Our Projects

Since 2008, Kimetrica has been working with the Government of Kenya (GOK) to enhance its ability to analyse early warning data, develop contingency plans, and implement disaster mitigation activities. Under the European Union’s Drought Management Initiative, Kimetrica trained district officials in the use of Kimetrica’s commercial disaster management software, Crisis Toolkit^TM.  The toolkit includes easy-to-use modules for hazard early warning, disaster assessment, contingency planning, response coordination, disaster preparedness and risk reduction, and emergency fund management. Training by Kimetrica’s disaster management team covered processes and methods for contingency planning, including modules on early warning, early warning triggers, institutional management, hazard mitigation, and financial and technical aspects of mitigative responses to various emergencies. The use of Crisis Toolkit™ at the district level allowed the GOK to monitor and respond to crises in near real time. 

As part of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University study of exit strategies and sustainability of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Title II programs, Kimetrica planned and carried out a quantitative study to assess the continuation of Title II activities and impacts in Kenya, following USAID Food for Peace interventions. The work included the design of household- and community-level survey instruments, sample design, instrument field-testing and translation, enumerator training, design of quality control systems, and the overall management of survey implementation. In addition, Kimetrica’s research team designed a data reduction system using Kimetrica’s survey management tool, ki-metrics^TM, and managed data collection and initial statistical analysis.

In 2010, Save the Children UK  (SCUK) implemented an emergency integrated health and nutrition intervention in Wajir East, Wajir South and Mandera Central Districts in Northeastern Kenya. The main objective of the intervention was to reduce morbidity and mortality among children under-five years of age, as well as among pregnant and lactating mothers. The program adopted an emergency approach to treat the acutely malnourished in the context of chronically high levels of malnutrition, food insecurity, and poor health care. In 2011, Kimetrica evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention using a range of methods, including reviews of the available documentation, site visits, expert and focus group interviews, and the analysis of beneficiary data. The evaluation found that the project achieved its overall objectives; it also offered recommendations on strategies for SCUK to strengthen both its program management and local-level advocacy approach. Kimetrica’s findings provided direction to the design of follow-on programs to mitigate chronic malnutrition.

The Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) is a consortium of Kenyan and North American academic and health centres led by Indiana University, working in partnership with the Government of Kenya. AMPATH was created in response to providing life-saving care in the face of the HIV pandemic. AMPATH treated over 140,000 HIV-positive persons, with almost 2,000 new patients being enrolled each month at over 60 urban and rural clinic sites throughout western Kenya. In addition, AMPATH had reached over half a million persons through a home-based counseling and testing program that enjoys a 98+ percent rate of acceptance into the homes it visits. The program reduced mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS to below 2 percent.   To measure the impact of AMPATH’s home-based counseling program, Kimetrica conducted 3,000 household and key informant interviews with religious leaders, village chiefs, heads of women’s groups and village elders.  The survey included finalizing and testing tools, training and managing enumerators, developing a data reduction program based on Kimetrica’s survey management software, ki-metricsTM, and providing preliminary data analysis and data reports to the World Bank.  The World Bank used the final survey to measure the overall impact of its investment in AMPATH.

In May 2009, WFP Kenya’s Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) was approved to support the Government of Kenya’s social protection strategy to help households in both rural and urban areas -- primarily in the country’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) -- cope with and recover from drought. The operation focused on rebuilding livelihoods, and improving community resilience to future droughts. The PRRO’s main components were recovery, social protection, and preparedness.  Kimetrica reviewed the existing PRRO and provided critical input toward the design of the follow-on PRRO. The review included a desk analysis of relevant documents, in-depth interviews with stakeholders both in Nairobi, Kenya and in the field, and focus group interviews with beneficiaries, non-beneficiaries, and relief committees from Turkana and Mwingi Districts. Key areas identified to improve overall program effectiveness included: advocacy and awareness; targeting and registration; food aid management; needs assessment; monitoring and evaluation; and exit strategies. Kimetrica’s recommendations were incorporated in WFP’s follow-on PRRO.

Poverty in Kenya is distributed based on the viability of the livelihood systems that households depend on, and how susceptible they are to economic, environmental and security shocks. To mitigate the impacts of poverty, the Government of Kenya (GOK) and its development partners implemented a number of safety net interventions. These included food relief, cash transfers, and public works programs. In support of the development of the national Social Safety Net Policy, Kimetrica conducted a sector review to deepen the analysis of safety nets by providing a broader perspective, as well as more in-depth analysis in specific areas, including adequacy of transfers, and equity of coverage and spatial distribution of programs. The review was conducted in two parts. The first provided an assessment of expenditure and measures of efficiency and effectiveness within the sector. The second part presented a synthesis of results and provided a set of recommendations for reform in the sector. Kimetrica’s final report and recommendations provided the basis for the GOK’s Social Safety Net Policy.

In 2009 and 2010, as part of the Government of Kenya’s (GOK) expansion of social protection activities, the GOK and its partners piloted a cash transfer program in urban informal settlements. The pilot had three main objectives: to provide immediate relief to targeted households affected by the on‐going food crisis; to support households in meeting their basic food consumption needs; and to develop structures for the delivery of national social protection program interventions targeting the poor and vulnerable. The purpose of Kimetrica’s review was to analyse the experience of implementing the cash transfer pilot program in the informal settlements in order to build an evidence base to help in decision making, as well as to guide future program strategies. The review helped to form the basis of follow-on national policies related to social protection interventions.

The World Food Programme (WFP) implements its food aid programs through local partners. In order to inform the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the partner selection process, Kimetrica conducted a process review to establish a framework for participatory performance, re-selection and replacement review. The work defined the roles and responsibilities of all of the participants in the process. It also offered suggestions where the review process required strengthening to ensure a systematic, transparent and inclusive process of assessing the selection of partners. The work included necessary modifications of processes and criteria to reflect a greater emphasis on strategic partnerships. The evaluation provided critical recommendations that WFP used in the development of its revised partner selection methodology.

In 2010, the European Union contracted Kimetrica to help build capacity in disaster management among key Government of Kenya decision makers. Consequently, Kimetrica rolled out and trained national and district level staff in contingency planning and disaster fund management. Training included topics on contingency planning; early warning and hazard analysis; disaster management coordination; rapid assessments; preparedness; and rapid response planning.  Kimetrica's software team customized a version of Kimetrica's contingency planning software, Crisis Toolkit™. The software was used to select arid lands districts for further testing and evaluation. A follow-on activity in 2012 provided an upgraded version of Crisis Toolkit™ to an expanded number of districts and integration of Kenya’s early warning system with contingency planning.

The Value Girls Project, managed by Cardno Emerging Markets, was a Global Development Alliance jointly funded by USAID and the Nike Foundation to improve the socio-economic status of young women by giving them alternative sources of income. It was targeted at females between the ages of 14 and 24, who lived in the fishing communities of rural Nyanza and western Kenya. Working through three local organisations in six districts, the project supported girls working in poultry and vegetable farming to increase their incomes. Kimetrica developed the project’s monitoring and evaluation system, based on its commercial software ki-projects^TM, to assess whether programs were on-track and achieving their intended results. The web-based system included monitoring tools (input supply, purchasing, partner reports, client registration, client monitoring, and evaluation and donor reporting) that were integrated into everyday program management. Also included as simple-to-use modules were evaluation and impact assessment tools for quarterly, mid-term and final evaluations.