Factors influencing adoption of monitoring and evaluation system for project management among NGOs in Rarieda district, Siaya county, Kenya

Abstract

Effective Monitoring and Evaluation of projects is usually one of the ingredients of good project performance. It provides means of accountability, demonstrating transparency to the Stakeholders and facilitates, organizational learning through documenting lessons learned in implementation of the projects and incorporating the same in the subsequent project planning and implementation or through sharing experience with other implementers. In Rarieda District Project Managers today are concerned with the development of their projects as evidence by their enthusiasm in the adoption of M&E system. This is so because a lot of donor and government resources are provided to local NGOs for the implementation various projects. However, the productivity of these projects has been lagging behind because of lack of Monitoring and Evaluation system. To alleviate this problem, some projects have adopted M&E system as a way of managing the projects. However, most projects have not adopted M&E system and although outcomes and effectiveness of M&E system are known. The information of these formed a bulk of the study concern. Objectives of the study were to examine the extent to which financial status of NGOs influence adoption of M&E system, to determine the level to which staff knowledge and skills influence adoption of M&E system, to assess how donors influence adoption of M&E system and to examine the extent to which the need for stakeholder’s involvement influence adoption of M&E system for Project Management among NGOs in Rarieda District. A conceptual frame work showing the interplay among the various variables was developed to guide the study. The study was carried out using descriptive survey design. The study population was 161, it consisted of 32 Project Managers, 32 Project M&E Officers, 96 Project Implementer Staff and 1 District M&E Officer. Purposive sampling and census sampling were used to select 32 Project Managers, 32 Project M&E Officers, 96 Project Implementer Staff and 1 District M&E Officer. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis guide. A pilot study was conducted to determine the reliability of the instruments. To ensure the validity of the research instruments experts from the department were consulted and their input included in the final draft of the instruments. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics in form of percentages, means and frequency counts. Inferential statistics was also used to analyze data. The study found that demographic characteristics of the respondents such as gender, age and level of education influenced the adoption of M&E system. The study also found that extent of donor contribution to NGOs annual budget, M&E budget also influenced the adoption of M&E system. Findings of the study such training of implementer staff, proper funding of NGOs projects and effective involvement of stakeholder may provide individual local NGOs to improve the monitoring and evaluation of their projects. The recommendations should be implemented hopefully with the benefit of improving the performance and their accountability to the stakeholder’s in terms of resources use and impact of the project they implement.