Agriculture & Microenterprise Development

Kenya Institute For Public Policy Research And Analysis (KIPPRA)

The  USAID funded “Enhanced Policy Formulation and Implementation Project for Micro and Small Enterprises” aims to improve policy formulation, and implementation skills for policy analysts and implementers, policy makers, MSE operators and sectoral MSE organizations.  The project will ensure the course of action that the government selects to guide present and future decisions, is actually followed and put into effect to benefit the small business people.  This will only be achieved if those responsible (policy makers, analysts and implementers) are fully aware of their responsibilities and duties.  This project will therefore improve the skills of the public officials concerned to enable them carry out their responsibilities more effectively.  The ultimate objective is to increase the level of adoption of the “guidelines” recommended thereby reducing the gap between their pronouncement and their actual implementation. It is expected that at the end of the project, impressive progress towards implementation of policies supportive of the MSEs will have been made.  This project was initiated in April 2003, with financial support from the USAID and has an implementation duration of three years.

The activities of the project revolve around three main thematic areas:

i. Building capacity of the policy analysts, implementers and policy makers and selected MSE operators, on a proactive formulation and implementation of policies for MSE development.

ii. Developing a participatory mechanism for MSE policy coordination, monitoring evaluation and impact assessment system.  This basically implies a methodology that can be used to continuously assess whether the MSE projects are actually undertaken and if so whether they have effectively addressed the constraints they were set up for.

iii. Developing a strategy to empower sectoral MSE organizations and design a programme to provide workspaces, marketing and technology development for MSE operators in collaboration with stakeholders.

 Program Activities

The key activities under this project include:

• Identification of the key policy analysts, implementers and makers;
• Identifying their needs and requirements which if met, can ensure better implementation of the policies and developing a curriculum (syllabus) based on the identified needs;
• Conducting training for policy analysts, implementers and makers based on the needs identified above;
• Undertaking the analysis of the existing monitoring and evaluation for Monitoring and Evaluation and establishing a framework for conducting Monitoring and Evaluation for MSE
•  Conducting analysis on the workspaces models of marketing and technology and development of appropriate models for adoption to improve institutional capacities in three major cities of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

Expected Results

The project hopes to train a core group of 30 Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) from key government ministries whose functions affect the performance of the MSEs, and selected local authorities.  The ToTs will thereafter train officers from ministries and local authorities at the provincial and district levels.  A total of 200 policy analysts and implementers will be trained.

The project intends to establish an effective framework for conducting Monitoring and Evaluation for MSE programs and projects.

The project will also seek to increase the number of MSEs experiencing growth in their operations through policy implementation on infrastructure, marketing and technology.

Results Achieved to date

Over the last one year, the project has identified key policy analysts and implementers in the public sector, who have provided their training and skills requirements, which if met, can improve policy formulation and implementation.  This skill inadequacy has been identified as one of the key factors leading to poor implementation of policies in the MSE sector.  The training needs assessment was done in a three-day workshop attended by a group of 32 policy analysts and implementers.

The training needs identified have been used to develop a core curriculum for training the policy analysts and implementers in the public sector.  The curriculum consisting of five different modules has been subjected to peer review and will soon be put to use.

Upcoming Events

After further refinement of the curriculum by a core technical team, training of analysts and implementers is expected to commence in March 2004.  About 32 policy analysts and implementers are expected to participate in the three-week course.