The State Department for Economic Planning has commenced the second phase of training of National Government Administrative Officers (NGAO) on data management across 25 counties with the aim of ensuring government decisions are informed by timely, reliable, and credible information from the ground.
The training, which is a buildup on the lessons and experience gained during the initial phase undertaken in 11 counties in June this year, is geared towards strengthening the quality, consistency, timeliness, and use of grassroots information in government planning, resource allocation, implementation, monitoring, and decision-making.
Principal Secretary (PS) Dr. Boniface Makokha in his opening remarks for a three-day training of NGAO from Embu County, stressed that for data to inform sound decisions, it must be accurate, validated, timely, appropriately managed, accessible and most importantly translatable into actionable evidence to guide policy, planning, and resource allocation.
“We are not undertaking this programme just as a mere training exercise, but we are building a stronger evidence chain from the grassroots to county planning and ultimately to national policy and decision-making.
He challenged the participants to make full use of the training to understand the tools, methodology, and standards required and secondly apply the knowledge during data collection to ensure the information gathered is accurate, objective, and reflective of the reality on the ground.
In a speech read on his behalf by Jacinta Mumbetsa, an economist based at the State Department, the PS challenged NGAO to strengthen verification and quality assurance, warning that an error at the point of correction can ultimately affect planning, decision-making, and resource allocation.
Furthermore, Dr. Makokha asked the participants to report through the right channels and the required timelines as well as protect the integrity and confidentiality of the information they are handling.
He underscored the importance of NGAO to the initiative owing to their presence, responsibilities, and close engagements with communities at the local level.
“You are uniquely positioned to identify emerging issues, capture critical information from the ground, and facilitate its timely flow to inform government planning,” he stated.
He furthermore challenged NGAO to work closely with county planning and statistical officers, sector agencies, and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen coordination and collaboration.
“We must avoid duplication, promote consistency, and work within common standards and frameworks,” the PS stated.
Dr. Makokha noted that the initiative comes at a critical juncture when the country is moving towards the formulation of a post-2030 development framework, noting that credible evidence will be more important.
He said the process must be informed not only by national statistics and expert analysis but also by the realities, aspirations, and experiences of communities across the country.
“Our ambition is to ensure that planning is informed by evidence, implementation is properly monitored, results are assessed, and lessons from the ground are fed back into policy and planning,” he said.
By Samuel Waititu
