CBJ’s Fast 50 Awards program puts a spotlight on some of the Charlotte region’s fastest-growing, privately held companies.
CBJ PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
The companies in the Charlotte Business Journal‘s 2022 class of winners in the Fast 50 Awards program are going places — in a hurry. This year’s class accelerated through a pandemic that brought about unprecedented challenges to maintain rapid revenue growth.
This marks CBJ’s 30th year of the Fast 50, one of our longest-running, signature awards programs. It seeks to highlight the Charlotte region’s fastest-growing private companies. 
Fifteen of the companies in this year’s ranking posted growth in revenue of more than 100% for 2019-21.
The honorees come from a variety of industries, from real estate teams, contractors and logistics companies to tech firms and health-care services. Many are repeat winners, having sustained strong growth over time.
Companies applied for inclusion in this program after CBJ solicited nominations. Each nominee provided financial documentation to be evaluated by accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen, which ranked participants based on average annual revenue growth over three years. To qualify for the program, nominees had to:
Should your firm be on this list? Reach out now to Research Director Amy Shapiro at ashapiro@bizjournals.com so we can contact you when nominations open for 2023.
CBJ celebrated the honorees’ achievements — and revealed the 2022 ranking for the first time — during an awards ceremony and reception last night at The Westin Charlotte hotel in uptown. 
Here is the complete ranking of Fast 50 honorees in 2022:
No. 1: Shred America
586.41% average growth rate over 3 years
Shred America is a nationwide platform of service and equipment offering document shredding and hard-drive shredding. The Fort Mill-based company began in 2016 as Carolina Shred and, in 2018, became Shred America. The company now has offices and equipment in nine states with a partner network of about 60 smaller document-shredding companies in additional cities.
Read more here: Local veteran leans on military skills in building Shred America
No. 2: Croixstone Consulting
277.88% average growth rate over 3 years
Croixstone Consulting is a business management consultant that drives  outcomes by accelerating and sustaining transformations. Croixstone is a six-year-old firm founded by Patti and Mark Weber that serves middle-market companies in such industries as health care, financial services and fintech, and manufacturing.
Read more here: How consulting firm Croixstone fills niche for middle-market companies
No. 3: Pursuit Search Group
230.80% average growth rate over 3 years
Pursuit Search Group is a recruiting firm specializing in executive search, consulting, staffing and shared services. The company focuses on accounting and finance, HR, mortgage, sales and executive support. It began in 2018.
Read more here: How Pursuit Search Group is navigating shifts in recruiting, workforce
No. 4: Springdale Custom Builders
156.53% average growth rate over 3 years
Springdale Custom Builders is a residential contractor led by Andrea and Brian Seymour. Springdale focuses on new home construction and renovations in Charlotte’s close-in neighborhoods. Renovations start at $500,000 and new homes are up to $2 million.
Read more here: Focus on easing home construction process sets Springdale apart
No. 5: Zapps Wholesale
149.80% average growth rate over 3 years
Zapps Wholesale is one of the largest distributors in America. The company buys merchandise in bulk directly from big-box retailers. The merchandise is just about anything — from furniture to tools, toys to clothing, electronics to sporting goods — that the retailer no longer intends to put on the shelf. Zapps brings the product to its distribution centers and resells it to businesses and individuals.
Read more here: How Zapps Wholesale is working to ‘revolutionize’ retail liquidation
No. 6: PetScreening
145.47% average growth rate over 3 years
PetScreening is a platform that allows property managers to outsource the process of pet risk assessment and validates service or support animals. Housing providers and property managers use PetScreening to validate reasonable accommodation requests for assistance animals and to confirm every resident understands their pet policies. A pet screening gives a landlord insight into the pet’s behavior, personality and health. The pet screening “paw score” determines the amount of additional monthly rent that is paid per animal if the application is accepted.
No. 7: Undergrads
143.05% average growth rate over 3 years
Undergrads is a labor-only moving company started by college students as a class-friendly way to earn money. Working in five states, the company provides a team of enthusiastic and hard-working movers and eliminates the overhead costs associated with a traditional moving company.
No. 8: MedChat
135.55% average growth rate over 3 years
MedChat is a modern patient access and messaging platform that provides HIPAA-compliant live chat, chatbots, an answer bot using artificial intelligence and two-way texting. MedChat deploys custom chatbots that enhance communication and automate workflows. The platform is used by hundreds of health-care organizations.
No. 9: Loan Pronto Inc.
132.40% average growth rate over 3 years
Loan Pronto offers residential mortgages in 20 states, fueled by an aggressive marketing campaign on dozens of radio stations and a quick online application process. Customers get rates and apply online and can be in underwriting for a new home loan within hours. The company’s robust marketing campaign enables its loan officers to close five to seven times the number of loans monthly as a typical mortgage officer.
No. 10: Dualboot Partners
128.86% average growth rate over 3 years 
Dualboot Partners is an on-demand, product design and software engineering firm. The company provides product strategy, design, web development and mobile development to help companies scale and grow. Dualboot works with clients in multiple verticals, including fintech, retail, manufacturing, automotive, beverage, construction and health tech.
No. 11: TUSK Partners
123.81% average growth rate over 3 years
Tusk Partners is a business broker specializing in the dental industry. The firm has completed over $650 million worth of transactions across all specialties. Tusk has an in-depth understanding of the marketplace and access to hundreds of buyers nationwide to help clients pursue transactions that maximize long-term value.
No. 12: Riverstone Logistics
117.20% average growth rate over 3 years
Riverstone Logistics offers final-mile solutions for heavy goods retailers needing delivery and installation. The firm was founded in 2017 by four partners who work in the business. Riverstone provides final-mile deliveries through dedicated and network models for various clients across the nation. In 2021, the company expanded into delivering building products and appliance delivery and installation.
No. 13: Carolinas Dream Team
112.31% average growth rate over 3 years
Carolinas Dream Team is a residential real estate firm affiliated with Keller Williams that is based in Fort Mill with offices in Spartanburg. The firm is led by Mike Morrell and Faiyaz Dossaji. The team focuses on the robust markets of upstate South Carolina and in Charlotte.
No. 14: Contractor Growth Network
110.85% average growth rate over 3 years
Contractor Growth Network is a digital marketing and search-engine optimization agency. The company only does marketing for contractors; that specialty helps contractors find high-value, pre-qualified leads so they can pick and choose the clients they want instead of chasing low-margin jobs. The network helps contractors improve digital visibility with websites, SEO strategies, marketing and video marketing.
No. 15: Impact Marketing of NC
109.80% average growth rate over 3 years
Impact Marketing of NC is a full-service marketing and advertising agency. Impact Marketing helps birth brands and builds the marketing strategy across all media platforms in 100 markets across the U.S.
