Developing Country Consultants

The young Gen Zs in Kenya have challenged the government on overturning a repressive Finance Bill 2024. Their social media activism forced the government through popular street protests to withdraw the legislation. However, the Ruto government re-introduced some of the heavy tax measures in November 2024. The next step might very well be to present alternative policy proposals through a 'virtual government' approach on the internet. President Ruto has said he wants a constructive conversation on policy, why not present the policy alternatives which would address the needs and interests of the majority?

See latest post on page Jeffrey Steeves re M & E in local society whereby local field agents often work to strengthen the well-off rather than the poorer members of society. This happens because the well-off adopt innovations more quickly, help field agents look successful, and promote the career interests of agents to their superiors. This, the poor suffer fro neglect in favour of the collaboration between extension agents and the stronger in local society. M & E programs have t adapt to the social structuring and this collaboration that takes place. Even a recognized academic on field extension services was victimized by local agents filling out farmer surveys instead of actually going to the farmers themselves. Similarly Agricultural Assistants and Junior Agricultural Assistants of the Kenya Tea Development Agency claimed that they visited the farms of the poor but unreality just completed the farm visit booklets fraudulently. Their focus was on the leading members of local society.

Currently engaged in evaluating the 2017 elections in Kenya from January 2016 through to the present which includes leadership and candidate selection, primaries, party strategies, campaigns and final results. 19.6 million voters have been registered and the turnout on election day August 8th, 2017 appears to be around 60 per cent. The presidential election is a re-match of 2013 pitting Uhuru Kenyatta against Raila Odinga. With devolution, the races for Governor represent fascinating battles.

My attest research article focusing on the rise of a new political arena in Kenya has just been published in the online issue of the journal Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, September 2016, entitled, "The 2017 election in Kenya: reimagining the past or introducing the future?

A recent article on agricultural development in Rwanda which appeared in the journal World Development, Volume 78 (c) 2016, pp. 204-218 by N. Dawson, A. Martin and T. Sikor sought to identify the various socio-economic groups in rural society using a mixed methods approach. In the end, four group characteristics were utilized by the authors - land size, livestock ownership, occupations and housing. Identifying social strata in rural Rwanda is now called "disaggregation". Classic!! Any experienced field research or extension officer can tell you that in differentiating smallholder farmers, early indicators are farm size and housing, the latter an easy way to tell the state of a household's status in rural society. Also, another indicator of differentiation can be school attendance of a family's children or young children engaged in farm labour either on the home farm or farms of the wealthy.

A new forum, "Monitoring and Evaluation in Developing Country Contexts" has been added to our website: http://www.dcc2015.activeboard.com. The need for a new approach to m & e has been advocated by several concerned voices in the field of development assistance [See, for example, The International Commission for Aid Impact UK, Annual Report, 2014-15]. Now, given the emphasis on Sustainable Development, our firm can provide the continuous oversight of development programs and projects to meet this new commitment.

DCC2015

My evaluation of devolution in Kenya is now in print in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, Volume 53 Issue 4 (October 2015), 457-474.

Exciting news!! My early evaluation of the devolution experiment in Kenya is to be published in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, Volume 53 Issue 4 (2015) as "Devolution in Kenya: derailed or on track?". My overview introduces a 'political' perspective into monitoring and evaluation methodology, unique compared to typical M & E approaches.

My Active Board forum on DCC, Devolution and Poverty Alleviation are now refined and one can leave a post at any time to either give one's impression or to start a conversation.

I have been refining and expanding the forums on development on Active Board. Take a look at the sites below.

Our new forum overviews on poverty, devolution and development challenges can be found at the following sites: http://Povertyalleviation.activeboard.com; http://Devolution2015.activeboard.com; and, www.dcc2015.activeboard.com. Check us out as the forum - topic areas are just being established given the folding of our earlier website for a and topic areas. Take care.

Povertyalleviation

Private Primary School Dagoretti Shanty Settlement, Nairobi, Kenya