Influence of Monitoring and Evaluation Practices on Performance of Church and Community Mobilization Programme: a Case of the Anglican Church of Kenya.

Abstract

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has increasingly become a vital component in program performance. This is particularly because of the need to reduce failures of programs in the collaborative effort required to address the socio-economic challenges that has kept the gap widening amongst rich and poor nations. In Kenya, Church is a key player in addressing socio-economic challenges hence, the need for designing effective programs is paramount. This is also true for all the community-led initiatives. Most Church and Community-led initiatives/programs fail because of ineffective M&E practices where best processes are not incorporated. The study determined the influence of monitoring and evaluation practices on the performance of Church and Community Mobilization Program (CCMP) also known as Church and Community Mobilization Transformation Development (CCMTD), a Church and Community development project by Anglican Church of Kenya. CCMP was designed as a program that would fundamentally address the socio-economic challenges facing the Kenyan society effectively. However, the performance was not as was expected with the program performance rated at about 50%. The research was to; - establish the influence of monitoring and evaluation planning on performance of CCM Program, assess extent to which involvement of stakeholders in M&E influence performance of CCM Program. Additionally, to establish the influence that competency in M&E and examine how utilization of M&E results influence the performance of CCM Program. The design adopted to collect and analyze data was descriptive research. The main data collection methods were questionnaires containing structured and unstructured questions and interview guides for key informants in the CCM Program. The target population was 152 individuals obtained from 10 ACK Parishes in Thika Diocese and the CCMP national coordinators at ACK. A sample size of 106 individuals was selected. Reliability of data collection instruments was determined by use of Cronbach’s alpha whose value was 0.724. Data was analysed using SPSS 24 with hypothesis tested by means of Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Study findings revealed an influence on performance of CCM Program by all variables at varied levels. M&E planning and stakeholders’ competency in M&E gave a positive coefficients of 0.501 and 0.508 respectively indicating a positive relationship with performance of CCM Program. Additionally, stakeholders’ involvement and utilization of M&E results had coefficients of 0.711 and 0.626 in that order signifying a significant positive relationship with performance of CCM Program. Linear regression was carried out on stakeholders’ involvement in M&E to determine extent of their influence on performance of CCM program. The model yielded a 52.1% variability in performance of CCMP attributable to elements of stakeholders’ involvement. A multiple regression model Y=2.07+0.93X1+1.69X2+0.9X3+1.19X4+ ε (error term was derived for all the variables to determine relative input of individual variable to the dependent variable. The study recommends that CCMP should place more emphasis on stakeholder engagement with a view to addressing interests of such groups. In addition, there is need to carry out a thorough Stakeholders analysis and address individual indicators of variables to improve performance of CCMP.