Building Capacity for Gender Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation in County Governments in Kenya

Abstract

This conceptual paper challenges the continued inability to operationalize Gender-Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation (GRM&E) in county governments by proposing that the prevailing inability is not because of a technical proficiency deficit but rather a more fundamental political and epistemological crisis of the devolved system of governing bodies. The study undertakes a critical synthesis to the concept of feminist institutionalism, which demonstrates how bureaucratic norms and rules are gendered to undermine equity evidence. Likewise, a decolonial critique of knowledge production is employed to illustrate that standardized M&E frameworks downgrade the power of local epistemologies. By examining policy texts and the opinions of stakeholders, the research deconstructs the current justification of technical justification to reveal a self-perpetuating system of institutional marginalization. Some of the main findings are that gender equity is ceremonially incorporated into the county plans but is systematically sifted out of the performance contracts and the budgetary accountability system. Moreover, externally imposed log-frames generate an epistemic alienation that simply separates M&E and local realities. Conclusions of the study proposes a way forward that constitutes a complete transformation of the political economy of evidence by moving beyond supply-side technical training. This necessitates an integrated intervention that entails gender sensitive indicators within formal performance systems, and at the same time foster demand through empowered civic and legislative oversight. One of the contribution of this paper is that GRM&E capacity should be conceived as a fundamental practice of democratic accountability and feminist institutional reform in Kenya, and that credible vision and response to inequality is the essential key to fulfilling the constitutional promise of equitable devolution in Kenya.