MERL and the 4th Industrial Revolution: Submit your AfrEA abstract now!

by Dhashni Naidoo, Genesis Analytics

Digitization is everywhere! Digital technologies and data have changed the way we engage with each other and how we work. We cannot escape the effects of digitization. Whether in our personal capacity — how our own data is being used — or in our professional capacity, in terms of understanding how to use data and technology. These changes are exciting! But we also need to consider the challenges they present to the MERL community and their impact on development.

The advent and proliferation of big data has the potential to change how evaluations are conducted. New skills are needed to process and analyse big data. Mathematics, statistics and analytical skills will be ever more important. As evaluators, we need to be discerning about the data we use. In a world of copious amounts of data, we need to ensure we have the ability to select the right data to answer our evaluation questions.

We also have an ethical and moral duty to manage data responsibly. We need new strategies and tools to guide the ways in which we collect, store, use and report data. Evaluators need to improve our skills as related to processing and analysing data. Evaluative thinking in the digital age is evolving and we need to consider the technical and soft skills required to maintain integrity of the data and interpretation thereof.

Though technology can make data collection faster and cheaper, two important considerations are access to technology by vulnerable groups and data integrity. Women, girls and people in rural areas normally do not have the same levels of access to technology as men and boys This impacts on our ability to rely solely on technology to collect data from these population groups, because we need to be aware of inclusion, bias and representativity. Equally we need to consider how to maintain the quality of data being collected through new technologies such as mobile phones and to understand how the use of new devices might change or alter how people respond.

In a rapidly changing world where technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Internet of Things, drones and machine learning are on the horizon, evaluators need to be robust and agile in how we change and adapt.

For this reason, a new strand has been introduced at the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) conference, taking place from 11 – 15 March 2019 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. This stream, The Fourth Industrial Revolution and its Impact on Development: Implications for Evaluation, will focus on five sub-themes:

• Guide to Industry 4.0 and Next Generation Tech
• Talent and Skills in Industry 4.0
• Changing World of Work
• Evaluating youth programmes in Industry 4.0
• MERLTech

Genesis Analytics will be curating this strand.  We are excited to invite experts working in digital development and practitioners at the forefront of technological innovation for development and evaluation to submit abstracts for this strand.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 16 November 2018. For more information please visit the AfrEA Conference site!