A Mokoro team, led Matthew Smith, undertook a Mid-term Review of the WFP Kenya Country Strategic Plan (CSP) 2018-2023. The review aimed to assess the performance of the CSP and also to identify operational and thematic areas for further consideration by WFP Kenya, and inform operational decision making and activity implementation where required.

Kenya represents one of the largest portfolios of WFP, with a budget of USD 1.1 billion for the CSP 2018-2023. The overarching aim of WFP’s strategy in Kenya is to accelerate its shift from the direct provision of transfers and services to the strengthening of national systems and capacities to deliver food and nutrition security.

Through a mixed-methods approach, the MTR provided a retrospective and a forward-looking review of the CSP. Limitations faced during the review were primarily related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented the majority of the review team from conducting any in-person visits to Kenya. The review team mitigated these limitations using multiple approaches to data gathering, and by deploying our two national experts to conduct field visits to Turkana and Mombasa, where they were able to host face-to-face interviews with stakeholders at county level, in addition to observing WFP intervention implementation at this level. Remote interviews were also conducted with 190 key informants from across WFP, government, United Nations agencies, other multilateral and bilateral development partners, non-governmental organisations, and representatives from the private sector. In addition, six focus group discussions with WFP staff were conducted and an online survey was distributed to all WFP partners in Kenya.

The review team were able to make strategic recommendations aimed at enhancing the visibility of WFP, the coherence of the CSP, and WFP’s relationship with its sister Rome-Based Agencies, The team also made operational recommendations seeking to reinforce the work WFP is doing in Kenya to support and strengthen systems and capacity at both national and county level.