Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation Exercises on the Performance of Water Development Programs in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya.

Abstract

In Kenya, governments and non-governmental groups have implemented a variety of initiatives aimed at enhancing the performance of water projects. Despite this effort, there has been a gap in the performance of water projects, necessitating a review of how project monitoring and evaluation might be used to improve water development project performance. This study based its research on the expected impact which will be brought as a result of using monitoring and evaluation on water development projects whose study area was Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya. The following four objectives influenced the study's main formation: To determine the impact of monitoring and evaluation data collection on the performance of water development projects implemented by the Tharaka Nithi County government, to examine the influence of monitoring and evaluation capacity development on the performance of water development projects implemented by the Tharaka Nithi County government, to establish the influence of Monitoring and evaluation planning on the performance of water development projects implemented by the Tharaka Nithi County government and to determine the influence of M&E Reporting on the performance of water development projects implemented by the Tharaka Nithi County government; Kenya. Two theories guided the research: the coordination theory and the stakeholder theory. The number of participants was 196 members of project committees, who were chosen at random from a population of interest of 391. There were sixteen (16) focus group discussions. During the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data, questionnaires and focus group interviews were used. The results obtained from the study are expected to be useful in informing the practice on monitoring and evaluation as well as policy makers in project management and water development sector. It is concluded that participation can be on decision making, Participation in M&E activities as well as Participation in Resource mobilization. Further, this is manifested in the Frequency of trainings, technical expertise in M&E, number of officers trained and knowledge and skill. The study concluded that key aspects of M&E planning are important that includes resource allocation, resource mobilization, M&E frameworks, and M&E procedure plans. It is the important to do proper M&E planning which includes allocation of adequate resources.