OCDS for Accountability in Makueni County

May 3, 2019 Open Contracting and Procurement Analytics
Taryn Davis
Open Data, Program, Subnational

With partners Hivos East Africa and the Government of Makueni County (GMC), Development Gateway (DG) is pleased to be driving towards developing an approach to sustainable procurement processes in Makeuni, using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS). Over the past months, we have provided support to the GMC in recording and publishing its procurement data.

The GMC is keen on developing a system to track and monitor key steps of its procurement process.

To date, these processes have been largely paper-based. This labor-intensive, paper-based system has historically resulted in documents being mismanaged or misplaced, and has made it challenging to run any data analysis or identify possible corruption within the procurement system.

The Governor of Makueni County, Professor Kivutha Kibwana, is spearheading the project. He aims to ensure that a sustainable solution to hold government procurement processes accountable is established. Additionally, working at the county level allows us granularity and the ability to track local government goals – such as measuring whether procurements are reaching target groups, which include youth, women, people with disabilities, and citizen/local contractors.

To meet the GMC’s specific needs, DG has begun developing a technology system that allows for government staff to directly enter data, upload approved documents, and complete data validation to support high quality data entry. The system will also include tracking tools to allow users to monitor the status of each project’s procurement process.

Additionally, DG will be working with the GMC, the private sector, CSOs, and journalists to identify key data metrics that will be useful for each target user group. In doing so, we will prioritize what information should be included in a public dashboard, to help make the procurement process more transparent and accountable. The system will provide an output in OCDS format to make the data available to other systems and users as well.

makueni

DG’s Charlene Migwe and the Directors of the Government of Makueni County

This ongoing collaboration between DG and GMC is supported by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and Hivos. GMC has also committed its own funds to support sensitization of key stakeholders to the project.

We look forward to continuing the design and development of the system, and to supporting GMC and the entire Makueni County community. Through working towards sustainable procurement processes, we hope to not only reform and open these processes, but to deliver better quality goods and services to citizens.

Share This Post

Related from our library

aLIVE Program Reaches Milestone: Livestock Data Standards Endorsed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture

In early 2024, the "a Livestock Information Vision Ethiopia" (aLIVE) governing committee endorsed a comprehensive set of standards to guide the collection, storage, and maintenance of livestock data in Ethiopia (i.e., a data standard). The data standard specifically focuses on standardizing data on cattle, sheep, goats, and camels in the country. The National Livestock Data Standard document contains standardized data sets for national animal data recording, animal disease, diagnosis, treatment, vaccination recording, animal events recording, location, and other additional attributes.  

March 28, 2024 Agriculture
Équilibrer les besoins : Trois idées pour construire une approche de co-conception dans plusieurs pays

En réfléchissant à la première année du programme DaYTA de DG, nous avons identifié trois idées sur la meilleure façon de co-concevoir avec des parties prenantes représentant plusieurs pays.

February 29, 2024 Health
Balancing Needs: Three Insights in Building a Co-Design Approach Across Multiple Countries

In reflecting on DG’s first year of the DaYTA program, we’ve identified three insights on how best to co-design with stakeholders representing multiple countries.

February 29, 2024 Health