County Government Support – Rimarks Consultants

County governments in Kenya are playing an increasing role in stimulating and facilitating economic development. Not only are citizens demanding better government services; central governments are delegating ever more tasks to the devolved unitis’ duties.

Greater acknowledgement is being given to the important role played in County governments in the development process and the growth of the local economy, for instance with regards to clean streets, clean drinking water, working sewers, a valid land registration system and support to the private sector in setting up businesses.

Unfortunately, County governments are not always well equipped to properly fulfil this role. The decision-making process is often slow, political interests are pursued and many personnel lack sufficient technical and management capabilities.

Rimarks, working with a number of public sector institutions, has developed a County Government Capacity Enhancement Program. The programme aims at improving the conditions required for economic development. Ultimately, the programme is intended to help County Governments to be in a better position to provide for:
• Food security and sustainable agriculture
• Water and health services
• The safety of their citizens and legal order
• Business Development and Private Sector

The programme is executed through the following bespoke services;

Establishment of Service Delivery Units

At the core of Service Delivery is the establishment of a Delivery Unit – a small group of dedicated individuals exclusively focused on achieving impact and outcome. The delivery unit constantly challenges performance and asks difficult questions taking any excuse off the table.
Nearly all County Governments have set up ambitious reform goals and strategic plans to achieve these goals. Frequently, however these plans fall by the wayside and these reform goals remain unmet, for a various reasons; political pressure can cause priorities and resources to shift, success can be difficult to measure and stakeholder motivations are not always transparent. The challenges for County Governments is to find ways
to define and execute these tight priorities and objectives so that they have the greatest possible impact.
The functions of the Service Delivery Units include;
• Focusing political pressure for results through progress – chasing on behalf of the Governor.
• Providing a simple and direct monitoring mechanism for Key County Government priorities
• Signaling Key Government Delivery priorities within and outside of the public sector
• Providing a clear signal that the Governor is holding Ministers/Chief Executives and Senior Staff to account for Delivery the Governors Key priorities, and
• Supporting innovation, coordination by various departments and providing a forum for problem
solving when needed

Devolution Reforms

Rimarks Consultants helps County Governments and their staff in the design, implementation and support of devolution reform processes including:

The preparation of County Strategies including Sector Strategies
The design of County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs)
The development of County Performance Management System
The formulation of County Policy, legal and regulatory instruments underpinning the devolved governance structure

Rimarks provides policy and legal advisory services, training and capacity building services on fiscal and administrative decentralization.

Local Governance

Rimarks helps build the capacity of County Governments for improved local governance through Improved
institutions for local level public expenditures management (PEM) including:

Strategic Planning
Multi-year Capital Programming
Annual budgeting
Procurement and implementation
Accounting and financial reporting
Internal Controls, Monitoring and Evaluation
E-Procurement
Institutional innovations and Public-Private community partnerships for promotion of local economic development and creation of local employment opportunities
Private-Public partnerships for Infrastructure and Natural Resource Management

Local Development

Rimarks helps County Governments and the National and International Partners manage and evaluate specific
investments in:

Local infrastructure and Service Delivery
Natural Resource Management
Local Economic Development

Rimarks provides comprehensive project administration services to County Governments, International Aid
Agencies and Financial Institutions covering all aspects of the Investment Project Cycle, including:

Project Identification, planning and financing
Technical, financial, economic, social, institutional and environmental appraisal
Procurement and management of design, engineering and other technical services
Procurement of works, goods and services
Project Implementation Management
Project Monitoring and in-progress and completion evaluations.

Trainings and Conferences

Rimarks provides training and advice for the Public Sector at International, National and County level. Our approach relies heavily on building support, keeping stakeholders informed and being responsive to community needs. Our training services covers the full training cycle; training needs assessment, curriculum development, “train the trainer” programs delivery of courses, on-the job training, guidance and counselling, organization of seminars, study tours and evaluation.