World Bank ups Kenya's performance rating

By Macharia Kamau

The World Bank has raised Kenya's performance and institutional assessment rating to 3.8 per cent last year - up from the 3.7 per cent rating in 2009. This was thanks to improved gender equity and spending targeted at improving the plight of poor and low-income households in the country.

The assessment gauges the quality of the country’s policy and institutional framework and its ability to foster sustainable growth, poverty reduction and the effective use of development resources.

"Kenya’s improvement in its overall CPIA rating was mainly attributed to the improvement in the implementation of policies in relating to two CPIA policies: ‘equity of public resource’ and ‘gender equality’," said World Bank Country Director, Johannes Zutt, in a letter to Finance PS, Joseph Kinyua.

"The increased score in the ‘gender equality’ category was the result of improvements in the gender policy in 2010. The promulgation of the new Constitution was a breakthrough in promoting women’s rights, since it includes provision to ensure significant share of women are represent n Kenya’s social and political institutions." He lauded the national land policy introduced last year, saying it is expected to improve protection of women’s rights to land and related resources.

Higher spending

"Improvement in the ‘equity of public resource’ category resulted from higher Government spending on pro-poor programmes through the introduction of targeted cash transfer and food subsidy programmes," said the letter.

But apart from ‘equity of public resource’ and ‘gender equality’, Kenya had done poorly on other fronts, Zutt said, noting that that there were no changes in the other categories factored in determining the rating of the country.

The assessment by the World Bank – referred to as Country Performance and Institutional Assessment – is based on 16 indicators that examine how a country manages its economy, structural policies, public institutions and gender equality.

It is undertaken annually, and provides a basis for the allocation of International Development Association resources, and informs decisions on other World Bank group operations.