whole community; alit candle loses nothing by lighting anothercandle.• The importance of people and relationshipsover things – It is better to be surroundedby people than by things.• Participatory decision making andleadership – Taking action based on oneperson’s views is like provoking wasps in anest; no matter how blunt, a macheteshould never be held by a mad person.• Loyalty – The river that forgets its sourcewill soon dry up.• Reconciliation as the goal for conflictmanagement and resolution – Those wholive in peace work for it.!The five principles describe the idealcommunity and they result in concrete material,social and spiritual benefits. African societiesused these as basis for their assessments ofcommunity/societal progress.African Thought Leaders Forum on Evaluation and Development, Bellagio, Nov 2012 36