Data Maturity

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The Open Institute

Recommendations

Proposal to all counties on sectoral data Maturity

Based on the sectoral analysis, we would like to recommend the following actions to improve the sectoral quality of data.

Governance

  1. Governance departments should find more innovative uses for data beyond financial planning, monitoring and evaluation.
  2. Records on public participation should be digitised
    for easier access.
  3. The Commission on Administrative Justice has
    developed and issued a model law on access to
    information for county government,46 and engaged a number of counties to encourage them to enact their specific access to information laws (for example Kilifi and Makueni)47. This is one of the formative steps in ensuring data governance is instituted and it should be embraced by the remaining counties.
  4. Even when such data is collected and published, there should be intentionality around reaching the majority especially the marginalised and disadvantaged groups in the communities.

Health

  1. Health data is readily available for indicators
    included in the DHIS. Hence it was suggested
    by respondents that the questionnaire can be
    amended to include less common indicators
    such as neglected tropical diseases.

  2. Health data collection and storage should be
    automated at the facility level to link to the DHIS
    database in real time.
    Based on the sectoral analysis above, we would like to recommend the following actions to
    improve the sectoral quality of data.

Agriculture

  1. County departments of agriculture should
    come up with standardised templates and
    centralised secure web-based databases for data
    management.

  2. Agriculture departments should work with actors
    in the private sector to collect and use data
    for planning. This could help with forecasting
    and forecasting extreme events that affect
    agricultural outputs.

Education

  1. County governments should engage stakeholders
    in the private sector and non-governmental
    organisations to collaborate on data collection
    and use. This should also be intentional when
    it comes to data collection for children/learners
    with special skills.

  2. Thus the indicators tracked under this
    department should expand to include special
    needs education and others that are not linked
    to budget and planning. This would improve the
    planning and innovation processes.

General

1. Departments where the private sector is heavily involved should encourage private entities to collect data as part of their practices and collaborate with them for data collection and validation.

2. County governments should invest in an open data system where they collect data on the same indicators and disseminate it in user-friendly formats for ease of access and use.

3. County governments should invest in tools for automated data collection that forward data for analysis and reporting in real time. This is especially pertinent to departments where data is collected on the ground and on a regular basis such as education, health and agriculture.

4. Actors in all sectors should work to ensure that the processes for feedback on the impact of work done by the county government are well documented at every level, to ensure that citizens have access to efficient solutions.