The Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate tracks and reports on implementation of Medium Terms Plans through the Annual Progress Reports (APRs) prepared at the end of every Financial Year.  Preparation of APRs is based on indicators contained in the National Reporting Indicators Handbook for the Medium Term Plan.  These reports draw information from Annual and Quarterly Monitoring and Evaluation Reports from State Departments, research reports from officially recognized institutions such as the Kenya Bureau of Statistics. Other key reports from Government agencies such as the Controller of Budget, Government Delivery Services, Auditor General and Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat are also used to enrich the content of the APRs.

The Reports are prepared in a consultative forum with participation from various State and non-state institutions. In addition, the reports are subjected to a validation exercise to ascertain the credibility and completeness of the findings contained in these reports. The reports are largely used to inform policy decisions making such as the budget preparation process.

Public Expenditure Reviews (PER) provide a critical assessment of past public spending, challenges, weaknesses, and successes of the Country’s financial undertaking. It provides recommendations on enhancement and consolidation of gains made as well as addressing challenges observed in the country’s public expenditure management. The PER also assesses the extent to which public expenditure addresses national and sub-national priorities to strengthen the link between policies, planning, and budgeting at both levels of government. Subsequently, it informs current and future expenditure and budget decisions.

The PER is based on research of these expenditures to show the effects public spending contributes to the development of the various sectors of the economy. Notable areas of research include comparison of expenditure and welfare at different levels of the economy and the impact of financial mix in the economy.  The Directorate prepares 3-year Comprehensive Public Expenditure Reviews and also conducts Public Expenditure Tracking surveys in selected sectors.

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRACKING SURVEYS (PETS)

Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETs) seek to establish the funds received at each point in the chain of Public Service delivery, from the National Treasury to the last point where the funds are intended to be spent at the sub-national level. PETs are done to identify financial leakages in the system and to identify bottlenecks in programme implementation so as to diagnose problems in service delivery . In collaboration with the partners which included World Bank and GIZ, the Directorate has undertaken PETS in Agriculture, Health and Education sectors.

COMPREHENSIVE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE REVIEWS (CPER)

The Directorate undertakes intensive research in a few sectors every three years and produces a CPER. The CPER gives a comprehensive analysis of expenditures on the selected sectors with a focus on answering the following questions: Who benefits from the substantial amounts of public resources? How efficient are we utilizing available resources? Is the current level of spending in specific sectors sufficient? Where are the gaps? Are there difficulties in the disbursement of funds through the Government Budget System? How does Kenya compare with other Sub – Saharan African Countries? Two CPERs have been prepared so far CPER 2013 themed “eye on the budget” and the CPER 2017 themed from evidence to policy.

Evaluation is an assessment of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact and sustainability of government policies, programmes and projects. The M&E Directorate undertakes evaluations to inform decision making and improve the planning and implementation of the government’s development agenda. As part of evaluations, the Directorate undertakes End Term Reviews (ETRs) at the end of every planning period, in this case at the end of implementation of the Medium-Term Plans (MTPs).
The ETRs provide an independent assessment of the progress made towards achieving the expected outputs and outcomes set forth in the results framework of the development plan; extent to which the implementation processes enabled or hindered achievements of the expected results; evidence-based information on the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of Government Policies, Programmes and Projects within the period; determine good practices that can be adopted during implementation of MTP; and Analyze findings to determine the extent to which recommendations from the Mid-Term Review of the MTP were utilized. In the same spirit, Counties are encouraged to undertake the ETR of their CIDPs.
The Directorate also undertakes other forms of evaluations which could either be Formative, Summative or Ex-post/Impact Evaluations. These evaluations adopt a participatory approach with the engagement of an external evaluation expert when needed and all the relevant stakeholders to enhance the objectivity of the research, credibility of findings and usability of the reports. The Directorate in collaboration with key stakeholders develops an Evaluation Plan which details: the policy, project, programme, or a topic to be evaluated; type of evaluation to be undertaken; methodology and tools to be used; stakeholders with their roles and responsibilities; and resources required. The agenda is drafted by a multi-stakeholder team led by the MED office. The Directorate as developed a National Evaluation plan and the Kenya Evaluation Guidelines to guide evaluations in the public sector.

