18-22 March 2024 | Kigali, Rwanda

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

BACKGROUND

The African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), in partnership with the Rwanda Monitoring and Evaluation Organization (RMEO), is pleased to invite submissions for the 11^th AfrEA International Conference.

The conference will be held in Kigali, Rwanda between March 18 – 22, 2024.

In the past, various participants from Africa and around the world have submitted and presented papers and posters, chaired panels, and facilitated professional development workshops. The conference serves as a platform to promote and support AfrEA's "Made in Africa Evaluation" approach and enables the sharing of knowledge, collaboration, and networking with a diverse range of international organizations and individuals.

 With a theme titled “Technology and Innovation in Evaluation Practice in Africa: The Last Nail on the Coffin of Participatory Approaches? “The 11^th AfrEA conference aims to:

• To strengthen VOPEs to work with national Governments to advance the evaluation agenda, especially on policy formulation based on evidence.
• To provide space for sharing experiences to enhance national evaluation capacities
• To showcase the use of evaluative evidence in Africa
• To contribute to the development of Young and Emerging evaluators

In addition, the 2024 conference goal is to raise awareness, build capacity, and strengthen partnerships between AfrEA, Voluntary Organisations for Professional Evaluations (VOPEs), evaluation stakeholders, and national Governments on the institutionalisation of evaluation in Africa.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Proposals for Papers, Workshops, Panels, Roundtables, and Exhibitions are welcome in any of the following 12 conference strands:

1. Career Development in M&E training – How can we cope with the digital revolution?
2. Artificial intelligence and evaluation; are we experiencing a revolution in how we evaluate?
3.  Made in Africa Theories and Practices: What can we contribute to the international discourse?
4.  Evidence generation, use and application in African political governance systems.
5. Climate Change, Agriculture, and sustainable Environment management.
6. Gender, equity, and inclusion in evaluation.
7. Indigenous Evaluation and Ethics: Recalibrating the Made in Africa Evaluation in the Context of the Decolonization Debate.
8. Youth and Evaluation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa.
9. Becoming Catalysts: Young and Emerging Evaluators as Agents.
10. Decolonizing evaluation in Africa in the Post-Crisis Era.
11. International conflicts and evaluation: what are the implications?
12. Democracy, Human Rights and Governance: new perspectives to inform African Evaluation Theory and Practice

DEADLINES FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

Submission Opens:

Online Abstract Submission Opens on 15 October, 2023

Submission deadline for abstracts:

Abstracts should be submitted electronically no later than 15 December 2023 at 23hrs 59GMT

Notification of acceptance of abstracts:

All applications will be informed whether their abstracts have been selected for the conference by 15 January 2024.

The deadline for receipt of full papers:

AfrEA needs to receive all full papers no later than 15 February 2024 at 17hrs 00 GMT

Paper presentations

Written papers engage a debate in evaluation, report critically on completed evaluation, aim to clarify issues in evaluation theory, and propose new and innovative evaluation paradigms.

Paper submissions entail a written paper in final form by 15 February 2024 and an oral presentation during the conference where the presentation time is divided equally between the PowerPoint presentation and questions from the floor, for response by the presenter.

Paper proposals should indicate:

• Title of the paper, clearly indicating it as is on the paper presentation
• Name/s, title/s and institutional affiliation/s of author
• Name and title of presenting author 
• Email and telephone contact details of the presenting author
• A 300 to 500 words abstract must be included and contain information on the context, an overview of the content of the presentation, and a summary of the results and conclusions that will be presented
• Abstracts must be submitted on the AfrEA conference website. [Abstracts that are accepted will be included in the conference programme as they stand, and authors are required to ensure that they are adequately proof-read before submission]
• In addition, please note that:
  • Submitted papers may be considered for publication in the African Evaluation Journal. Authors are required to sign a statement indicating whether their paper has been previously published, in which journal, or in what format
  • Abstracts speaking to the theme would be favorably considered 

Roundtable presentations

Roundtables usually entail evaluation work-in-progress. During such sessions, authors make available a manuscript for debate to clarify, strengthen argumentation, and consider the next steps. Sessions aim to assist the author in completing the manuscript with the view to publish. We encourage participants to bring draft or in-progress reports about interesting initiatives for brainstorming and advice. 

Abstracts for a Roundtable should be 300 to 500 words and should be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Please note that a hard copy of the written manuscript in progress, with issues for discussion, should be made available in sufficient numbers to attendees at the presentation. 

Poster presentations

Poster presentations entail a poster-size presentation with images as well as text. Posters usually depict an evaluation study including questions asked in the study through methodology, data, findings, and conclusions. Posters will be displayed during the conference and presenters need to be available to respond to questions about the poster on display. 

Abstracts for Poster displays should be no longer than 300 to 500 words and must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. 

Accepted Poster presentations will be displayed in the exhibition hall for the duration of the conference. Posters should measure approximately 95 cm in width and 1.5 m in height. 

Exhibition presentations

Exhibition presentations should indicate:

• The title of the exhibition
• The name of the member association or organisation 
• The contact details (including e-mail address)
• Should be accompanied by a half- to one-page description of the exhibition stating the materials required and the language (French or English)

Workshops and training sessions

The organizers invite African and international M&E experts, donors, foundations, individual consultants, universities, and other African government organisations, private sector training providers, and NGOs to submit proposals to facilitate professional development workshops during the initial two and a-half days of the conference.

 Workshop proposals should list:

• Workshop Title
• Facilitator name/s, background, qualifications, and affiliation 
• Description of experience in training in the field and history of the workshop or course
• Contact details of the presenting entity or facilitator
• Course length: half/1/2 days
• Target participants: beginner, intermediate, or advanced participants?
• Workshop description/programme of activities (including learner outcomes, key themes, and training methodology) 
• Accreditation 
• Ideal and maximum number of participants
• Special requirements 
• Description of course materials
• Language in which the workshop will take place (French or English) 

Workshop and training proposals must be submitted online via the AfrEA conference portal. All proposals will be considered and during the selection of workshops, preference will be given to accredited courses, (non-accredited) scarce-skills development courses, and workshops offered by presenters with substantial international experience in M&E training.