ABSTRACT
In Africa, the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), which brings together fourteen national networks, was inspired by the Program Evaluation Standards (PES) of the Joint Committee in creating its own directing principles also known as the African Evaluation Guidelines (AEG). This chapter examines the influence of cultural codes specific to a given social context on the adoption of evaluation standards. It discusses the questions: "Can the modifications found in the directing principles of African evaluation be explained by cultural considerations?" In other words, have the PES been retranslated according to cultural codes characteristic of African societies? The four cultural dimensions retained by Geert Hofstede are: Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism–collectivism, and masculinity–femininity. Hofstede constructs distinctive criteria for collectivism and individualism within several categories: family, personality and behavior, language and group identity, school, work situation, applicability of management methods, consumer behavior, matters of health and disability, political system, and religions and ideas.
