Digitalisation And Implementation Of Supranational Policy Programmes In Kenya: A Case Study Of Sustainable Development Goals (Sdgs).

Abstract

In Kenya, digital skills and connectivity that form part of the digitalization process in mainstream government have suffered serious setbacks in most government institutions with policymakers in public administration largely remaining unskilled in ICT creating a gleaming future for SDGs implementation. The study sought to examine digitalization and implementation of supranational policy or cross-cutting programmes, namely, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in public administration in Kenya. It focused on the seven key SDGs areas that included; SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 4, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 9 within the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Devolution and ASALs, Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. The study targeted 50 workforces of directors, middle and senior public administrators managers and ICT assistants which constituted the study population. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative methods with complimentary purposive sampling and snowball sampling to target respondents out of which 34 public administrators responded to the surveys, 6 responded to semi-structured questionnaire and 2 were interviewed. The findings revealed that the digitalization of SDG policy programmes with the ministries/government agencies implemented using digital technologies e.g. emails, social media, mobile and that the use of digital technologies greatly improves skills and knowledge of public administrators in rolling sustainable development goals. Subsequently, digitalization has improved access and monitoring of SDG implementations and processes, encouraged knowledge sharing and SDG data use. Some of the notable hindrances to digitalization and implementation of supranational policy programmes included the cost of accessing the internet, organizational culture, the resistance of change by decision-makers, limited ICT knowledge, poor training and skills of Public administrators, poor internet connectivity, fluctuations in internet connectivity, and limited funding for key technological processes in the implementation of SDGs. The study concluded that public administrators requires advance computer skills and training that can enable them to roll out the acceleration of SDGs work. The study, therefore, recommended that there is a need to formulate effective policies that can integrate coordination and implementation of supranational policies to improve the digitalization of the sustainable development goals in the public sector.