ABSTRACT
Monitoring and evaluation has been a key performance management tool for planning, decision making and economic policy management. However, evidence from literature point out that in Sub-Saharan Africa substantial M&E achievements on the ground are rare. The County Governments has been facing serious challenges in managing the projects and meeting the conditions required for the success of these projects. Inadequate personnel with the required project management skills, inadequate financial resources, inefficient project planning, local political interference and the un-involvement of the various project stakeholders are some of the challenges facing county governments. It is in light of these observations, that this study sought to carry out a research on the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation of projects funded by Machakos County government with reference to projects in Machakos, Athi River and Mwala Sub-Counties. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish how staff competency, stakeholder, budgetary allocation and technology adoption influence on the effectiveness of M&E of projects funded by Machakos County government. The study employed a descriptive survey research design since it allows the researcher to gather information, summarize, present and interpret for the purpose of clarification. The study employed purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques to select the respondents. The study sampled 68 respondents from the target population of 113. Data collection tool was a structured questionnaire and the existing literature on monitoring and evaluation for theoretical study from County government records. The study used descriptive statistics to analyses the collected data with the help of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and MS Excel. Frequencies were run to give charts and %ages of the data and the socio demographic characteristics of the respondents. In addition, the study included regression and correlation analysis to test the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Finally the xiv analyzed data were presented in form of tables, figures and pie charts. The study found that technical expertise of staff, Stakeholder participation, budgetary allocation and ICT adoption positively and significantly affected the effectiveness of M&E of projects funded by County Government of Machakos, with budgetary allocation having the greatest effect on the effectiveness of M&E of projects funded by County Government of Machakos, followed by technical expertise of staff, then Stakeholder participation while ICT adoption had the least effect to the effectiveness of M&E of projects funded by County Government of Machakos. The study therefore recommends that when recruiting monitoring and evaluation officers, their competencies should be based on accuracy levels, turnaround time (time taken to complete a task), knowledge in monitoring and evaluation, and accountability and responsibility. The study also recommends that for effectiveness of M&E of projects funded by the county government to be achieved, all the stakeholders should actively participate during the M&E activities. The County government should also lay down slots for engaging all the stakeholders during M&E activities to ensure that people decision-making processes and decision-making capacity of governments at different levels is achieved. The study further recommends that the project budget should provide a clear and adequate provision for monitoring and evaluation events. The budget should also accommodate unforeseen and fluctuation of cost of materials.
