Transcript TB Political Will: The Tuk Tuk Syndrome

Participative Monitoring and Evaluation amongst NGO’s in Kenya:
Towards Lessons of experience and improved practices
Erick Mariga
4th Biennial Conference on Monitoring and Evaluation,
South Africa,
September 2013
Objectives of the Presentation
• Background
• Introduction
• Demystifying Participative M&E amongst NGO’s in Kenya
• Significance of Participative M&E
• Key Participative M&E themes
• Case Perspective
• Lessons of Experience as a result of implementation of PME
systems
Background
• Kenya is the largest economy in East Africa and is a regional financial and
transportation hub. The country’s economic expansion is fairly broadbased and its build on a stable macro-environment fostered by
government.
• However the country presents a situation where it has slide systematically
into the abyss of underdevelopment and poverty, this has been attributed
to corruption and bad governance.
• As a developing country, Kenya receives large amounts of foreign
assistance, most of which is distributed through non-governmental
organizations. Many of these NGO’s have offices in Nairobi, which is the
capital.
• NGOs operate at all levels - grass-roots, national, regional and
international. Many conduct high-impact, high-resource projects and
operate in the fields of health, refugees, environment, human rights,
education, and other key aspects of international development.
Introduction
• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) have long been
important in Kenyan NGO’s specifically in
development projects and programmes to assess
actual change against stated objectives, and
therefore judge whether development projects
are successful or not.
• However in the last two decades there has been
a growing interest among these NGO’s to shift
from conventional methods of monitoring and
evaluation to participatory approaches to
monitoring and evaluation of development
projects
• Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PME)
offers NGO’s a host of opportunities for
improving the performance of poverty alleviation
programmes and building communities while
focusing on service delivery.
Demystifying Participative M&E amongst NGO’s in Kenyan Context
•
•
•
The introduction of PME stemmed from the desire to address the unequal
distribution of power, and to ensure that projects meet the real needs of
beneficiaries, rather than being driven by the assumptions of project designers
PME is often premised on the assumption that project’s goals and participants’
goals are mutually compatible (Parkinson, 2009). However, this is not the case
for many development projects that have been initiated as much focus on
monitoring and evaluating target on meeting the needs of development
agents.
Therefore it would be prudent to reflect on the term PME as the joint efforts
or partnership of stakeholders to monitor and evaluate systematically
development projects
What is the significance of Participative M&E amongst NGO’s
“It is useful to be acquainted with history… it keeps repeating itself, as if we liked
it”-Linn Hansen.
Knowledge about Participative M&E is not lacking but the will to use and implement
it appropriately is……..
Perspectives
– An integrated PME system in an organizational system can enable
effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of project activities in a
coherent manner which would further aid in support of management
decision making, accountability, and organizational learning
• Holte-McKenzie, Forde & Theobald, (2006), in their study on ‘Moving the
Goalposts Kilifi’ (MTGK) in Kenya implemented PME and found out that MTGK
was dedicated to the empowering of girls and young women through football
and the decision was made to develop a PME strategy.
– Nevertheless, their findings revealed that while program staff, board
members and fund providers were involved in the evaluation, design
and data analysis, program participants/beneficiaries were the least
likely to participate in evaluating, and were often only involved in data
collection.
– Based on this study, I think it is prudent for us to point out that people
who are the beneficiaries of development projects partially participate
(co-opted) in the monitoring and evaluation processes.
Key Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Themes
Participatory development approaches including PME have major guiding
principles in terms of undertaking NGO projects/programmes in
communities.
These include: the principles of :
community participation,
accountability,
transparency,
empowerment,
capacity building &
decision making.
Case Perspective:
•
Youth Reconciliation Forum of Kenya (YOREF Kenya) is a nonpartisan national nongovernmental organization registered by the registrar of societies of Kenya on 25th
March 2010.
•
It was started by young leaders of different ethnic community extract drawn from
diverse leadership backgrounds in civil society, students union leadership, political
parties youth leadership, the media, religious sector, among others.
•
A remarkable inclusive approach brought on board reputable leaders already in national
leadership positions to steer the organization in the desired direction.
Cont:
•
The near collapse of the state in early 2008 as a result of disputed presidential poll
results which gave way to unprecedented Post-Election Violence that left hundreds of
Kenyans dead, property worth billions of shillings destroyed and led to deportation of
populations, informed the formation of YOREF Kenya.
•
As it were, the urgent need of peace, reconciliation, harmony, coexistence and return to
normalcy bolstered the move to found YOREF Kenya and contribute meaningfully to all
peace initiatives and conflict mitigation processes.
YOREF Kenya Thematic Programs
•
•
•
•
Conflict Mitigation and Peace Building
YOREF Kenya focuses on reconciliation and building new
relationships amongst conflicting communities
Such activities include inter-ethnic dialogue, cultural exchange
programs negotiations, and problem solving workshops,
information, education and communication.
The organization also involves multiple non-state and state
actors such as the government, elders, professional elites,
women, religious leaders and youth.
Through grass roots involvement YOREF Kenya, gives priority
to mobilization of community resources, victims and
perceived perpetrators of violent conflict, to nurture
community based response mechanisms that pave way for
reconciliation amongst conflicting tribes and clans.
Democracy and Good Governance
• YOREF Kenya understands that execution of acts of political
violence is only possible when electorate have inadequate
civic awareness regarding democratic processes and
governance issues.
• YOREF Kenya designates comprehensive civic education as
intervention entry point to curb violence resulting from
consequences above.
• Timely civic education is carried out before and during
campaign periods preceding elections and/or referenda
through focused group discussions (FGD), training workshops,
seminars/conferences, and roundtable discussions.
Participative Monitoring and Evaluation Process (YOREF)
• In the implementation of YOREF Kenya programs routine PME is
carried out through out the project period. Implementation Impact
Assessment (INIA) is conducted alongside expert monitoring
consultants with a view of innovating new approach, adjustments
and readjustments. There are also quarterly reports on the
implementation progress testing preset objectives achievements.
• YOREF Kenya in conjunction with donor partners and relevant
stakeholders hold regular participatory evaluation sessions and
terminal assessments to test indicators and develop future models
of implementation plan unique to each project.
Lessons of Experience as a result of implementation of PME
systems
• PME increases public accountability and transparency
amongst NGO’s
• There is also improved decision-making where NGO’s fully
implement PME systems
• Community participation is fostered through PME
• Laying the Foundation for building capacity
• Empowerment of project beneficiaries.
Areas of Future Research
• Documentation versus Sharing of PME Experiences
Lack of well-documented experiences in PME can be a limitation to
sharing ideas about the process and impact of PME,
Local Opinion! Need for Participation & Ownership
“ There are many doctors in Isiolo. Some are Private while others are civil servants. A
sick person in this area has choices to make among them and may try all the doctors
but only one will cure him. I wonder why, with so many development experts around
us and for so long. Still there has been no cure for this disease called “ovati” (read
poverty)? Experts have to come to us from all over the world: Europeans, Americans,
and Canadians..from many great nations, to see our ‘Ovati’! It was only the other day
they came to our village in twelve vehicles . Now, here you are from Nairobi talking
about the same thing. How come with all these brains, still there is no cure, no
solution to our ‘ovati’? I am not seeking for any personal gain out of this question,
neither am I expecting a ‘quick-fix’ answer. But i am pleased to be able to express this
concern in this forum as it has bothered me for a long time now”
(KCDF Workshop Report, 2011).
THE END
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