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Indigenous evaluation blog
Report on Participation of Dr. Awuor Ponge - Part 2Day 4 – Thursday, 7 May 2026Keynote Panel 3: Centering Equity and Indigenous Knowledge in African Evaluation PracticeOn Day 4, I attended the morning plenary, which opened with Keynote 3, titled "Centering Equity and Indigenous Knowledge in African Evaluation Practice," delivered under Strand 3: Wellbeing, Equity and Inclusion in the Kisakye Main Hall. The keynote was delivered by Serge Eric Yakeu Djiam (Co-Chair, EvalIndigenous; Vice-President, IDEAS; and former AfrEA President), with a panel comprising Prof. Almas Fortunatus Mazigo (Senior Lecturer, Applied Ethics and Development Evaluation, DUCE, Tanzania), Ms. Rosetti Nabbumba Nayenga (Deputy Head, Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit, and former President of both UEA and AfrEA), and Ms. Nurain Ahmed (Emerging Evaluator, Islamic Relief South Africa; SAMEA EE; AGDEN Scholar), moderated by Commissioner James Mugisha (Compliance and Enforcement, Equal Opportunities Commission, Uganda). The session made a powerful case for recentring African evaluation practice around equity, indigenous knowledge systems, and community-defined notions of well-being, arguing that mainstream evaluation frameworks rooted in Western epistemologies continue to marginalise the lived realities and knowledge traditions of African communities, and that meaningful progress toward inclusive and transformative evaluation requires not merely the addition of equity indicators but a fundamental rethinking of whose knowledge counts, whose voices define success, and whose priorities shape the questions that evaluations are designed to answer.  Dr. Ponge receiving a gift from Ms. Jane Kyarisiima Mwesiga, Deputy Head of Public Service Technical Session C: Powering Partnerships for Impact – VOPEs and EvalIndigenousOn the same Day 4, I was a presenter in a Technical Session on Governance, Learning & Accountability. This session was chaired by Ms. Jane Amuge Okello from The Uhuru Institute for Social Development, standing in for the scheduled chair Dr. Thina Nzo of Twende Mbele and CLEAR-AA. Other presenters in the strand included Ms. Rita Nakato Nayiga and Ms. Ruth Aber. My presentation wove together two related themes: the strategic role of VOPEs as institutional anchors in national evaluation ecosystems, and the landscape of Indigenous evaluation methodologies in Africa. On VOPEs, I argued that AfrEA’s network of over 45 national associations represents one of the most significant institutional achievements in African evaluation, serving as convening platforms, professional standard-setters, and advocacy vehicles for evidence-informed policy. On EvalIndigenous, I presented the African Chapter’s work across five thematic areas – Indigenous African ethics in evaluation, Made in Africa Evaluation and decolonisation, Indigenous knowledge systems and biodiversity, storytelling and Indigenous voices, and rights-based advocacy – grounded in frameworks including Ubuntu philosophy, the Kaupapa Māori framework (Dr. Fiona Cram), and the Indigenous African Ethical Protocol for Evaluations (EvalIndigenous, 2021). I drew on fieldwork with the Ogiek of the Mau Forest and the Mijikenda of Kwale County in Kenya, and invoked the Wolastoq Declaration on Indigenous Evaluation (2024) as the movement’s clearest demand that extractive evaluation – evaluation that takes community knowledge without returning accountability – must end. I invited colleagues to engage with the African Chapter’s ongoing work and its growing network of Indigenous evaluators across the continent.  Members of EvalIndigenous cutting a Cake to celebrate with UEA@25 Keynote 4: Building the Next Generation of African Evaluators: Pathways and PartnershipsThe Day 4 in the Afternoon, I attended a plenary session that featured Keynote 4, titled "Building the Next Generation of African Evaluators: Pathways and Partnerships," delivered under Strand 4: Capacity Strengthening in MERL in the Kisakye Main Hall. The keynote was delivered by Dr. Takunda Chirau (Director, Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR-AA), with a panel comprising Mr. Mohamud Ali Nur (President, Somali Evaluation Society – SOMES; and MEAL Coordinator, Save The Children, Somalia), Ms. Tebogo Fish (Programme Manager, Research and Learning, CLEAR-AA), and Ms. Faith Kuli Rombe (Vice President, Young and Emerging Evaluators), moderated by Dr. Bwanika Godfrey (Lecturer, Uganda Management Institute – UMI). The Keynote 4 session addressed the urgent imperative of deliberate, sustained investment in the next generation of African evaluators, arguing that the continent's growing demand for locally owned, contextually grounded, and methodologically rigorous evaluation practice cannot be met without structured pathways for emerging evaluators to enter and advance within the profession – through mentorship, institutional partnerships between VOPEs and academic institutions, targeted capacity-building programmes such as those coordinated by the Africa Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN) and CLEAR-AA, and the creation of enabling environments in which young and emerging evaluators are not merely trained but genuinely integrated into evaluation teams, policy processes, and professional networks across the continent.
