The purpose of the diagnostic studies was to provide a demand and supply profile of evaluators in
Uganda, Benin and South Africa. On the supply side, the main aims were to quantify the size and
shape of the current country supply of evaluation consultants, including their skills levels, abilities
and specialisations, and pricing. On the demand side, the main aims were to quantify the current
and projected demand for evaluation services, including factors such as eligibility requirements to
tender, opportunities for transformation and the sustainability and strengths and weaknesses of the market. Overall, Twende Mbele was interested to ascertain whether supply is, and will be in the future, sufficient to meet demand, and what should be done to grow local supply in the three countries. In Benin, the demand side is 90% dominated by donors. Government demand for evaluations is relatively small and has dropped in recent years. Demand from civil society is almost non-existent. In Uganda, there is substantial government and NGO demand in addition to donor demand. Government demand in Uganda is based on a policy requirement for all very large projects to be evaluated, and this demand is therefore fairly constant. In South Africa, there are indications that government demand could grow rapidly over the next three years, because of a non-financial incentive that has been introduced for all national and provincial government departments to carry out evaluations of their programmes.
