Effects of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation on Stakeholder Relationships and Project Quality in the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Planning (LASDAP) Process in Bondo Sub County in Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

Community participation has remained a key concept in the development process in Kenya and many parts of the world today as a measure of improving good governance. Local Authority Service Delivery Action Planning (LASDAP) was meant to achieve community participation in development projects. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) was incorporated as the driving force for enhancing community participation. Many projects have been implemented yet no study had been carried out to determine the effect of participatory monitoring and evaluation on the LASDAP project implementation. The study intended to investigate the effect of participatory monitoring and evaluation on the LASDAP project implementation in the former Bondo County Council now named Bondo sub-county in the new structure of county government in Kenya. Ex-post-facto design was used in the study to examine the effects of participatory monitoring and evaluation since it was introduced in 2008.  The target population of the study comprised of 1260 LASDAP project committee members within the Bondo sub-county. Multi-stage sampling method was used to select seven wards out of the 14 wards. 42 projects were selected using both purposive and simple random sampling methods from the eight wards. Seven respondents were selected from each of the 42 projects. Purposive sampling method was then used to select 3 females and simple random sampling method to select four males respectively to yield a study sample of 294 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Validity of the instruments was examined by a team of experts from the department of Applied Community Development Studies. The questionnaires were pilot tested in Gem sub-county formerly Siaya county council for reliability and a reliability coefficient of 0.78 obtained. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V.20. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data, which included frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations to determine the associations and trends in the interactions of variables. The study found that PM&E in general improved the LASDAP process and especially stakeholder relationships and the project output in terms of quality. PM&E also enhanced good governance with the increased accountability, responsiveness to the needs of the citizens and level of transparency. These findings led to the recommendation that the Siaya county government adopt monitoring structures used by the Project Management Committees (PMCs) in current and future projects.

Keywords: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation, Stakeholder Relationships, Project Quality