Institutional strengthening in Results Based Management for MARPs focused CSOs in Kenya Project: The experience of Africa Capacity Alliance

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• May 28, 2015
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Institutional strengthening in Results Based Management for MARPs focused CSOs in Kenya Project: The experience of Africa Capacity Alliance

In March 2014, Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA) received a grant worth €100,000 from GIZ BACKUP Initiative to strengthen the institutional capacities of five Kenyan MARPs-focused CSOs in Results-Based Management. These included Bar Hostess Empowerment Programme (BHESP), Community Health Africa Trust (CHAT), Hope Valley Family Institute (HVFI), Mothers Delight Moment (MDM) and Neighbours in Action (NIAK).

This was a one-year project whose strategic objective was to ensure that CSOs and NGOs working on MARPs interventions have Results Based Management (RBM) capacity to provide sustainable leadership to deliver on the community response.

MARPS-focused CSOs had traditionally not been the target for institutional strengthening initiatives in Kenya despite the fact that their key clientele accounted for a third of all new infections in the country with high prevalence rates of 18.2 percent (among MSMs), 29.3 percent (among FSWs), and 18.7 percent (among IDUs).  The Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan (KNASP III),  and Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) 2011, advocate strengthening of community systems, through strategic high impact investments to create linkages between grass root organizations and health facilities offering HIV services. KNASP III emphasizes results-based management, linking outputs, outcomes and impact and specifying clear lines of accountability.

This project came in the wake of Global Fund’s efforts to include measures which strengthen community systems relevant to in-country contexts. Global fund recognized that strong, sustainable CSOs are important to ensure program impact, sustainability, and results for HIV, TB, and malaria prevention, treatment, care and support efforts.

ACA developed a comprehensive plan of action that focused on establishing, strengthening and maintaining a strong culture for designing and executing results-focused programs, therefore adding legitimacy to the issues facing MARPs and more effectively moving the national agenda for MARPS positively forward while cost effectively and in an accountable manner achieving desired outcomes . The project had three key outputs namely:-

• MARPs-focused CSOs strengthened in Results-Based Management
• MARPs-focused CSOs provided with mentored grants and implement innovative projects
• MARPs CSO have improved linkages among themselves and other relevant stakeholders

The Institutional Strengthening in Results Based Management for MARPs CSOs in Kenya project achieved the following key milestones;-

MARPs-focused CSOs strengthened in Results-Based Management

Five Global Fund sub-recipients MARPs focused CSOs in Kenya were identified and RBM capacity assessments were conducted in June and July 2014.  Findings from the capacity assessments revealed the existence of several gaps including, organizational leadership and governance capacity gaps and resource mobilization skills gaps. In order to address some of the gaps identified, the organizations were trained in governance and leadership, fund raising and resource mobilization.

Following the governance and leadership training, the organizations were then supported to (a) induct their boards and staff on their roles and responsibilities, (b) develop board performance indicator frameworks, (c) institute inclusive boards with diverse skills with clear segregation of powers and, (d) review the organizations primary documents such as constitution, organogram, and align them to legal requirements of Kenya. The Resource Mobilization training enhanced practical awareness on organizational resource mobilization practices and fostered effectiveness towards the realization of the organizations’ short term and long term resource needs.

Customized capacity building and implementation of mentored grants

Two of the organizations (NIAK and HVFI) were facilitated to develop their strategic plans that are results based. All the five CSOs used the mentored grants to implement innovative, holistic and integrated projects that reached underserved and hard-to-reach MARPs with risk reduction services and referrals. The organizations used peer education and outreach models where peer leaders/educators were trained to reach their peers with integrated information and services to reduce their risk and improve their health seeking behavior. These messages included HIV risk reduction, importance of Family Planning, harm reduction, income generating activities and financial literacy.  The CSOs implemented projects that reached the beneficiaries where they were located, i.e. at their homes, parking lots, streets, drop-in centers and drug dens.

Stakeholder engagement

An online community of practice (CoP) was developed for inadequately served populations and MARPs in September 2014. This network has since provided a platform for information sharing among members of the global community who seek to improve the quality, effectiveness, relevance and equity of HIV and AIDS response to reach inadequately served populations. The link to the CoP can be accessed at

Staff from the beneficiary organizations also participated in a stakeholder’s engagement meeting in January 2015. Participants shared progress on the action plans they had developed following the leadership and governance training. In addition partners shared the experience in implementing mentored grants. This enhanced peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.

In February 2015, the organizations engaged in a twinning exercise. The partnering organizations benefited from the collaboration, exchanged knowledge and best practices, information and experiences, developed more formal links with their counterparts in the project and learnt more about the different realities of persons living with HIV/AIDS and vulnerable communities the CSOs are serving.

An end of project assessment carried out by IPSOS in March 2015 revealed that that the institutional capacities of the five CSOs were strengthened through training, mentorship, exchange programs and follow up. The beneficiaries rated the projects very well and said that their lives had improved for the better.