No. 16: Open Broadband
98.15% average growth rate over 3 years
Open Broadband’s fixed-wireless internet service provides qualified households and small businesses with high speeds via outdoor antenna and indoor Wi-Fi gateway router. The company uses several different technologies to bring speed and reliability to customers. Open Broadband brings internet to underserved areas in 19 North Carolina counties and additional counties in Virginia and South Carolina.
No. 17: Pinnacle Solutions Group
89.19% average growth rate over 3 years
Pinnacle Solutions Group is an IT consulting services firm specializing in business intelligence, e-business solutions, mobile applications and custom technology solutions. Pinnacle has offices in Cincinnati and Charlotte.
No. 18: Lightserve Corp.
88.13% average growth rate over 3 years
Lightserve provides lighting solutions for commercial, industrial, health care, institutional and retail customers. The company provides design, maintenance, IoT controls and audit to ensure customers have well-lit workplaces. Lightserve provides enterprise-level program management, from LED retrofits and smart ceilings to electrical rollouts and electric vehicle charging stations.
No. 19: McCray Griffin Corp.
80.86% average growth rate over 3 years
McCray Griffin Corp. is a family-owned company that performs the installation of resinous flooring, polished concrete and self-leveling toppings for commercial and industrial projects.
No. 20: QC Kinetix
77.19% average growth rate over 3 years
QC Kinetix is a Charlotte-based franchise company offering comprehensive regenerative medicine treatments to address musculoskeletal conditions and joint pain. QC Kinetix uses the body’s own healing properties through state-of-the-art, natural biologic treatments as alternatives to invasive surgery and addictive pain medications. The health-care franchise currently operates in 17 cities.
No. 21: MigWay Inc. 
76.40% average growth rate over 3 years
MigWay is an asset-based freight carrier specifically designed for rushing critical loads. The company offers warehousing, dry vans and flatbed trucks to get loads where they need to be quickly. Founder David Voronin started the company in 2012 and has grown it to 230 trucks.
No. 22: 4TEKGear.com
71.08% average growth rate over 3 years
4TEKgear sells hardware, software, services and solutions primarily to IT professionals using a highly digitized inventory system. The company uses digital analytics for nearly real-time insights on when products are available while other websites merely provide out-of-stock notices. Through partnerships with major manufacturers, 4TEKgear eliminates the need for significant product warehousing.
No. 23: Aruza Pest Control
65.88% average growth rate over 3 years
Founded in 2016, Aruza Pest Control serves residential, commercial and industrial properties in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Friends started the business with two trucks, knocking on doors to find customers. The business has grown to more than 100 employees and is fueled by an internship program that employs more than 250 college students in door-to-door marketing roles.
No. 24: Hylaine
54.20% average growth rate over 3 years
Founded in 2017, Hylaine is an IT consulting firm that helps companies with digital transformation. Based in Charlotte, Hylaine has offices in Raleigh, Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Hylaine aims to be a smaller, high-touch consulting firm to stand in contrast to consolidated larger firms.
No. 25: Airwavz Solutions Inc.
51.83% average growth rate over 3 years
Airwavz Solutions designs, installs, owns and operates wireless infrastructure inside commercial office and hospitality buildings in dense metropolitan areas. The company ensures building tenants and guests receive exceptional cellular service while also allowing wireless carriers to improve coverage and increase capacity throughout their networks.
No. 26: Lumaverse Technologies
51.06% average growth rate over 3 years
Lumaverse Technologies launched in 2020 to bring more value to SignUpGenius customers. The company is comprised of a suite of software tools that includes SignUpGenius, NonProfitEasy, TimeTap, Fundly, Membership Toolkit, AtoZConnect, Learning Stream, GoSignMeUp and RegistrationMax. Together, the solutions focus on scheduling, coordination, communication, registration, membership, volunteers and fundraising management challenges.
No. 27: Aegis Logistics
50.10% average growth rate over 3 years
Aegis Logistics Group is a Matthews-based freight management and logistics firm. As a freight broker, Aegis provides an array of freight management and supply-chain services, from everyday products and equipment to time-critical shipments, including cold-chain freight. Founded in 2016, Aegis has a network of trusted carriers throughout North America.
No. 28: Dry Otter Waterproofing
48.78% average growth rate over 3 years
Dry Otter Waterproofing is a locally owned and operated company providing basement and crawl space waterproofing and moisture control for the greater Charlotte area. The Denver-based company began in 2013 and specializes in waterproofing, sump pumps, French drains, mold remediation and crawl space repair and encapsulation.
No. 29: Elevate Digital
46.34% average growth rate over 3 years
Elevate Digital is a national provider of solutions for the digital economy, filling the space between in-house talent and a traditional consultancy. Elevate helps companies advance digital transformation with a focus on marketing, cloud, process automation, data and analytics, cybersecurity and contact centers. The company operates offices in Charlotte, Atlanta, New York, Austin, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
No. 30: Galasso Learning Solutions
41.63% average growth rate over 3 years
Galasso Learning Solutions partners with accounting firms to provide custom training solutions for National Association of State Boards of Accountancy-certified continuing professional education. Melisa Galasso founded the company in 2016 and works to create educational programs that include real-world information and promote interactive learning, focusing on a company’s individual needs to meet their professional development objectives. Galasso provides live training events and webinars.
No. 31: Renu Energy Solutions
40.46% average growth rate over 3 years
Founded in 2010, Renu Energy Solutions is a Charlotte-based, full-service solar energy installer and provider of energy-saving products and services, such as energy storage and system monitoring. The company works in residential and commercial markets and has served over 4,500 homes and businesses across the Southeast. With offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, Asheville and Columbia. Renu provides end-to-end, customized solar solutions. It recently completed a high-profile project at New Belgium Brewery in Asheville.
No. 32: BuildingPoint Southeast
36.59% average growth rate over 3 years
BuildingPoint Southeast is a construction equipment supplier providing advanced hardware and software to help contractors build great projects. BuildingPoint Southeast provides such tools as 3D scanning, robotics, lasers and mixed-reality tools to digitally transform the design-build process. The company was founded in 2016 and serves the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
No. 33: Armstrong Transport Group
36.12% average growth rate over 3 years
Armstrong Transport is a third-party logistics provider founded in 2006. The company is a non-asset-based freight brokerage with over 150 freight agent offices and 1,000 logistics professionals working around the country. In October, Armstrong Transport moved to larger offices in Vantage South End’s East Tower to accommodate future growth.
No. 34: Ekos
36.01% average growth rate over 3 years
Ekos is a business management technology platform for the craft beverage industry. The company helps more than 18,000 users on six continents drive efficiencies and power growth in their breweries, wineries, cideries and seltzer-making facilities. Ekos makes it easy to manage inventory, production, sales and accounting. It was founded in 2014 by CEO Josh McKinney and Greg Forehand; the pair grew the business from a garage operation to more than 65 employees.
