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Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery in Kenya
standards, and norms. With a constitutional guarantee of unconditional transfers from the national government, county governments were expected to have the means and the autonomy to begin to address local needs. Moreover, constitutional provisions ensure that transfers to counties are designed to address regional disparities and to favor historically disadvantaged counties. Seven years after the “devolution train” left the station, this report takes stock of how devolution has affected the delivery of devolved basic services to Kenyan citizens. Whereas devolution was driven by political reform, the ensuing institutions and systems were expected to deliver devolved basic services to the people. The Making Devolution Work for Service Delivery (MDWSD) study is the first comprehensive assessment of Kenya’s devolution reform. The study developed a simple analytical framework to assess the impact of devolution on service delivery. The framework lays out the envisaged inputs to the devolution process, the potential effects of these inputs on service delivery processes within and across sectors, and the potential impact of these effects on service delivery outcomes. The study draws on analyses of primary and secondary data as well as extensive literature reviews and interviews with officials from the national government and county governments. The study relied on input, output, and cross-sectional outcome data, where available; however, a major caveat concerned the paucity of data, especially on outputs and outcomes on some of the indicators used in the study. Based on the currently available data, the study provides key messages regarding what is working, what is not working, and what could work better to enhance service delivery. It provides an independent assessment of service delivery performance in five sectors—health, education, agriculture, urban, and water services—and includes an in-depth review of the main pillars of devolved service delivery: public financial management, intergovernmental finance, human resource management (HRM), politics, and accountability. In addition to this synthesis report, each of the sector and cross-cutting background studies that underpinned this study had a distinct policy brief that we hope will provide further room for a conversation on tackling the challenges within specific sectors. The study is the result of a coordinated effort by the government of Kenya and the World Bank, carried out under the guidance of a study task force comprising officials from the National Treasury, line ministries, independent commissions, the Council of Governors, and county governments.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES Overall, this study concludes that the impacts of devolution on service delivery are mixed; however, there are promising signs. The glass is half full because devolution enabled the establishment of institutions and systems to support the delivery of devolved services and provided for a platform that is expected to enhance equity in Kenya. The glass is still half empty because of ambiguities in financing and provision—with the national government still heavily involved in the delivery of many devolved services, governance, and coordination; these challenges impede frontline service delivery. The picture is mixed regarding the level and quality of devolved services, since some sectors show positive trends in a few indicators but others do not. But also, it is not clear that overall inequities have been reduced across the country, in part because a lack of disaggregated data constrains the measurement of impacts. There is a general lack of data
