Conceptualizing Values-Based Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Smart Agriculture Programmes in Kenya

Abstract

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as a central policy and programming response to the intertwined challenges of climate change, food insecurity, environmental degradation, and rural poverty. While significant investments have been made in CSA programs, questions persist regarding how success is defined, measured, and valued, particularly in relation to equity, ethics, inclusion, sustainability, and local priorities. Conventional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approaches applied to CSA programs tend to emphasize technical performance, outputs, and biophysical outcomes, often marginalizing the social values, power relations, and lived experiences of smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities. This conceptual paper advances a Values-Based Monitoring and Evaluation (VBME) approach as a more ethically grounded, context-responsive, and transformative framework for assessing CSA programs in Kenya. Drawing on contemporary VBME scholarship, climate change evaluation literature, and Kenya’s agricultural and institutional context, the paper conceptualizes Values-Based Monitoring and Evaluation of CSA programs and critically examines its principles, practices, and processes. Through a structured critique focused on relevance, utility, and application, the paper identifies key conceptual, theoretical, contextual, and methodological gaps in existing VBME and CSA monitoring and evaluation literature. The paper concludes with actionable recommendations for strengthening the design and implementation of VBME frameworks that better reflect Kenya’s socio-economic realities, climate vulnerabilities, and development aspirations.