No. 35: Urban Design Partners
35.31% average growth rate over 3 years
Urban Design Partners is a civil engineering firm focused on planning, landscape design, architecture, engineering and urban design. The company specializes in complex projects where design solutions connect people, nature and the economy. Urban Design operates offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and Rock Hill. Recent projects include Optimist Hall and work at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
No. 36: Team Auto Group
35.23% average growth rate over 3 years
Team Auto Group is an automotive dealership for Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Team Auto has grown from one to six dealerships across North Carolina since 2017. The company has pursued uncommon revenue streams to contribute to its financial success while providing new and pre-owned sales and service. It has nearly 400 employees.
No. 37: McFarland Construction
32.92% average growth rate over 3 years
McFarland Construction is a full-service commercial construction firm specializing in the delivery of projects through general contracting, design-build and construction management services. The firm offers pre-construction planning and project controls on a consulting basis. With headquarters in Charlotte, McFarland has satellite offices in Fayetteville and a recently opened location in Raleigh. Tino McFarland started the business in 2010 and has grown it into one of the largest Black-owned businesses in the Charlotte area.
No. 38: The Redbud Group
31.42% average growth rate over 3 years
The Redbud Group is a real estate team with Keller Williams SouthPark assisting homebuyers and sellers. Real estate broker and CEO Trent Corbin started the company in 2015 and has grown it to 60 agents in Charlotte and a team in Asheville. The Redbud Group is the official real estate partner of Charlotte FC.
No. 39: Let’s Talk Interactive
30.89% average growth rate over 3 years
Let’s Talk Interactive is a software company that develops easy, fast and safe virtual connections between people and professionals anywhere in the world. The company developed a virtual care ecosystem comprised of innovative telehealth solutions, software development, provider networks, medical hardware and 3D printing. The telehealth platform is an AWS Public Sector Partner providing access to more than 240 countries around the world.
No. 40: JLPollack CPA
30.82% average growth rate over 3 years
JLPollack CPA is an accounting firm focused on small to midsize businesses and the needs of individuals. James Pollack started the firm in 2011 and has grown it to eight accountants. The team guides clients through ever-changing tax laws and regulations and assists with real estate investments, capital gains and losses, unreimbursed employee expenses, education and child-care expenses and credits, multi-state returns and other scenarios. For small companies, JLPollack helps with business setup, income tax returns, payroll advice and sales tax.
No. 41: PresPro Homes
30.79% average growth rate over 3 years
PresPro Homes is a custom homebuilder constructing and renovating homes across the region and in Georgia. PresPro builds high-end, luxury homes and affordable, entry-level homes. The company has a division dedicated to building duplexes and homes to be turned into rentals. PresPro began in 2009 to renovate and repair homes that had returned to bank ownership after the housing crisis. The company won the top spot in the Fast 50 in 2017.
No. 42: Environmental Service Systems
30.42% average growth rate over 3 years
Environmental Service Systems is a national janitorial and facility maintenance company based in Charlotte. This minority-owned company provides custom maintenance, safety and training programs and green-cleaning options. Environmental Service Systems works with clients in the health care, industrial, retail, automotive, financial, energy and corporate headquarters sectors.
No. 43: NJR Construction
27.66% average growth rate over 3 years
NJR Construction is a subcontractor specializing in metal framing, drywall and acoustical ceilings. The company was formed in 2014. Past projects include the American Legion Memorial Stadium and Bechtler Museum of Art. 
No. 44: City Wide Exterminating
19.91% average growth rate over 3 years
City Wide Exterminating is a family-owned pest-control company. Headquartered in Locust, City Wide offers residential and commercial solutions. Services include pest control, termite control, wildlife removal and moisture control and encapsulation.
No. 45: Plancentric Financial Group
19.65% average growth rate over 3 years
Plancentric Financial Group is an affiliate of Northwestern Mutual. The firm delivers an integrated approach to comprehensive financial planning and investment management. Services include financial planning, wealth management, retirement planning, risk management solutions, disability income planning and estate planning.
No. 46: FirstLight Home Care of Greater Charlotte
17.21% average growth rate over 3 years
FirstLight Home Care provides in-home assistance to seniors, new mothers, people recovering from surgery or those who just need extra help. Highly trained assistants provide services from meal preparation to personal care and companionship in 36 states. FirstLight champions family caregivers who give countless hours to their loved ones every day by providing the resources and support needed to help them maintain balance in their own lives.
No. 47: Prochant
15.32% average growth rate over 3 years
Prochant is a reimbursement firm focused on home medical equipment and pharmacy. The company helps health-care providers outsource their billing processes to accelerate cash flow from insurance payers with end-to-end revenue cycle management.
No. 48: Broad River Retail
15.30% average growth rate over 3 years
Broad River Retail is a home furnishings retailer and operator of Ashley Home Stores. The company operates 31 stores throughout the Southeast and three distribution centers.
No. 49: Perry’s Diamonds & Estate Jewelry
14.05% average growth rate over 3 years
Perry’s Diamonds & Estate Jewelry is a 45-year-old, family-owned jewelry store specializing in vintage and estate jewelry, engagement rings, loose diamonds, custom jewelry and repair. The SouthPark-area store is a staple of the local retail scene and employs 10 graduate gemologists.
No. 50: Jackrabbit Technologies
14.04% average growth rate over 3 years
Jackrabbit Technologies is a software company whose technology powers more than 12,000 gyms, dance studios and other athletic organizations with studio and class management systems offered through subscription.
