KMDP/MIS [Kenya marketing development project/market information system] evaluation

That USAID was able to convince the Government of Kenya (GOK) to accept the concept of a MIS is a considerable achievement given that many GOK decisionmakers do not believe that price information belongs to the public. Unfortunately, in accordance with the Mission's sector focus, the MIS developed under this project concentrated on the maize and bean market, which represents only a portion of the sector. The creation of a MIS covering the entire sector would have contributed significantly to the program's overall goal and would have created a tool for measuring the impact of maize market liberalization when it occurred in 12/93. In addition, because of a period of drought and a cutoff in donor funding due to the perceived reluctance of the GOK to more quickly implement political and economic reforms, most of the GOK shilling funds earmarked for the MIS were not available. While the anticipated improvement in the MIB's policy analysis capability did not take place (this was not part of MIB's remit, nor should it have been), the project did succeed in building the capacity of MIB headquarters to collect, edit, and prepare table presentations of price information, and for press and radio dissemination. However, there were never sufficient funds available to MIB to fully achieve its price dissemination objectives; the channels of communication -- press, radio, and the Agricultural Information Center -- all operate on a commercial basis. Nonetheless, the MIB did produce a Monthly Market Bulletin which was circulated and found ready acceptance among government and donors. The project was unable to ensure implementation of a uniform price collection methodology because the design of a MIS operations manual for training District Marketing Officers and enumerators was delayed until it was too late to be of significance. The funds allocated to the MIB are so limited that it is unable to sustain the tasks of which it is capable, and which had begun to become appreciated by producers, traders, donors, and GOK authorities (the latter of whom, without exception, have expressed their support for the MIS). Specifically, MIB needs assistance, including training, continuous upgrading of the database, and support for market price dissemination.