Lokichar, Wednesday August 28, 2024 (Public Communications and Media Relations)
Monitoring and Evaluation stakeholders involved in the annual dissemination of the Turkana County M&E report for the FY’ 2023/2024, have reaffirmed their support in facilitating completion of ongoing projects.
The County Government in partnership with USAID Nawiri, facilitated directors and technical officers to participate in dissemination of Monitoring and Evaluation Report which indicated that 52% of the total 419 projects are incomplete while 48% were fully completed by the end of August 2024, a rather remarkable improvement from 36% completion rate in December 2023.
Directors and technical officers present at the report dissemination said they will step up efforts to complete projects that have stalled. They said the failure to complete projects within the stipulated timeliness has denied the people of Turkana the services they deserve.
At the same time, the team recommended strict adherence to continuous project supervision schedule and building capacity of county government staff on project management, implementation of monitoring and evaluation findings as some of the mitigation strategies to reduce the number of stalled projects.
The department of Lands and Municipalities ranked the best with 76% following the validation of the status of the projects reports of the 11 county departments.
The Director of M&E, John Ekaru, reiterated the support of the Governor’s 9-Point Development Agenda, and called for a deliberate move to advocate for high uptake of M&E findings for decision-making in all the Departments. Stating that, “through the partnership with USAID Nawiri, we will soon call for a training meeting with County Executives, Chief Officers and Directors on e-County Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System(e-CIMES) to solicit for support in data collection, collation, storage and updating of information suitable for the planning process, and ensure activation of GIS based-database system for the county”
Director Ekaru expressed his optimism that through the passing of the M&E Policy in June, 2024 will go a long way to unpack most of the challenges hindering the M&E Directorate.
On legal framework, he revealed that a legal team from the Office of the County Attorney, Directors and other stakeholders have already arrived for a meeting on Thursday to validate the M&E Bill that would operationalise and strengthen the reporting systems in Monitoring and Evaluation docket.
Joseph Emase, the advisor, upheld the county government support to system strengthening saying “this dissemination workshop stands as a testament of our joint efforts between Turkana County and USAID NAwiri. It has enabled us to reflect on the strides we have made in implementing critical projects, while also allowing us to candidly discuss the challenges we have encountered along the way.”
He further said, the insights and action points that have emerged from the workshop are crucial as they will not only give guidance to ensuring proper implementation and completion of ongoing projects but also serve as a roadmap for overcoming the barriers that continue to impede the fight against persistent acute malnutrition.