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Q3 2023 Workday Inc Earnings Call Pleasanton Nov 30, 2022 (Thomson StreetEvents) — Edited Transcript of Workday Inc earnings conference call or presentation Tuesday, November 29, 2022 at 9:30:00pm GMT TEXT version of Transcript ================================================================================ Corporate Participants ================================================================================ * Aneel Bhusri Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board * Barbara Larson Workday, Inc. – CFO * Doug A. Robinson Workday, Inc. – Co-President * Justin Allen Furby Workday, Inc. – Senior Director of IR * Luciano Fernandez Gomez Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director * Peter Schlampp Workday, Inc. – Chief Strategy Officer ================================================================================ Conference Call Participants ================================================================================ * Aleksandr J. Zukin Wolfe Research, LLC – MD & Head of the Software Group * Bradley Hartwell Sills BofA Securities, Research Division – Director, Analyst * Brent John Thill Jefferies LLC, Research Division – Equity Analyst * David E. Hynes Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division – Analyst * Joshua Phillip Baer Morgan Stanley, Research Division – Equity Analyst * Kasthuri Gopalan Rangan Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division – Analyst * Mark Ronald Murphy JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division – MD * Raimo Lenschow Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division – MD & Analyst * Scott Randolph Berg Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division – Senior Analyst * Stewart Kirk Materne Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division – Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst ================================================================================ Presentation ——————————————————————————– Operator [1] ——————————————————————————– Welcome to Workday's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) With that, I will now hand it over to Justin Furby, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. Justin, you may begin. ——————————————————————————– Justin Allen Furby, Workday, Inc. – Senior Director of IR [2] ——————————————————————————– (technical difficulty) and Chano Fernandez, our co-CEOs; Barbara Larson, our CFO; Pete Schlampp, our Chief Strategy Officer; and Doug Robinson, our co-President. Following prepared remarks, we will take questions. Our press release was issued after close of market and is posted on our website where this call is being simultaneously webcast. Before we get started, we want to emphasize that some of our statements on this call, particularly our guidance, are based on the information we have as of today and include forward-looking statements regarding our financial results, applications, customer demand, operations and other matters. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those related to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recent macroeconomic events on our business and global economic conditions. Please refer to the press release and the risk factors in documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2022 annual report on Form 10-K and our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, for additional information on risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in such statements. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Workday's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. You can find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP results, in our earnings press release, in our investor presentation and on the Investor Relations page of our website. The webcast replay of this call will be available for the next 90 days on our company website under the Investor Relations link. Additionally, our quarterly investor presentation will be posted on our Investor Relations website following this call. Also, the customers' page of our website includes a list of selected customers and is updated monthly. Our fourth quarter fiscal 2023 quiet period begins on January 15, 2023. Unless otherwise stated, all financial comparisons in this call will be to our results for the comparable period of our fiscal 2022. With that, I'll hand the call over to Aneel. ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [3] ——————————————————————————– Thank you, Justin, and welcome to Workday's Third Quarter Fiscal '23 Earnings Conference Call. I'm happy to report that we had a solid Q3 as we once again outperformed across our key operating metrics. There is no question that the macro environment presents increased uncertainty, but as we've said before, we are well positioned in this type of environment because our cloud finance and HR solutions are truly mission-critical. As our Q3 results showed, more and more organizations are selecting Workday as their trusted partner to help them successfully navigate today's changing world. We remain confident in our ability to capitalize on the opportunity ahead and are pleased to announce our first-ever share repurchase program of up to $500 million under authorization. This program will help reduce the rate of our share dilution going forward and is driven by our belief that our share price is undervalued given the long-term growth opportunity ahead. Barbara will share details shortly, but know that we feel confident that we'll reach a scale where we can roll out this repurchase program while continuing to prioritize investing for long-term profitable growth. With that, I'd like to share some highlights from the quarter. In Q3, we further solidified our position as a leader in cloud HR with notable new HCM customers, including Intermountain Health, SGS and Texas Roadhouse. In addition, we had several key HCM go-lives, including Best Buy, Canadian Tire Corporation and the state of Oklahoma. For Workday Financial Management, we continue to see strong demand and momentum in Q3. Key new wins included a Fortune 200 provider of information technology solutions, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, EZCORP and Thomas Jefferson University. It's important to note that each of these customers have also selected us for HCM, reinforcing the power of the full Workday platform and providing further evidence that companies are going all in with us. Key financial management go-lives during the quarter included City of Baltimore and Medical University of South Carolina. Q3 also saw us get back in person for Workday Rising, our annual customer conference for the first time since 2019. We had nearly 16,000 in-person and virtual attendees, and it was great to experience the energy and see firsthand how our community is growing and evolving. This was highlighted by the fact that this year's event has a large percentage of senior leaders, finance and IT attendees ever. One big takeaway from Rising is that our innovation story is resonating with customers as we evolve to be more open and connected. While we've traditionally targeted the offices of CHRO and CFO, we have placed increased focus recently on the office of the CIO, which presents another growth opportunity for us. One solution in particular that was a popular topic among IT attendees was Workday Extend. Workday Extend lets customers and partners build their own unique solutions on top of Workday, which is a huge point of emphasis for CIOs and, in their eyes, positions us even more as a true platform player. While we announced several availability at Workday Extend in 2020, we've continued to see accelerated demand for it over the last year as the need for organizations to quickly innovate and adapt in today's business environment increases. We also announced new more personalized UX enhancements that meet every type of Workday user in the natural flow of their work such as mobile devices, Microsoft Teams and Slack, which helps us to address another CIO priority as they are more focused than ever on driving increased employee engagement. And finally, we further reinforced our leadership in artificial intelligence and machine learning with the announcement of next-generation skills technology that allows customers to more easily and securely bring skills data in and out of Workday. This helps customers leverage the full power of machine learning to gain deeper insights into their workforce skills and deliver more personalized employee experiences. In closing, we once again delivered a solid quarter with strength across a number of key growth initiatives, showcasing why Workday is the backbone of digital business. And while we expect that the macro uncertainty will cause our growth to moderate in the near term, we continue to believe we are well positioned to navigate this environment and emerge even stronger. Driving constant innovation to address our customers' evolving needs has always been key to our success and will continue to be our focus in this environment. With that, I'll turn it over to our co-CEO, Chano Fernandez. Chano, over to you. ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [4] ——————————————————————————– Thank you, Aneel, and thank you to everyone for joining today's call. I want to start off by offering my sincere thanks to the more than 17,500 Workmates that help us deliver another solid quarter. Your relentless focus on the customer continues to push us and the broader Workday community forward. Great job, team. I've been on the road a lot the last few months, including Workday Rising in Europe which has wrapped up in Stockholm and Workday Rising in U.S. back in September. I've had the opportunity to spend time with hundreds of customers and prospects, and there are a couple of key themes emerging. First, despite all the challenges that companies are facing today, they increasingly realize the present need to modernize their HR and financial systems. The executives that I speak with have different viewpoints on what the macroeconomic climate will look like in the year ahead. But one thing they agree on is that the change is constant and it's nearly impossible to navigate with legacy systems. Second, there is a clear desire to consolidate and prioritize spend across a new organization's more strategic technology vendors. Given our positioning as the backbone of digital business across HR and finance, this trend has led to more and more companies going all in with Workday as they look to harness the power of their data across the enterprise. And when I look at our solid Q3 results across both the large and medium enterprise, it's a direct validation of these themes being seen across organizations of all sizes. From a geographic standpoint, we saw solid results across North America with a number of CoreHR and FINS wins that Aneel mentioned, in addition to several strategic expansions across the Fortune 500. APA also outperformed with wins at Bank of Queensland, Fletcher Building, [Ono] Pharmaceutical and Trip.com, to name a few. And in EMEA, we had a number of important wins and expansions, including SGS, [Allianz] Medical Group and Equiniti. Our customer base sales team once again saw outstanding growth, a direct reflection of the trust that customers are placing in us and a validation of our strategy. We drove very strong renewal rates in Q3, and we closed a number of strategic expansions at companies such as Accenture, University of Maryland, the state of Nebraska, Pick n Pay, Puma and VF Corporation. As we shared at our recent Analyst Day, our customer base momentum is being driven by our broad portfolio. Solutions such as Journeys, Help and Talent Optimization, for example, are seeing strong adoption as customers look to support employee experience, while our scheduling, time tracking and payroll solutions are all resonating as customers increasingly focused on labor optimization. And other products such as Planning, Extend, Accounting Center, VNDLY and our Spend Management solutions are all contributing to this quarter's strength across the customer base. Our industry focus continues to pay off. In Q3, nowhere was this more evident than the health care vertical where we had a strong growth in new ACV and where we surpassed $0.5 billion in annual recurring revenue. By far, the 2 largest costs for health care organizations are labor and materials. And by leveraging our full suite of HCM, FINS and supply chain solutions, they are able to help optimize spend across these critical areas. In fact, all of our larger Q3 health care wins were full suite and including Workday's supply chain management. We also saw healthy momentum within the professional services industry highlighted by the aforementioned expansion at Accenture as we continue to co-innovate across the Workday platform, including significant new developments in the skills cloud, public cloud and accessibility. Other strategic wins in the professional services industry included Novozymes and Reed Global, which was a full suite win. Our expanding partner ecosystem is also becoming an increasingly important driver of our growth. Key to our strategy is driving core innovation across the platform, which increases the differentiation of our solutions, enables even faster innovation to address real-time customer challenges and allows our partners to leverage their deep industry and solution insights to differentiate in the market. Examples of recent partner-driven innovation built on the Workday platform include Accenture's digital revenue operations solution, which integrates CPQ capabilities with Workday's billing and revenue automation to enable seamless quote-to-cash functionality for software and technology companies. Another great example is employee document management, built by partner Kainos on Workday Extend, which provides our customers with advanced document generation, access control storage and finely tuned document retention rules. These are just a few several solutions that were recently released by our partner ecosystem, and we have dozens more on the road map. As we move into our fourth quarter, the environment remains uncertain, which has led to increased scrutiny and the lengthening of certain sales cycles, particularly with the net new opportunities. While we aren't immune to this and see signs that it will persist into next year, we are confident in our diverse pipeline and are focused on executing in Q4 and laying a strong foundation for FY '24 and beyond. With that, I will turn it over to our CFO, Barbara Larson. Over to you, Barbara. ——————————————————————————– Barbara Larson, Workday, Inc. – CFO [5] ——————————————————————————– Thanks, Chano, and good afternoon, everyone. As Aneel and Chano mentioned, we delivered solid Q3 results in the face of continued economic uncertainty, a testament to strong execution across the company as well as the strategic and mission-critical nature of our solutions. Subscription revenue in Q3 was $1.43 billion, up 22% year-over-year, and professional services revenue was $167 million, up 7%. Total revenue outside of the U.S. was $394 million, representing 25% of total revenue. 24-month backlog at the end of the third quarter was $8.62 billion, growth of 21%. The result was driven by solid new business sales and strong renewals, with gross and net revenue retention rates over 95% and over 100%, respectively. Total subscription revenue backlog at the end of Q3 was $14.10 billion, up 28%. Our non-GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $314 million, resulting in non-GAAP operating margin of 19.7%. Margin overachievement was driven by revenue outperformance, favorable cost variances across the business and the timing of certain expenses shifting into Q4. Q3 operating cash flow was $409 million, growth of 6%. Our cash flow this quarter was impacted by a $55 million semiannual interest payment associated with our Q1 debt offering. We also paid off the principal balance on our $1.15 billion convertible debt with cash in October, resulting in a reduction to our non-GAAP diluted share count of roughly 8 million shares. Given the late Q3 timing, this share count reduction will be fully reflected in our non-GAAP weighted average share count in Q4. During the quarter, we successfully added approximately 600 net new employees, ending Q3 with a global workforce of more than 17,500. We expect a strong moderation of hiring as we move into Q4, but we'll continue to add key talent across strategic growth areas of the business, notably go-to-market and product and technology. Overall, we're extremely proud of the strong company-wide performance in Q3, and we're focused on executing in Q4, our seasonally strongest quarter of the year. Now turning to guidance, which reflects both the continued momentum in our business while also balancing an uncertain macro environment. With that context, our guidance for FY '23 subscription revenue is now $5.555 billion to $5.557 billion, representing 22% year-over-year growth. We expect Q4 subscription revenue to be $1.483 billion to $1.485 billion, 21% year-over-year growth. We now expect professional services revenue to be $645 million in FY '23 with the slight reduction driven by the delay of a large project. For Q4, we expect professional services revenue of $147 million. We expect 24-month backlog to grow approximately 19% year-over-year in Q4. We expect Q4 non-GAAP operating margin of approximately 17.5%, which includes some expenses that shifted out of Q3. Our FY '23 non-GAAP operating margin guidance is now 19.2%. GAAP operating margins for both the fourth quarter and the full year are expected to be approximately 23 percentage points lower than the non-GAAP margins. This includes a change to our employee stock plan that will take effect in Q4 to provide more flexibility to our employees during the open trading window each quarter. Our vesting date will move from the 15th to the 5th of each month for all outstanding grants, resulting in an acceleration of stock-based compensation expense of approximately $30 million in Q4. This change will result in reduced stock-based compensation expense by the same amount over the next few years and has no impact on our dilution. The FY '23 non-GAAP tax rate remains at 19%. We are maintaining our FY '23 guidance for operating cash flow of $1.64 billion, but are reducing our capital expenditures outlook to approximately $375 million, reflecting the timing of certain data center and real estate investments being pushed out to future periods. And as Aneel mentioned, we are pleased to announce a share repurchase program with authority to repurchase up to $500 million in shares over an 18-month period. We will continue to prioritize allocating capital towards organic innovation, followed by targeted M&A, but given our strong balance sheet and free cash flow, we intend to use a portion of our capital towards the repurchase of shares, enabling us to partially offset future dilution from employee stock programs. This repurchase program is a direct reflection of our confidence in the business and our view that our shares are currently undervalued. While we are early in our planning cycle for next year and have an important Q4 ahead, we'd like to provide a preliminary view of FY '24. As discussed at our Financial Analyst Day, we have a significant long-term opportunity and multiple growth levers that drive our goal of sustaining 20% plus subscription revenue growth on our path to $10 billion in revenue. While this remains our multiyear goal, given the continued macro uncertainty, we believe it's prudent to provide a preliminary FY '24 subscription revenue range of approximately $6.5 billion to $6.6 billion or 17% to 19% year-over-year growth. This outlook takes into account the lengthening of sales cycles that we're currently seeing impact our net new business. From a margin standpoint, we currently expect FY '24 non-GAAP operating margin expansion of 150 to 200 basis points from FY '23 levels, placing us firmly on track to our target of 25% non-GAAP operating margin and 35% operating cash flow margin at $10 billion in revenue. The expected margin expansion is driven by the scalability of our model, a strong moderation of hiring and ongoing expense discipline. We plan to operate the business with agility, and we'll continue to appropriately balance growth investments based on what we see in the underlying market environment. And finally, I'll close by thanking our amazing employees, customers and partners for their continued support and hard work. