The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A CALL has been made for various sectors of the economy to develop new co-created solutions that address fundamental human needs and growing societal challenges caused by calamities such as Covid-19 pandemic.
Academics and various other stakeholders met in Victoria Falls recently for the National Evaluation Conference which was used as a platform to share knowledge on the state of evaluation in Zimbabwe under the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lupane State University (LSU) Centre for Evaluation Science organised the event in collaboration and with support from the United Nations (UN) Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Evaluation Association.
The theme for the conference was: “Evaluation That Leaves No One Behind: Empowering Progress Towards the Africa We Want.”
Keynote speaker Dr Nozizwe Dhlamini, who is acting Dean in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at LSU said the conference sought to explore the evolution of monitoring and evaluation in the Zimbabwean context particularly under the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic to learn lessons and chart the way forward.
She said LSU remained committed to contribute to an increased sense of awareness of self and others in this newly defined space of interaction.
“ This gathering presents an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other’s experiences, situate our practices and roles against the context of a larger M&E ecosystem, and hopefully develop capacities that can nurture a culture of deep reflection and action,” said Dr Dhlamini.
“Our theme is premised on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development where 193 United Nations member states pledged to ensure ‘no-one will be left behind’ and to ‘endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.’ In practice, this means taking explicit action to end extreme poverty, curb inequalities, confront discrimination and fast-track progress for the furthest behind. Our evaluation system should inform this wish.”
She said for LSU, the meeting was consistent with the Education 5.0 philosophy which calls for a radical shift towards innovation and industrialisation in all its community engagements.
“The heritage based philosophy demands that we promote programmes and innovations that satisfy the human basic needs and provide context based solutions for our communities.
“As one of the pioneers in monitoring and evaluation instruction, LSU continues offering evaluation services to our nation as a way of contribution towards achievement of national priorities including the National Development Strategy 1.
“As to the question of where we want to go and how do we get there, it is important to recognize that M&E systems are dynamic and evolving and require constant update from a broad and broader set of ecosystem inhabitants,” said Dr Dhlamini.
Midlands State University senior lecturer Dr Zvenyika Mugari who presented on evaluating the infordemic and vaccine hesitancy in Zimbabwe’s national Covid-19 vaccination roll-out campaign, said there is a need to take into account the infordemic dynamic for the country to achieve its goals.
Dr Vuyiswa Sandrah Nyathi who presented on educational preparedness for virtual teaching and learning during Covid-19 lockdowns called upon educational policymakers to develop effective and efficient crisis preparedness and response policies to address gaps posed by the pandemic.
Various other presenters focused on a number of challenges posed by Covid-19 with Professor Stella Muchemwa saying use of online methods was a challenge to developing countries compared to developed nations.
She recommended digitalised proctoring to reduce distortions and manipulation of line processes. — @ncubeleon
