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The history of the field of evaluation goes back to many years. For Potter and Kruger (2001) the tradition of this field, as distinct from the testing movement, goes back to the 1930s, “when Ralph Tyler and his colleagues (1942) suggested that programmes could be evaluated in their own terms, through examination of the attainment of their objectives”. Since then, objectives-based evaluation became the norm. The development of the field gathered momentum in the 1960s, when a wide variety of programmes were developed as a result of the so called “war on poverty” in the United States (Atkin, in Potter, 1999). Potter (1999) shows that postgraduate causes in programme evaluation began to be taught in many universities in North America and Britain, either as dedicated courses in the field or as an integral part of more general courses on research methodology. Since the 1980s, programme evaluation has been the fastest growing frontier of social science research (Cronbach, 1982).

In South Africa, nevertheless, it is only in the 1990s that local social scientists have demonstrated a growing recognition and an increased interest in the area. There is, today, increased number of programme evaluations commissioned and a continuing training of evaluators in the country. Courses in programme evaluation are being taught at South African universities. There are also some short courses that have been organized nationally by agencies such as the South African Association for Academic Development (SAAD) and the Wits Center for Continuing Education, as well as those run locally by non-governmental organizations such as the Forum for Adult Educators. Moreover, every two years an international conference is organized and a journal and a bulletin dedicated to assessment and evaluation issues are published (Potter, 1999).These are signs of widespread interest in the field. Potter and Kruger (2001) indicate that the evaluations that have been conducted in recent years include:

Although a substantial literature shows that a growing number of programme evaluations are being conducted in South Africa, Potter (1999) argues that this is still relatively small in comparison to the number of social programmes that exist. He points out that over 6 billion (as has been estimated) of overseas and local funding has been spent since the 1970s in bolstering the various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have worked to promote innovation and change in various sectors of society. As yet, however, it is not known whether most of the social programmes have been successful. Only a small fraction of them have been evaluated.

That the field of evaluation is receiving an increasing recognition and attention as an area of applied social science research requires no further elaboration here. However, it seems unsafe to say that this field has achieved its greatest impetus to growth in South Africa. According to Louw (1998) programme evaluation in Southern Africa can be characterized as diffuse and fragmented, with:

Programme evaluation approaches have utility in many fields. The approaches are used in several spheres (eg. in Mass communication and advertising industries for developing media programs and marketing products; in Commercial and industrial corporations for evaluating the procedures they use in selecting and promoting employees and organizing their work forces; In administration - both public and private sectors - when assessing the clerical, fiscal, and interpersonal practices of organizations; in Political sphere, when developing campaigns by evaluating the voter appeal of different strategies; etc. (Rossi and Freeman, 1993. For social science researchers however, programme evaluation research is not only a cutting-edge applied technique, but also "in many ways typical of the kinds of proffessional, applied careers now open" (Potter, 1999, p. 225).