Learning event in Kenya highlights success of transparent government process

SNV Kenya held its second National Learning Event on Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF) in November 2015. During the event, the Kenyan Government shared revisions to national procurement guidelines for school meals while development partners shared pilot initiatives that have informed the changes.

Reflecting goals of increased government transparency and inclusiveness, the event solicited for feedback regarding changes to procurement guidelines. By making these changes, the Kenyan Government hopes to increase smallholder farmer participation within the school feeding market and improve accountability and value-for-money within the system. The guidelines are set to be released in 2016.

To support the Kenyan government’s efforts, SNV, WFP and the PCD ran pilot initiatives to better inform the government on the strengths and weaknesses of different procurement guidelines, implementation methods and educational options. At the learning event SNV highlighted the Narok County procurement pilot initiative, completed jointly with the Ministry of Education, that resulted in the development of pilot procurement documents including planning templates, market price comparisons, tender documents and evaluation tools as well as the introduction of tender boxes.

Moving forward, SNV “…will support the Ministry of Education to undertake training to build a pool of officers who will be involved in the rollout of the Home Grown School Feeding guidelines,” said Leah Njeri, Country Coordinator for PG-HGSF Ghana. Njeri went on to say, “SNV will also develop a smallholder supplier manual which will draw part of its content from the Home Grown School Feeding guidelines, train farmer organization and share the supplier guideline with them.”

The success of SNV’s pilot procurement initiatives complement broader achievements in procurement governance in Kenya. As SNV Kenya Country Director Harm Duiker noted during the event, the project has linked 6,500 farmers to over 100 schools over the past three years. In total, the farmers have sold 2,900 metric tonnes of produce at a value of about KES 51.2 million (about USD 50,000) to Kenya’s school feeding programme.