Day 5 - Friday, 8 MayKeynote 5: Institutionalizing Evidence Use: Accountability Systems for Sustainable DevelopmentThe fifth and final day of the conference, Friday 8 May 2026, opened with a recap of the conference's key highlights and outcomes presented by Mr. Kepha Kawanguzi, and participant reflections and testimonials. This was followed by Keynote 5, delivered by Stephen Amperm from Ghana, on "Institutionalizing Evidence Use: Accountability Systems for Sustainable Development," with a panel comprising Ms. Caroline Makuvire (Director, Evaluation, Research & Learning, Office of the President and Cabinet, Zimbabwe), Mr. Timothy Msobor Chemonges (Executive Director, Centre for Policy Analysis – CEPA, Uganda), and Mr. Kevin H. Njuki from the MEL, State Department for Economic Planning, Kenya. The session was moderated by Ms. Elone Natumanya Ainebyoona (Co-founder, Development Eye Initiative). Closing Plenary – From Evidence to Action: The Way Forward for Evaluation in UgandaThe Closing Plenary in the Kisakye Main Hall, convened under the theme "From Evidence to Action: The Way Forward for Evaluation in Uganda." The session opened with remarks by Mr. Timothy Lubanga (Commissioner, M&E, Office of the Prime Minister, Uganda). A panel discussion on bridging the gap between evaluation evidence and policy implementation followed, was moderated by Dr. Josephine Watera (UEA President and Conference Chair), with panellists including Commissioner Mr. Timothy Lubanga, Mr. Matthew Lubuulwa (Senior Technical Officer, MoFPED), Dr. Takunda Chirau (Director, CLEAR-AA); and Ms. Anna Elsie Luyiggo (President, YEEs Uganda). The conference was formally closed by Dr. Josephine Watera, with a Guest of Honour Closing Speech delivered by Ms. Jane Kyarisiima Mwesiga (Deputy Head of Public Service, OPM), a Vote of Thanks by Dr. Julian Bagyendera (Provide & Equip Ltd), and a closing prayer and national anthem bringing five days of pre-conference and conference activity to a dignified conclusion. Jinja Excursion – Visit to the Source of the River NileIn the afternoon of Day 5, Friday, 8 May 2026, a group of conference participants embarked on a pre-arranged half-day excursion to Jinja, travelling approximately two hours from Kampala to visit the Source of the Nile – one of Africa's most iconic geographical landmarks and a site of profound historical and cultural significance as the point where the White Nile begins its long journey northward through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. This was a visit to the source of the longest river in the World where it touches the third largest lake in the World. The excursion offered a welcome opportunity for informal fellowship after the intensity of the intellectual intercourse of the preceding days, and the boat ride on the Nile was a particular highlight – gliding across the calm, expansive waters at the source, with lush green islands on either side, the gentle current beneath us, and the distant roar of Bujagali Falls carried on the breeze. It was one of those rare moments at a professional conference where colleagues from across Africa and beyond set aside their evaluation frameworks and simply shared the experience of being in a magnificent place together, conversations flowing as freely as the river itself. The Jinja excursion was, in every sense, a fitting close to a landmark conference – a reminder that the bonds built between evaluators in the corridors and session rooms of UEW 2026 extend well beyond the formal programme, and that the evaluation community is, at its core, a community of people who care deeply about Africa and about each other.
Key Reflections and RecommendationsFour overarching lessons stand out from UEW 2026. Africa-led evaluation approaches have achieved genuine institutional momentum, with decolonisation and community ownership now central rather than peripheral to the profession’s self-understanding. Governance and political economy dimensions must be embedded in evaluation design rather than treated as background context. The evaluation profession is not yet adequately equipped to govern the risks of generative AI, particularly around evidence integrity and Indigenous rights. And universities, think tanks, and VOPEs are interdependent pillars of a functioning evaluation ecosystem, each requiring deliberate and sustained investment. On this basis, I recommend that the EvalIndigenous Global Network should continue strengthening support for Africa-led, context-sensitive evaluation approaches; integrate Indigenous knowledge systems into programme design and evaluation frameworks aligned with the Wolastoq Declaration (2024) and the African Evaluation Principles (2021); build partnerships with universities, think tanks, and evaluation networks; invest in AI literacy and ethical data governance capacity with attention to Indigenous data sovereignty; and adopt governance-sensitive methodologies capable of tracking power, civic space, and institutional accountability alongside conventional development indicators. ConclusionUEW 2026 was a landmark event in Africa’s evaluation calendar. My participation – as Keynote Panellist, three-time technical presenter, EvalIndigenous Dinner Co-Host and principal speaker, and two-time published contributor to the UEA Commemorative Handbook – gave me a comprehensive vantage point on the conversations shaping the evaluation profession across the continent. What I carry forward most strongly is the conviction that Africa’s evaluation future will be built not on any single innovation or institution, but on the depth and quality of the connections forged between knowledge systems, institutions, generations, and communities. UEW 2026, at its best, was precisely where those connections were made.  The EvalIndigenous Global Network Dinner official banner
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