Decolonizing Evaluator Education in Africa: Challenges, Opportunities, and Pathways for Integrating “Made in Africa Evaluation” Principles Into Higher Education Curricula

Evaluator education is an important site for paradigm development, reproduction, and socialization of evaluators. Despite its importance for shaping the future of the evaluation field, research on university-based evaluator education in Africa remains underexplored. Using a mixed-methods design that draws on document analysis and 14 expert interviews with program leaders across Africa, this paper examines the integration of the Made in Africa Evaluation principles into evaluator education programs at African universities. The study makes a meaningful empirical contribution to ongoing conversations in evaluation related to decolonization, epistemic justice, and the preparation of future evaluators. The findings indicate that evaluator education in Africa is characterized by a continuum of indigenization, with Western-dominated curricula coexisting alongside hybrid, relational, and emerging Indigenous approaches. The study offers key insight into how evaluation paradigms are negotiated within higher education systems influenced by donor expectations, global knowledge hierarchies, and institutional constraints.