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to begin Q&A. ================================================================================ Questions and Answers ——————————————————————————– Operator [1] ——————————————————————————– (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Kash Rangan with Goldman Sachs. ——————————————————————————– Kasthuri Gopalan Rangan, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division – Analyst [2] ——————————————————————————– Fabulous, fabulous quarter given the macroeconomic conditions. I was wondering if you could give us some perspective. In some sense, this is a recession that everybody has been expecting, nobody's going to be surprised. I was wondering if you could offer some insights into how Workday has been able to execute so well during a tough time and other software companies are facing headwinds. And to the extent we get some relief next year, if the economy does improve, could you do even better considering that your results are actually quite impressive? ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [3] ——————————————————————————– Well, I don't think we'll comment next year just quite yet, Kash, but thank you for the kind comments. I think the value proposition of our products works in a downturn just as it does in a good market, just like we did in 2008, 2009 and every other downturn. Chano, do you want to add anything? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [4] ——————————————————————————– No, I think I agree with what you said, Aneel. I believe the mission-critical applications of our solutions really resonates with our customers as they are modernized in their HR and finance solution. And as I said in my comments as well, Kash, there is a consolidation of spend across strategic (inaudible) vendors, and we clearly are being one of those these days. ——————————————————————————– Operator [5] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Kirk Materne with Evercore. ——————————————————————————– Stewart Kirk Materne, Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division – Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst [6] ——————————————————————————– I'll echo the congrats on a really nice quarter in a tough environment. I guess, Chano, you talked about some deal cycles extending. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you're seeing at the top of the funnel. Obviously, you guys sort of came out perhaps of the COVID recession a little bit later than some others. I think there's a fear out there that once we get through this current wave of deals in your pipeline, that there might be some sort of cliff in terms of net new billings. But it sounds like you guys feel pretty good about your pipeline. So I was wondering if you could just sort of expand on that. ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [7] ——————————————————————————– Thank you for your question, Kirk. Overall, companies continue to prioritize HCM and financials transformations, and we see ongoing momentum in important growth areas like our customer base team, what is a clear market trend, as I said, towards consolidation of vendors and as well the medium enterprise. There's good pipeline momentum, but maybe, Doug, you can add some color in terms of pipeline and deal dynamics overall. ——————————————————————————– Doug A. Robinson, Workday, Inc. – Co-President [8] ——————————————————————————– Yes. I think — well, you captured 2 of it, which is I describe, Kirk, as — we've got diversity of revenue streams. So as Chano mentioned, medium enterprise performed well. We've got the customer base motion. And that was a theme that I certainly heard at our customer conferences is our large customers wanting to consolidate, rationalize number of suppliers and expand their footprint with us. So I think that certainly helps. In terms of like top of the funnel sort of the core of your question, it's really interesting in that our Q3 pipeline build, so the pipe we're building now, which is largely about next year, met our internal targets. So we're seeing project formation. At the same time, we're seeing some projects elongate. I think Chano mentioned this, but they tend to be large enterprise net new. Those projects have extra steps to complete. At the same time, at the top end, the starting of projects is meeting the goals that we've established internally. ——————————————————————————– Operator [9] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Mark Murphy with JPMorgan. ——————————————————————————– Mark Ronald Murphy, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division – MD [10] ——————————————————————————– Yes. And I'll add my congrats. I'm interested in whether it's possible that the volatility of this type of environment where you have so many vectors moving around inflation, interest rates, FX, supply chain issues. Is it possible that it's coming together in a way that really elevates the Workday value prop with integrated planning, cloud-based, maybe more so than in the smooth sailing environment that we had in the last decade? Because as Kash mentioned, you're navigating your way through this very well. I'm just wondering if you see any effect of that. Maybe it's increasing some of your win rates and maybe it builds up a little pent-up demand for some time in the future when the environment starts to improve. ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [11] ——————————————————————————– Well, I guess I'd start with I wish that was the case across the board. We definitely see some — you see — in a downturn, you see some movement to — well, I got to get on the right stuff to help me manage through these volatile environments. At the same time, there are other customers that are just cautious in making new decisions. And so I think they tend to balance each other out. I'm not sure there's a — I'm not sure it's a big boost for us or a big negative for us. We're all seeing the same environment. But there are definitely customers who are behind on making the transition. I feel like this is a catalyst to make that transition. And then there are others who already made the transition that maybe think, "Hey, let's be cautious on follow-on purchases." Chano, anything to add? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [12] ——————————————————————————– Nothing to add. ——————————————————————————– Operator [13] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Keith Weiss with Morgan Stanley. ——————————————————————————– Joshua Phillip Baer, Morgan Stanley, Research Division – Equity Analyst [14] ——————————————————————————– This is Josh Baer on for Keith. I was hoping you could expand a bit on the macro assumptions that are embedded in that FY '24 subscription revenue guidance range. Just wondering what areas get worse, what stays the same when thinking about different geographies as well as new business from new logos or expansion and renewals from existing customers. ——————————————————————————– Barbara Larson, Workday, Inc. – CFO [15] ——————————————————————————– Josh, thanks for your question. So the guidance range that we provided is our best view at this time. It takes into account the continued momentum across important growth areas such as customer base, medium enterprise, but also balancing that with lengthening sales cycles that we're seeing impact our business, particularly our net new opportunities. So given the uncertain environment, we provided an estimated subscription revenue range with that low end of the range, assuming a larger impact to sales cycles than we're currently seeing today. ——————————————————————————– Operator [16] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Brad Zelnick with Deutsche Bank. Our next question is from Alex Zukin with Wolfe Research. ——————————————————————————– Aleksandr J. Zukin, Wolfe Research, LLC – MD & Head of the Software Group [17] ——————————————————————————– I'll extend my congratulations not only on the quarter, but on the prescriptiveness of the guide, both on top and bottom line, in what is clearly a very uncertain and tenuous environment. So I guess maybe just the first one, if we look at the patterns emerging in the sales cycles in the business, I guess, Aneel or Chano, can you guys compare and contrast this with — from a pipeline perspective going into 4Q, what are you expecting the impact to be in your biggest quarter on bookings, on new ACV growth, on — and maybe FINS versus HCM specifically where you feel a little bit better or compare and contrast that I think would be super helpful? ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [18] ——————————————————————————– Well, let me just offer a high-level commentary. I spent a lot of time with other CEOs, and this is not 2008, 2009. No one sees the world coming to an end like they did at that time. I think right now, we're in a world of caution, where no one's quite sure what's going to happen, but things don't feel really bad. And so — but caution and stopping can sometimes look the same. And so it's kind of hard to predict right now. Every CEO I talked to is still relatively feeling positive about their business, but worried about the economic underpinnings of what the fed is doing and the potential recession. And so I think the word that I keep coming back to is everybody is cautious. And I don't know how that — Chano, how do you think that reflects in the pipeline in Q4 and other quarters? But it's — this is not an end-of-the-world scenario, not at least yet, like '08, '09. ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [19] ——————————————————————————– Yes. Thank you, Alex, for your question. I would say, first, when it comes to HCM or FINS, we don't see any significant difference between one or the other. So they're proportionally impacted given the macro environment. When it comes to Q4, I would say we had the pipeline to execute on the quarter. Of course, that usually will not manifest as a prioritization because those projects have been already prioritized, but it may happen some lengthening of sales cycles as we said before, particularly on net new deals and opportunities that they're more scrutinized on those, right? And Doug already commented on the growth pipeline for next year. ——————————————————————————– Aleksandr J. Zukin, Wolfe Research, LLC – MD & Head of the Software Group [20] ——————————————————————————– Perfect. And then, I guess, if I think about what you're saying around net new and how well I think you're doing on renewals and selling into the base specifically, is it fair to assume that in the near term, there could be a bit more bookings concentration coming from existing customers? And kind of how well — how important is that dynamic that informs some of your margin commentary for next year, given it should be a little bit easier, it should be a little bit more predictable to sell into the base? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [21] ——————————————————————————– Yes, Alex, it is fair to assume that there will be more concentration on the customer base and areas like medium enterprise, as we said before. And then hence, we'll put more focus on both marketing environments and sales go-to-market environment into those areas. Of course, that will potentially provide higher yield on these times. ——————————————————————————– Operator [22] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from DJ Hynes with Canaccord. ——————————————————————————– David E. Hynes, Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division – Analyst [23] ——————————————————————————– Maybe building off Alex's last question there. I mean there's lots of interesting partner commentary in the script. I'm curious about the level of collaboration you have with partners on what they're working on with Extend or an industry accelerators. And assuming you have visibility there, maybe you could talk a bit about like where you draw the line on what Workday might own or build directly versus what you let go to partners. ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [24] ——————————————————————————– Pete, do you want to talk about the product side first? And then Chano can talk about the partner side. ——————————————————————————– Peter Schlampp, Workday, Inc. – Chief Strategy Officer [25] ——————————————————————————– Sure. Thanks again for that question. As you heard us talk about the momentum with Extend that we've seen recently has been great, we talked about that a lot, both in Stockholm and in Orlando at our user conferences this year, now over 750 applications in production. When it comes to where that momentum is coming from, it is customers and it is partners as well. Partners are beginning to build on the Extend platform and Extend Workday applications as well as build net new applications that connect with HCM and financials. So far, the — our customers have been getting value through both of those. The question of where do we draw the line between what is ours and what is our partners, I'll hand over to Chano. ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [26] ——————————————————————————– Yes, I think as I commented on some of my prepared remarks, I mean clearly driving co-innovation with our partners across the platform is very critically important. You would say, where you draw the line when something is kind of you would define or I would define the last mile in a particular industry or we need some more content-driven specific understanding of that value add in that industry with a partner, there's where we see an opportunity to collaborate with our partners. I mentioned some of these solutions that we're building with (inaudible) for different industries, like the revenue operation solution, again, that is very critical to the software and technology companies. There are others that would be a bit more, let's say, across industries like the document management, employee document management that I provided on. But honestly, we don't see that as a core, let's say, value add from us in terms of building that solution. But, of course, it's adding value to our customers there and partners take just advantage of the maturity of Extend to bring that value add that is resonating with our customers. So we're really pleased, as you can imagine, that customer partners can differentiate and bring additional offering to our customers. ——————————————————————————– David E. Hynes, Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division – Analyst [27] ——————————————————————————– Yes, makes sense. And then, Barbara, maybe I could sneak in a follow-up for you. The buyback is great to see as analysts always ask for more. Why not be more aggressive given where the stock is, the strength of the balance sheet, expected cash generation next year? Like what were the considerations there? ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [28] ——————————————————————————– I'll answer that one because I think Barbara probably wanted to do more. You just don't know what you're going into a tough economic environment and cash is king. And so we wanted to be conservative. And if we come out in a good market environment in the next 6 to 9 months, you definitely could see more, but there's just a balance of risk. ——————————————————————————– Operator [29] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Raimo Lenschow with Barclays. ——————————————————————————– Raimo Lenschow, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division – MD & Analyst [30] ——————————————————————————– Chano, the one thing that we're seeing in the industry at the moment is that there seems to be more money in HR post pandemic with a great reshuffle, et cetera. Could that — are you seeing that in terms of like interest of pockets over customers are? And do you think that's kind of more a short-term thing and we're at the back part of that trend? Or do you think HR, HCM strategically is having a new position in the enterprise? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [31] ——————————————————————————– Thank you, Raimo, for your question. I think both of them, to be honest, has some good tailwind out of the pandemic, but clearly, of course, that nets out or balance out with the macro environment we are living into. But I would say that some of the financial transformations, we see those in the market, and they are taking place as we speak. As a dynamic of companies having a tough time to just navigate through their finance modernization or honestly doing simple things like closing their books online in terms of many legacy platforms and in terms of a lot of manual processes that could just not happen once you were not in the office. Clearly, employee engagement as a whole in HCM, the skills area, all the machine learning and AI that we're bringing to those processes are obviously value add the companies do see and want to take advantage of and continue to be a great tailwind for the HCM value proposition as a whole. ——————————————————————————– Raimo Lenschow, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division – MD & Analyst [32] ——————————————————————————– Yes. And then 1 follow-up is if you think about selling in this kind of slightly more tougher environment, can you talk a little bit maybe about the steps you're taking in terms of sales execution to kind of make sure you continue to deliver in this market? I'm thinking about higher pipeline coverage, kind of making sure you kind of — you time the deals better, et cetera. Like where are we on that journey of implementing these kind of recession handbook kind of selling kind of policies that we used to take out in the older days? