Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

„The biggest strength of this approach is that the monitoringand evaluation has potential to build individual andorganisational capacity and enhance prospects of the projectbeing a success. This is because it creates an environment inwhich stakeholders can reflect on the project and advice canbe feed back in light of the identified challenges andweaknesses.‟Investing time to seek stakeholder advice regarding future direction andpriorities also leads to increased ownership and associated motivationconcerning the initiative success. Similarly, providing teachers withopportunities to express their opinion and suggest improvements served topromote a greater level of engagement in the programme and thereforecontributed to the chances of improved educational outcomes. The moststriking demonstration of the capacity enhancing impact of approachingmonitoring and evaluation in this way was from a conversation with Kocsev(15/12/08) at the close of the fieldwork where he spoke about the significanceof our early approach in shaping the overall implementation:„It is fair to say that the focus group that you conducted inApril was a significant turning point for the programme. Itwas a shift from an authoritarian approach to one where weengaged more with the teachers and the schools.‟The use of monitoring and evaluation to promote capacity development wasfurther demonstrated in discussion with teachers from Dzenza (04/03/08)where they explained how the approach adopted had enabled them toimprove their use of the technology:„On your second visit to us you told us where we had mademistakes – so we have improved and solved the problems thatyou have identified last time around.‟Participatory and process-based methods have potential to facilitate a shiftwhereby monitoring and evaluation are not primarily perceived as a fearedaccountability mechanism and instead become an opportunity to learn,210