KEP Beneficiary Satisfaction Survey

The Karnali Employment Programme (KEP) is a social protection programme initiated in 2006 by the Government of Nepal to provide employment opportunities for the most poor and vulnerable households of the Karnali region. Measuring KEP beneficiaries’ satisfaction is important to understand and document their perception towards the programme. This helps to indicate the areas for sustained improvement by the KEP as it takes forward its programme activities over the years. However, the KEP Operational Guidelines 2014 have not provisioned a systematic way of collecting evidence to measure beneficiary satisfaction and community based feedback system.

In this context, a beneficiaries’ satisfaction survey was carried out for the first time in 2016 covering Jumla, Humla and Mugu districts. The objectives of the survey were to:
• Measure the level of awareness and satisfaction of the KEP beneficiaries on various aspects of the KEP such as Project selection, Targeting, Employment and payment, Useful and productive assets and governance.
• Identify areas for improvement for the KEP
• Suggest a framework for future satisfaction surveys that can be implemented by the KEP

The survey adopted both quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches. The tools used for the survey included semi-structured questionnaire and checklists for Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs).
The questionnaire survey was carried out with 342 beneficiary households engaged in the projects supported by KEP in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015/16. Responses related to satisfaction were measured in five levels using a Likert-type scale. This quantitative data was collected digitally using Open Data Kit (ODK) application on Android based smart phones or tablet devices. The qualitative data collection was done through the consultations with a range of management stakeholders of KEP. Altogether 21 FGDs and 56 KIIs were carried out in the three districts.