Mid-term evaluation report : Harvard technical assistance pool project, phase II

Special evaluation covers the period 10/81-10/83 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with TAP, GOK, USAID/K, and other personnel. Slow but genuine progress in institution building has been achieved, especially within the Ministry of Agriculture"s (MOA) Management Systems Unit (MSU), which has developed a computerized budgeting, allocation, and expenditure monitoring system. Also, cost-benefit analyses of agricultural projects have been conducted, and systems for vehicle monitoring, personnel management, and recordkeeping are being developed. The interministerial task force on budget/financial processes has held four productive 2-day meetings involving 70 Kenyan officials. Focusing primarily on long-term policy issues (a 6-month work plan, the livestock sector section of the 5-year national plan, etc.) and with TAP advisors well-integrated into the division and Kenyan staff involved at all planning levels, the Development Planning Division (DPD) of the Ministry of Livestock Development has also made good institutional progress. Less progress has been made in the Natural Resources Division of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (where the TAP advisor has not been fully integrated into the work plan) and in the MOA" Development Planning Division. The latter has prepared work plans, but these tend to be supplanted by policy crises; meetings have been infrequent, morale low, and collaboration between TAP advisors and Kenyan staff minimal. A major obstacle in the MOA/DPD (and overall) has been the GOK"s serious inability to recruit/retain enough qualified staff. Training efforts have similarly been hampered; although six staff have completed U.S. graduate programs and several others are currently studying or set to go, no University of Nairobi Master"s training and only limited short-term training has taken place. Recommendations are included.