Evaluation report : FPMD [family planning management development] assistance in Kenya

The project was implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Evaluation covers the period 1991-8/95. Although the lack of a country strategy or framework with objectives and indicators and the overlapping roles of the various cooperating agencies make it difficult to draw strong conclusions about project impact, much was accomplished. The project continued FPMT activities with one governmental and three large national NGOs, and forged new partnerships with three additional NGOs and another governmental agency, bringing the total number of FPMD partners in Kenya to eight. TA was provided in the areas of management, strategy, and structure and systems. In the strategy area, FPMD assisted partners with strategic planning and with strategies for financial sustainability/cost recovery. Under the structure rubric, assistance focused on organizational structure, personnel management, and board/staff relations. Systems development activities concentrated on developing and/or revising systems for management information, finance, monitoring and evaluation, supervision, and logistics; these efforts were particularly significant at the National Council for Population and Development, the Government of Kenya"s (GOK) population policy and coordinating body, and included developing a computer unit and a management information system and training staff in computer skills. In addition to management interventions, the project trained Kenyans in improved management skills, both in Kenya and overseas; produced publications which are widely used and highly valued; and assisted the GOK in developing a National Implementation Plan (NIP) for Family Planning, which aims to decentralize some administrative capacities to provinces and districts. The NIP has the potential for the greatest impact on the national program; it has enhanced GOK awareness of the need to implement FP as a national program as well as to review its overall population policy and apply the principles used in the NIP process in other national development planning activities. Finally, project assistance to regional and local NGOs significantly improved management and enhanced capacities to deliver improved, high-quality FP services in underserved areas, although project impact on NGOs" contribution to the national FP program remains unclear. The following are lessons learned. (1) This project is unique among FPMD projects in that its activities were coordinated and implemented through a local office staffed primarily by local people. During the latter part of the project nearly two-thirds of the project"s consultants were Kenyan. (2) While management information and other systems developed with Kenyan partner organizations have been helpful, more assistance is needed by some in the area of using data for decisionmaking. (3) Early attention should have been given to presenting and promoting the project"s activities and mode of operation in partner countries. Also, more cross-fertilization between partner organizations within the country should be fostered. (4) Based on the negative experience with the CAMEO evaluation initiative in Kenya, all future management development TA should be firmly based on the needs of the partner organizations, which should, moreover, be involved in planning and implementation of interventions.