Capacity building workshop on project evaluation

The Economic Planning Secretary, State Department for Economic Planning (SDEP), Timothy Gakuu, on behalf of the Principal Secretary, James Muhati officially opened the capacity building workshop on Project Evaluation, today Wednesday 16th October, 2024 at a Nairobi hotel.

The workshop brought together participants from SDEP and the County Governments with the aim of providing training on evaluation concepts and tools, how to carry out the evaluation process and problem solving during the Monitoring and Evaluation process.

SDEP in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is undertaking this capacity building initiative as part of the Development Cooperation Framework Agreement between the Government of Kenya and USAID on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. About thirty (30) officers from SDEP/Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, 100 officers from the Central Planning and Projects Monitoring Directorates and 94 officers from County Governments will be trained in four phases including a phase for a pilot evaluation.

In his speech, PS James Muhati said that the Pilot Evaluation of the Kenya Livestock Insurance Program (KLIP) presents an opportunity for experiential learning for the technical officers. He noted that this will be the first project to be evaluated under the Kenya National Evaluation Plan (FY2022/23-FY2026/27).

Additionally, PS Muhati highlighted that the Fourth Medium Term Plan (MTP IV) of the Kenya Vision 2030 is aligned with the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) which is geared towards Economic turn around and inclusive growth through a value chain approach. He reiterated that one of the value chains is the leather and leather products and value chains and it is expected that the findings of the pilot evaluation will be used in enhancing the implementation of the value chain.

“I expect this team to be the Trainer of Trainees on project Evaluation and will assist Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Public Investment Directorate (MELPIMD) in cascading the training to Central Planning and Project Monitoring Units and County Planning/Monitoring Units. I am aware the next phase of the technical assistance targets to train one- hundred (100) officers from the Central Project Planning and Monitoring Directorates (CPPMDs) and Ninety- Four (94) officers from the Counties,” PS Muhati said.

MELPIM Directorate within the State Department for Economic Planning is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

The directorate has made significant progress in establishing evaluation systems and processes and developed Monitoring and Evaluation Norms and Standards for the public sector. However, the capacity building training is very necessary and has come at such an important time when SDEP is undertaking a restructuring process. The uptake of projects evaluation has been low especially for county-led projects due to inadequate capacity and resources in the Department and County Governments.

The proposed topics to be covered in the training include; theory of change, evaluation types, evaluation approaches, planning and conceptualization, sampling in evaluation, data collection instruments, protocol development and in-field data collection, data entry, statistical analysis and interpretation and, communication of results and action planning.

The expected outcomes of the initiative are that the participants will be conversant with approaches and tools for planning, coordination and implementation of a project evaluation, ability to design and prepare evaluation questions as well as ability to plan and execute project evaluation.

The PS appreciated the USAID, TWENDE MBELE and the State Department for Livestock and Development for their support in organizing and facilitating the training.

In attendance were: USAID Representatives, Trainers from the American Institute for Research, Officers from the State Department for Economic Planning and the State Department for Livestock Development among others.