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Contribution short abstract:

This paper lays the contours of a decolonial approach to evaluation of climate resilience building interventions aimed at marginalized communities in Northeast Nigeria. It reflexively engages with the question of whether and how this approach was able to shift power for epistemic justice.

Contribution long abstract:

Evaluation of humanitarian and development interventions within Africa have mostly been commissioned, designed and carried out using colonial approaches. This ethically flawed ‘colonized’ approach takes power away from the primary stakeholders in the context. This paper is an analytical reflection on the decolonial approach to evaluation of climate change adaptation interventions in Malakyariri, Mafa in Borno state Nigeria. The decolonial approach to evaluation involved the following components:

i) participation of the members from marginalized communities in the co-design of the evaluation criteria and questions so that the evaluation is relevant to the local context and evidence need,

ii) usage of participatory data collections such as photovoice, transect walks, road block etc so as to give centrality to knowledges of communities),

iii) co-designing the development of the knowledge products and dissemination plan with the members from the marginalized communities.

The authors reflexively engage with the question of whether and how this approach was able to shift power for epistemic justice. Hence, we reflect on whether the evaluation was able to prioritise diverse voices and knowledges of the communities whilst engaging in a process of reflection regarding our own positionality as evaluators. We hope that this learning will inspire and challenge your approach to development evaluation as a practitioner or as an academic.