Year: 2021 | Topic: Capacity building

Description

In Kenya, undernutrition contributes to an estimated one-third of all deaths of children under 5 years old. To avert this, food security and nutrition are crucial in Kenya’s development goals. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) has aligned its strategic plan to contribute towards the national development goals. The JKUAT Institutional University Cooperation program funds 4 projects that are developed along a value chain of legumes with the bean as case-study, working together with the KU Leuven and the VU Brussel. The program and evaluation is financed by the Flemish institution for academic development collaboration, VLIR-UOS. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on this program were taken into account in the design of the evaluation approach. The main evaluation methods are semi-structured interviews and outcome harvesting.

Result

ACE Europe conducted a mid-term evaluation to gain insight in the strengths and weaknesses of the program and to assess effectiveness and efficiency more in particular in relation to the emergence of interdisciplinary research culture. The findings should be taken into account for the second phase of this program . Together with the stakeholders, the evaluation identified the lessons that can be learned from a value chain approach: what conditions need to be created, what is helpful, what hampered.