Politics and International Relations

In January 1914 a general industrial strike took place in the Union of South Africa, which resulted in unrest in the Witwatersrand area. Subsequently the fledgling Union Defence Force, for the first time since its inception in 1912, was called upon operationally by the government to suppress the strike. Because the Defence Force was still in a transformational and integration phase, the Permanent Force was not yet ready to quash the strike on its own, and therefore the commandos of the Citizen Force Reserve were commandeered for service. The traditional commando system of the former Boer republics and of the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony were thus briefly revived to quell the 1914 strike, albeit in a new and multifaceted South African milieu. This article focuses on conflict and society and emphasises important social military historiographical aspects in South Africa that have been neglected in the past. It illuminates the zeitgeist and character of Afrikaner society of ...

vidence for policy-informed decision-making, budgeting and programming. National evaluation systems (NESs) are being set up across Africa, together with the processes and other monitoring and evaluation (ME the functioning of parliamentary ME professionalisation of evaluation and existence of an enabling environment. A questionnaire was used to collect information based on the key dimensions from government and non-governmental personnel. The Mo Ibrahim index of 2018 was used to collect information on enabling environment. Results: Findings indicate that all systems have stakeholders with different roles and contexts and are designed according to the state architecture, prevailing resources and capacities. Conclusions: This article concludes that the findings can be used as different entry points for developing and strengthening M&E capacities in countries studied.

Background: Evaluation capacity development (ECD) is evolving to adapt to 21st century governance and development contexts across the world. Consequently, the ECD community is seized with processes of developing, implementing and sharing best ECD practices that are able to build strong and resilient individual and institutional ME capacities.Objectives: The article seeks to contribute to the on-going discourse and practice regarding evaluation capacity development (ECD) approaches and interventions in Anglophone Africa, Africa, the Global South and global best practice.Method: The article’s methodology is essentially centred on action research pursued during the course of co-planning and designing ECD interventions across English-speaking African countries, empirical data as well as the authors’ experiences and insights gained from leading ECD interventions across African countries.Results: The Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results – Anglophone Africa’s (CLEAR-AA) principle ...

Background: Voluntary organisations for professional evaluation (VOPEs) have proliferated across the African continent, seeking to contribute to building effective national evaluation systems (NESs) that enhance development planning, implementation and appraisal.Objectives: A study commissioned by the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results - Anglophone Africa (CLEAR-AA) and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) in 2021 highlights key strengths and challenges faced by African VOPEs in their quest to help strengthen NESs across the continent.Method: The study was qualitative by design, employing document analysis, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with selected VOPEs across Africa.Results: While African VOPEs have proliferated in number, they take different forms, and their focus tends to be shaped by their respective national contexts. A key challenge for African VOPEs is internal human and financial capacities, while the external environment within whi...

Background: Decolonisation is a concept that has taken on multiple layers since the end of colonisation and the onset of independence in the Global South. More than ever before, decolonialism, decoloniality and indigenisation have moved to the centre of intellectual inquiry across the broad spectrum of human activity: knowledge production, education, academic disciplines, professions, political life and economic organisation. The evaluation profession and fraternity has also been grappling with the idea of decolonising and indigenising its ontological, epistemological and methodological foundations, which are essentially rooted in the Global North development theory, practice and knowledge systems.Objectives: This article endeavours to provide recommendations on how to make the Made in Africa Evaluation (MAE) paradigm practical (applicable) for evaluators in Africa, based on decolonisation and indigenisation methodological prescriptions.Method: The study is qualitative by design, em...

The full impact of COVID-19 is yet to be fully understood, and while there are many unknowns, the rapid and continued reliance on the social media cannot be denied. Some Global Economy and World Health Organisations have discouraged the usage of traditional medicine for COVID-19 treatment. However, some African states such as Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Conakry, and Togo have engaged with formal researchers to see if traditional medicine can treat COVID-19. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of hesitancy amongst African populations in getting vaccinated. The paper conceptualises the criticism of Western-centric medicine and investigates the promotion of alternate approaches in the African economy. The article situates the study context by exploring the African economy's socio-politics and public health governance. It investigates explicitly African states responses to conventional treatment by analysing the role of traditional medicine and its efficacy as ...

Evidence-based practices (EBPs) to education policy-decisions have huge potential for improving education outcomes and designing impactful interventions. However, very little attention has been given to the contents of Early Childhood Development (ECD) education programmes, particularly in South African ECD centres. Despite critical efforts to design interventions that are aimed at improving the ECD sector, much still needs to be done in terms of using EBPs to inform effective interventions in the ECD practice. The objective of this study is to identify and discuss the challenges of using evidence-based practices in ECD interventions and centres. To achieve the objectives of the study, a desktop research approach is used that relied heavily on a robust literature study and the review of key official documents such as reports on ECD literature. The main findings of this study concerning challenges of using EPBs include the lack of availability of resources and time, failure to access...