Monitoring and Evaluation Data Collection Practices and Performance of Livelihood Programmes: A Case of Caritas, Catholic Diocese of Meru, Kenya

The objective of the study was to determine the influence of monitoring and evaluation data collection practices on the performance of livelihood programmes at Caritas Meru, Kenya. The target population was 465 composed of 441 smallholder farmer group leaders 21 project staff and 3 senior managers of Caritas Meru. The Sample size was 215 in clusters of 191 farmer group leaders, 21 project staff, and 3 senior managers, calculated using the Cooper and Schindler (2003) formula. Questionnaires, Key informant interviews, and Focus Group Discussions were utilized to collect data. Descriptive statistics comprises frequencies, percentages, means, and composite mean whereas Pearson correlation (r) and multiple regression analysis were used as inferential statistics. The study found that M&E data collection practices are effectively used at Caritas Meru with a composite mean of 3.98 and that the livelihood programmes had good performance with a composite mean score of 3.87. The results indicate that there was a positive correlation between monitoring and evaluation data collection and performance of livelihood programs, r (207) = .453, p < .05. The null hypothesis (H0) was thus rejected since p=0.000<0.05. The study concluded that M&E data collection practices were a significant variable influencing the performance of livelihood programs at Caritas Meru. The study recommended effective and efficient use of M&E data collection best practices to deliver, valid and reliable data to promote project performance. The study recommends a further study using a similar methodology on programmes in other sectors for the generalization of the results.