Participatory Monitoring And Evaluation Approach To Development: A Case Study Of Ugatuzi Na Kazi Project In Garissa County, Kenya

Abstract

Participatory monitoring and evaluation improves ownership and enhances accountability in development programmes. This study’s general objective was to establish how beneficiary youths were participating in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation stages of Ugatuzi na Kazi projects’. Specific objectives for the study were to explore the levels of youth participation in the implementation stage and establish their participation in the monitoring and evaluation stage of Ugatuzi na Kazi projects’. The source of data for the study came from documents review,12 focus group discussions (FDGs) held with beneficiary youths as majority, and 11 key informant interviews (KIIs) with stakeholders such members of the county assembly (MCA’s), project staff, ward administrators and sub-county administrator all totalling to 137. Content analysis was applied to categorise the resulting qualitative data into thematic areas to answer the research questions. The key findings with respect to the study objectives show that beneficiary youths in Ugatuzi na Kazi project participation was highest at the implementation stage as providers of unskilled labour to project activities but not as decision makers. They were mostly attracted by salaries offered by the project except for few beneficiaries who were attracted to other perceived benefits such as entrepreneurship and financial management training to be offered to beneficiaries in future. The project had no formal monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place at the time of this study. Monitoring of project activities was done casually by field supervisors with no standard indicators to measure progress. Majority of field supervisors did not involve beneficiaries in decisions regarding what/where project activities will be undertaken or work plans as that was solely a decision made by the field supervisors or at times a direct order coming from the sub-county administrators’ office, thus top-down management approach was exercised. The key implications of the study findings are that the County Government of Garissa put in place proper policies and guidelines that ensures all its key stakeholders fully participate in its development projects’ life cycle stages, adopt a bottom-up approach to incorporate local community’s needs into its development priorities from the community level and to put in place capacity building strategy to enhance participatory skills development for its stakeholders, projects’ staff and, beneficiaries to create both demand and supply for participation in its developmental projects’. The county government should also have proper monitoring and evaluation systems for its development programmes and invite the community to participate to improve upward and downward accountability as well as sense of ownership in the county’s development interventions from the general community.