The M&E Directorate sets minimum requirements for ensuring that Monitoring and Evaluation meets international norms and standards. Towards this, the Directorate has developed a set of Norms and Standards to guide the M&E operations in the country’s public sector. The M&E Standards define key elements and expected level of performance in the conduct of monitoring and evaluation during the planning and implementation phase of the policies, programmes and projects. The Standards also address the organizational environment in which M&E takes place. These are meant to improve the quality of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting by all the stakeholders in order to achieve the desired results and promote learning. The Standards address the following aspects: programme/project design; undertaking monitoring; conduct of evaluation; Reporting and dissemination; learning and adaptation; skills development; human resource and institutional arrangement. All stakeholders are required to adhere to the set standards.
The Directorate also provides guidelines in an effort to strengthen the M&E function across all levels of government. In line with this, the Directorate developed guidelines on operationalisation of the County Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System (CIMES) a replica of NIMES at the county level. The guidelines serve as a tool to assist county governments to set-up, design, implement and sustain a functional M&E system that tracks county development policies, programmes and projects.
The Kenya Evaluation Guidelines was developed to ensure evaluations in the country are conducted in an impartial, transparent and participatory manner, based on empirical evidence that is valid and reliable with results being made available to the public. Other guiding documents and templates are provided in the M&E toolkit. MED in collaboration with partners ensures compliance of M&E standards and implementation of the various guidelines through capacity building and provision of support in matters M&E.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate is charged with the responsibility of strengthening M&E capacities at national and county level as per the requirements of Schedule 4 of the Constitution of Kenya. The Directorate addresses the issue of capacity in two ways: on request basis or through periodic identification of M&E capacity needs of its stakeholders in view of strengthening them. Thus, the directorate individually or in collaboration with partners provides capacity development services to institutions upon request.
The Directorate, periodically develops and implements a Capacity Development Strategy to guide M&E capacity development in line with the identified capacity gaps. The M&E capacities development has various dimensions such as provision of M&E training; technical assistance to institutions in various aspects of M&E; and provision of M&E guidelines.

The Directorate has partnered with various institutions to strengthen M&E capacities in the Country. Such partnerships are with the local universities where M&E courses at Diploma and Post-Graduate levels are offered, Kenya School of Government where short courses on M&E are available; other International Institutions where training on M&E can be accessed and various institutions that provide both financial and technical support.

NIMES was established to provide a mechanism to track implementation of projects and programmes contained in the Kenya Vision 2030, Government manifesto, SDGs and other international obligations.  To address the prevailing challenges of effective data management  component critical for evidence based decision making, the State Department for Economic Planning in collaboration with stakeholders developed an electronic NIMES / CIMES (e-NIMES / e-CIMES) as a Performance Management tool for Results (PMfR) platform that will support and strengthen NIMES/CIMES. The electronic system will provide a real-time, on screen reporting system for performance monitoring and evaluation of key priority programmes and projects. The system shall also provide a suitable platform preferably, a traffic light dashboard for reporting results on real time. The information generated is used for planning, policy and budget formulation process and evidence-based decision making.

Objectives of the e-NIMES/e-CIMES

• To establish and maintain a database of indicators for monitoring implementation of the government development agenda such as Kenya Vision 2030 MTPs Indicators, Prevailing Development Agenda, and other international obligations such as the SDGs and ICPD 25 commitments;
• To facilitate capture, storage and access of data/information on implementation of all policies, programmes and projects in the various plans at national and devolved level.
• To facilitate timely preparation of Annual Progress Reports, County Annual Progress Reports and the Public Expenditure Reviews;
• To provide timely evidence for decision-making in the implementation of Kenya Vision 2030 and the Big Four Agenda, and other international obligations such as SDGs and ICPD 25 commitments at both levels of government;
• To provide an executive and ministerial dashboard for top management at national and county levels with timely, real time and accurate information on implementation status of government programs and projects; and
• To enhance transparency and accountability to all stakeholders in the implementation of projects in the Public Sector.

