Institutionalising decentralised project planning under Kenya's programme for rural trade and production centres

In 1986, the government of Kenya launched a new regional development strategy intended to complement its ongoing attempts to decentralise project planning and implementation. A key component of this strategy is the rural trade and production centre programme, which is designed to strengthen small town-rural linkages in support of agriculture and non-farm production. This paper examines some successful aspects of this programme, as well as how political, bureacratic and capacity constraints forced major modifications in the programme's planned implementation process and presented local agencies from assuming as much responsibility as planned. A number of lessons are drawn from this experience to guide similar efforts in other countries. -Authors