Strategic Planning Practices Adopted by the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya

Abstract

Strategic planning is an important part of strategic management that turns strategy into actions which then turn to results. It ensures that the vision and mission of an organisation, and set out objectives and goals are achieved. With unemployment being one of the most unnerving challenges in Kenya, various policy interventions have been put in place to create an enabling environment for employment creation in Kenya. The government introduced the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) targeting the youth. This study set out to determine the strategic planning practices adopted by The Youth Enterprise Development Fund and also establishes the challenges involved when undertaking the strategic planning process at the Fund. The research design took the form of a case study. The research utilized primary data and it was obtained by use of an interview guide. The respondents of the study included the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Supply Chain Manager, Business Development Manager, Lending and Investment Manager, Finance Manager, Public Relations Manager, Human Resource Manager and Nairobi Region Coordinator. The completed data was examined using content analysis. The findings show that strategic planning is indeed practiced at the YEDF. The study also established that the Fund applies the following strategic planning practices; formulation of the organization‟s vision and mission statements, and strategic objectives; development of specific, measurable, accurate, realistic and time bound strategic goals; communication of organization‟s vision and mission statements to the stakeholders; environmental scanning; and, monitoring and evaluation. The study also established that the vision 2030, government policies, budget funding are some of the external factors affecting strategic planning at the organization. The study established that some of the challenges that the Fund faces include inadequate budgetary funding, furtherance of personal interest amount the stakeholders, political interference, lack of a strong and committed team, building consensus, no strong organization alignment of the goal achievement and the organization‟s culture and limited time allocated to the strategic planning process. Some of the mechanisms adopted to counter these challenges include motivation of staff to enhance performance, fast communication of the strategy and team work. The study recommends sufficient allocation of resources to strategic planning including skilled personnel, adequate budgetary allocations, the Fund should also negotiate for more funding from Treasury, sufficient time allocation to the strategic planning process, ensure that employees are trained well and regularly in order to improve their skills in strategic planning as well as general management, change of organizational structure and culture through restructuring and training to align to the organization‟s objective at the Fund. Successful implementation of strategies also requires that the progress of strategy implementation be monitored. Therefore, it becomes imperative that a monitoring and evaluation officer be built in the implementation process.