Key features of the e-NIMES/e-CIMES

• The system has a Public Access Module where the Public can see the various projects within ministries and counties;
• The system has an Executive Dashboard through which the President / Governor/ CSs / PSs / CECs / CCOs can have an overall view of the progress in implementation of various programmes and projects within their jurisdiction;
• The system has internal control mechanism where once targets have been entered by the various agencies it can be disabled and only viewing and reporting allowed;
• The system has a cascaded approach for strategic planning which starts with the Kenya Vision 2030 MTP at National level then to CIDPs at County level down to Strategic Plans and Annual work plans;
• On screen dashboard with traffic lights for reporting level of achievements based on a weighted score;
• Inbuilt framework for all Ministries and County governments: all Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties need just to update the Ministerial/County structures based on the executive orders and assign administrators and users (supervisors and technical staff);
• The system has an electronic performance appraisal system that if counties so wish can use;
• Inbuilt electronic work plan generator;
• GPS enabled system that each project can be uploaded with its GPS location;
• If the GPS is enabled, then they can locate the project to where it is and one can also generate maps for specific projects; and
• The system has inbuilt checks such that there are various levels of approvals before the data is presented to the dashboard.

To access the e-NIMES/e-CIMES platform please visit the Enimes System

The M&E Directorate is responsible for tracking and reporting on implementation of the programmes and projects in various MTPs. Periodically, the Directorate undertakes field visits to verify progress in implementation of planned programmes and projects across the country. Specifically, the field visits offer information on achievements; issues and risks; and offers recommendations aimed at completion of the overall project goals.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (MED), in consultation with Ministries, Government Departments and Agencies (MDAs), prepares a National Reporting Indicators Handbook for the Medium Term Plans (MTPs) of the Kenya Vision 2030. The Handbook, prepared prior to commencement of MTPs implementation, provides a set of outcome/key outputs indicators for each sector based on the results framework defined in the MTP. Each indicator has a baseline, annual targets for the period and the office which is responsible for tracking and reporting.
Currently, the Directorate is in the process of finalizing preparation of the Fourth National reporting Indicator handbook. The handbook is structured into two parts. The first part tracks the Botttom Up Economic Transformation Agenda Priorities while the second part tracks the outcome indicators under each of the four BETA sectors namely: Finance and Production; Infrastructure, Social; Environment and Natural Resources; and Governance and Public Administration.
In line with its mandate, MED undertakes training for County governments on indicators development. In addition, the Directorate supports Counties to prepare County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) reporting Indicators handbook.

The Kenya National Monitoring and Evaluation week is an event held annually to promote the culture and practice of M&E in Kenya as one of the key tool to steer development as well as promote accountability and transparency. The State Department for Planning through its Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, in collaboration with partners bring together M&E practitioners, researchers and trainers from both state and non-state actors to discuss and deliberate on M&E issues.
Specifically, the conference brings together International, Regional, National and County delegates representing Governments, civil society organizations, private sector and development partners. The delegates learn, share and exchange knowledge and experiences in the field of M&E in the public sector in view of strengthening M&E systems in the country.
The conference is delivered through a dynamic variety of presentations seeking to meet the diverse needs of the participants. Usually, there are preconference trainings, panel discussions, expert lectures, roundtables, paper presentations, break away sessions, professional development workshops, posters and exhibitions. The learning environment is designed to encourage peer-to-peer learning among the delegates. So far 10 M&E week conferences have been held. It was decided that after the 10th M&E week the conferences will be held biennially. Past conference