official opening ceremony of the 2013 national monitoring and evaluation (m&e) week conference
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SPEECH BY MS. ANNE WAIGURU, OGW, CABINET SECRETARY MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING ON THE OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 2013 NATIONAL MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E) WEEK CONFERENCE LAICO REGENCY HOTEL, TUESDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER, 2013.TRANSCRIPT
SPEECH BY MS. ANNE WAIGURU, OGW, CABINET
SECRETARY MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING
ON THE OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL OPENING
CEREMONY OF THE 2013 NATIONAL MONITORING AND
EVALUATION (M&E) WEEK CONFERENCE LAICO
REGENCY HOTEL, TUESDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER, 2013.
________________________________________________
Cabinet Secretaries 1
Chairman of the Council of Governors
Governors
Principal Secretaries
Development Partners
International and Regional Guests
Representatives from the Civil Society Organizations
Public servants
Members of Evaluation Society of Kenya
Members of the Media Fraternity
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen2
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to address you
this morning and welcome you to this conference on the
occasion of the “Monitoring & Evaluation Week”. The
conference is anticipated to provide a rich platform to share
different experiences on monitoring and evaluation. I wish to
extend a special welcome to those of you who have come
from far, including other countries, for accepting our
invitations to participate in this conference. As we say here,
Karibuni Kenya.
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This Conference has been organised by my Ministry in
collaboration with other development partners and
stakeholders in development work. I want from the onset to
thank you all, for this event marks a key milestone in my
Ministry. The theme of 2013 National Monitoring and
Evaluation Week ‘Kenya at 50: Best Practices in
Shaping the Future Towards Vision 2030 ‘ indeed
resonates with the reflective mood that we are all going
through as a country as we prepare to celebrate 50 years of
independence. The Occasion could not have come at a better
time.4
Ladies and gentlemen
I am also delighted to note that the M&E Week will be an
annual event that will be celebrated every 45th week of our
calendar year. The Week provides a platform for M&E
practitioners drawn from the devolved, national and
international levels to show case and learn from each other
on M&E practices.
It will also provide an opportunity for counties to learn from
each other as they implement their respective development
programmes in an endeavour to deliver development results 5
that are in tandem with the Kenya Vision 2030. The event is
expected to help us build the desirable culture of M&E.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My Ministry is charged with the responsibility of coordinating
National Development Planning including monitoring and
evaluation of economic trends among other responsibilities.
As such, it is the responsibility of the Ministry to ensure that
the government tracks the implementation of policies and
programmes to ensure sustainable development and
achievement of results.6
The Conference provides us with two clear opportunities.
First, it enables the Ministry to build strong linkages with
other stakeholders as a basis for improving reporting and
feedback mechanisms on all development efforts through a
functioning monitoring and evaluation system; and secondly,
in line with the Constitution of Kenya 2010, it brings out to
the fore our commitment towards fostering transparency,
accountability and good governance, which are key
ingredients to sustainable development.
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Distinguished Guests
Kenya has embarked on the implementation of the 2nd
Medium Term Plan 2013-2017 which aims to transform
Kenya through fostering devolution, socio-economic
development, equity and national unity. During the five year
period starting 2013, the government will endeavour to
deliver accelerated and inclusive economic growth, higher
living standards, better education and health care, increased
job creation especially for the youth and women, and
commercialised agriculture to provide higher rural incomes
and affordable food for improved living standards.8
These commitments will put the government under pressure
to achieve and demonstrate results. The role of monitoring
and evaluation therefore becomes paramount in tracking the
implementation of these policies and programmes to gauge
their performance and provide timely information and
feedback mechanism to decision makers.
Distinguished Guests
As you are all aware, the Ministry has since 2004 been
coordinating the implementation of the National Integrated
Monitoring and Evaluation System (NIMES) in the country. 9
We have used NIMES to track the progress made in the
implementation of policies and programmes with the view of
providing feedback to planning, budgeting and policy
formulation.
The NIMES engages stakeholders drawn from the public
sector and non-state actors at both the national and
devolved levels to undertake joint monitoring and
evaluations exercises. Considerable progress has been made
in fostering an M&E culture; and, it is therefore our wish that 10
events like this be used as a forum to review the journey we
have walked, successes we have made and the challenges
ahead.
Today we are going to launch one of our NIMES products,
which is the “Comprehensive Public Expenditure Review”
(CPER) which provides an in depth analysis over the last
three years on the sectoral expenditures and the results
achieved from the same. It provides an assessment of the
extent to which public expenditure addresses national 11
priorities in an effort to strengthen the link between
government policies, planning and budgeting. This is a useful
tool for policy makers and practitioners, to aid us in making
informed decisions.
Ladies and Gentlemen
This conference has been convened as part of the
government’s strategy of providing a platform to mobilise
support for performance measurement within the paradigm
of managing for development results.
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I am informed that yesterday, you were able to go through a
session moderated by the Kenya Community of Practice on
Managing for Development Results (KCoP-MfDR) that is
affiliated to the Africa Community of Practice (AfCoP-MfDR)
on managing for development results.
The Kenya Community of Practise is one of those partnership
platforms that my Ministry is coordinating to promote a
results culture to deliver the country’s transformation
agenda through dialogue and key institutional support. This
is made up of a coalition of leaders drawn from the 13
government, private sector, civil society organisations and
representative of the youth whose primary vision is to
change the lives of the people through sustainable
improvement of human development outcomes. This is by
seeking to strengthen public sector management systems to
build capable states; strengthening results- oriented
organisations for better service delivery; enhancing regional
convergence; and promoting south-south knowledge sharing.
Today we shall be re-launching the Kenya Community of
Practise Managing for Development Results web-page.14
Ladies and Gentlemen
As I draw to a conclusion, let me draw point out the fact that
in the coming days, you are going to have an opportunity to
interact with thought leaders in various aspects of
monitoring and evaluation who are going to engage with you
in panel discussions and deliver outstanding presentations. I
would wish to urge each one of you to take advantage of the
market place of ideas that presents itself and engage with 15
the various ideas that are going to be shared during these
four days of the conference to add value to our work. Use
this opportunity to gather as much as possible so that when
you go back to your various organisations, you can be the
catalyst that will jump start your respective organisations
towards integrating monitoring and evaluation in
development operations.
Thank You
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