Monitoring and Evaluation Systems and Performance of Non-Governmental based Maternal Health Projects in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The rapid rise in the number and size of NGOs worldwide has raised pertinent questions about their achievements and effectiveness. Most of them are struggling with the transparency element of their projects since they are unable to explain to different stakeholders the real impact of their programs. The study looked at the effect of M&E systems on the performance of non-governmental based maternal health projects in Nairobi County. Specific objectives were to: determine how M&E plans, human resource capacity, nature of M&E information systems and stakeholder participation in M&E influence performance of nongovernmental maternal health projects. The design used was descriptive in nature. 80 maternal based NGOs formed the population. Data was collated via questionnaires and data analysis was via SPSS software. The findings showed that the four aspects of monitoring and evaluation positively influence the performance of the maternal based non-governmental projects in Nairobi county. The study proposes that stakeholders be engaged more in the planning, design, execution, monitoring and assessment of projects and that NGOs invest more in ICT. Further the study proposes that M&E staff undergo frequent training in order to enhance their skill capacity in M&E.