Prof Babette Rabie

I’m an Associate Professor at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, where I teach public policy, organisational performance management and monitoring and evaluation.

I have been a member of SAMEA for the past 10 years, and served on the SAMEA board from 2011 to 2013, acting as Chairperson in the last year. I completed my doctorate from 2007 to 2011 on Outcome Evaluation in the public sector. During this period, but especially thereafter, the prominence of M&E systems and practices dramatically escalated in the South African public sector. However, we also so during this period a dramatic increase in corruption and failure in service delivery.

My interest is therefore focused on ensuring that M&E practices and practitioners contributes towards making a difference. This requires a shift from a compliance and technocratic culture of performance planning and reporting to an entrenched performance management culture, supported by evaluative thinking in all aspects of planning and implementation, and not just within M&E units.

In pursuing this, we need to strengthen the capacity of all those who are interested to join the evaluation community, including those who are not ‘evaluators’, but who share our interest in performance and results. SAMEA provides an ideal platform where professionals from different backgrounds can share ideas to deal with difficult challenges. As a member of academia I will present focus on the importance of relevant research and capacity strengthening. As a prior member of the board, I will also be able to offer institutional memory to the existing board.