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [33] ——————————————————————————– Doug, do you want to add some color there on the sales strategy in the market? ——————————————————————————– Doug A. Robinson, Workday, Inc. – Co-President [34] ——————————————————————————– Yes, sure. I think Aneel or you, Chano, might have mentioned it after Q1, but we pivoted to our ROI-based and TCO-based way to engage with customers right at Q1. Of course, we've always done business cases with our customers. But entering tougher environments, it comes down to TCO, hard dollars that you can take out, system rationalization productivity. So I think it's showing up really focusing with our customers on the HR side. So there's no doubt, tight labor markets. And so that's driving, I think, the TCO on that side of it. And it was touched on earlier by Aneel. We had a really good Q3 as it relates to financials. So FINS+ performed well. And those are ROI-driven as well. And those are companies looking for — sure, it might start with an aging — retiring older systems, but it pivots pretty quickly when they engage with us through that plan, execute, analyze and offering up more business agility in an uncertain environment. So those are the things from a go-to-market, from a field deployed resources standpoint that we're spending a lot of time with customers on, on the business case. ——————————————————————————– Operator [35] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Brad Sills with Bank of America Securities. ——————————————————————————– Bradley Hartwell Sills, BofA Securities, Research Division – Director, Analyst [36] ——————————————————————————– I wanted to ask a question around backlog for next year. I think, Chano, you made some comments that you feel good about Q4 pipelines heading into Q4. And the question on everyone's mind is really what about next year. There's a lot of moving parts. In your conversations with office of CFO, office of HR, what are they saying with regard to budgets for next year? Do you feel pretty confident that you can sustain this kind of growth into next year as well? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [37] ——————————————————————————– Well, Brad, thank you for your question. Right now, we're exactly on those discussions, right, where companies are going through their planning and budgeting cycles, and it is a question of prioritization of projects. And we're having those discussions that, that was commenting on that are really TCO- and ROI-based, right? So clearly, here where you see some different scenarios on our guidance, particularly depending on what happens on some of the new local sales cycles that might put some lengthening. And clearly, even though they might be building right now, maybe fall outside of next year or some of them that just may be pushing forward. But right now, we're having most of those discussions. Overall, we feel good given the momentum we have and given the momentum on the new pipeline build and the conversations we're engaging with and the strength of our customer base, our medium enterprise and the diversity of our business, as Doug has commented. But clearly, we are cautiously monitoring what's going on in the environment. ——————————————————————————– Bradley Hartwell Sills, BofA Securities, Research Division – Director, Analyst [38] ——————————————————————————– And then one more, if I may, please, just on the verticals. You called out some strength in financials, health care. Is there a case to be made that perhaps you guys have more exposure to more resilient verticals with those, in particular, public sector education kind of less affected by perhaps the macro? ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [39] ——————————————————————————– We're pretty diversified across all the industries and some have held up better than others. When I look at what's happening in Silicon Valley, we definitely have a bunch of tech companies, but we're not exposed to tech the way maybe a newer company might be where they got a huge amount of exposure to just tech companies. So — and our tech companies tend to be the mature large companies. So I don't think there's any particular sector that's held us up. I would say financial services is strong, though. The one beneficiary of rising interest rates is the financial services sector and they continue to grow, and we have a very strong presence there. ——————————————————————————– Operator [40] ——————————————————————————– Our next question is from Brent Thill with Jefferies. ——————————————————————————– Brent John Thill, Jefferies LLC, Research Division – Equity Analyst [41] ——————————————————————————– Aneel, just to follow up on the verticals. A number of the partners have been talking about strength in state and local government and higher ed. I'm curious if you could drill in on those 2 to give us a sense of what you're seeing right now in both those sectors. ——————————————————————————– Aneel Bhusri, Workday, Inc. – Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board [42] ——————————————————————————– I may turn that one over to Doug to talk about. Doug, are you there? ——————————————————————————– Doug A. Robinson, Workday, Inc. – Co-President [43] ——————————————————————————– Yes, sorry about that. I was on mute. The question was around education, government. Is that correct? ——————————————————————————– Brent John Thill, Jefferies LLC, Research Division – Equity Analyst [44] ——————————————————————————– State and local and higher ed. ——————————————————————————– Doug A. Robinson, Workday, Inc. – Co-President [45] ——————————————————————————– Yes. So both performed well in the quarter. We had a number of student — Workday student deals, which for a while there, we were doing a number of financials, HCM on the higher ed side, but we took down some student deals in the quarter and showed really nice growth in Q3. And so we feel good about both of those verticals right now. ——————————————————————————– Brent John Thill, Jefferies LLC, Research Division – Equity Analyst [46] ——————————————————————————– Barbara, can I just follow up real quick on international? It was the lowest growth in 5 quarters. Is there anything to point out in Europe versus the U.S. kind of just the classic still over what we've been hearing? Or is there anything specific on an execution? Can you just compare and contrast what you're seeing? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [47] ——————————————————————————– I would say, clearly, the environment is more uncertain in Europe. Obviously, on top of everything else going on in the world, we have energy as a big challenge. And where we see, let's say, an increase signs of deals and sell cycles lengthening that tends to happen in Europe. And I would say, in general, we are more cautious overall what's going there in the near relative terms than in other markets and other segments. ——————————————————————————– Operator [48] ——————————————————————————– We have time for 1 final question from Scott Berg with Needham. ——————————————————————————– Scott Randolph Berg, Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division – Senior Analyst [49] ——————————————————————————– I guess this one will be relatively straightforward as you all called out slowness in the enterprise segment a couple of different times. We talked about the mid-market being, I guess, relatively untouched. Can you help us kind of understand maybe what's going on in the mid-market to not really see any weakness today? I think that's an interesting kind of a change at least relative to what we're seeing out there. And then as we think about the guidance within the mid-market, is the slowness or maybe additional macro uncertainty that's impacting the low end of the guidance, do you have some sort of conservatism baked into any potential slowdown in the mid-market also impacting that guidance? ——————————————————————————– Luciano Fernandez Gomez, Workday, Inc. – Co-CEO & Director [50] ——————————————————————————– Yes. I guess we've not said that the mid-market is not impacted. What we said is that, of course, we had overall more strength in the medium enterprise and in the customer base. If you look at what it tends to happen more scrutiny around either the business case or additional approvals, clearly, those are on the larger deals and larger companies that we usually — we tend to see it more. Our value proposition is strong and resonates and quicker time to value fixed cost of implementations, very predictive ones across HCM and finance in the mid-market, brings good ROI, brings good total cost of ownership in terms of the financials and main transformation as a whole, and that is a value proposition that mid-market is taking the same on a faster clip as they are modernizing and they're assisting on their platforms. ——————————————————————————– Operator [51] ——————————————————————————– Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This will conclude Workday's Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. Thank you again for joining us.
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PayPal Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) shares shed over 61% year-to-date. The shares have lost 5.5% in the last month and over 11% over the previous six months. On November 29, Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Keane said Salesforce, Inc's (NYSE: CRM) new data shows Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) Pay growing at an "extremely rapid pace," up 52% Y/Y month-to-date in November globally and 59% Y/Y in the U.S. while, over the same period, PayPal adoption has fallen 8% globally and 4% in the U.S. Also Read: PayPal
The Chinese EV maker has surged more than 50% despite an earnings miss and slashed guidance
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After this year’s mauling, you can finally get a steady stream of retirement income from Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS
The burgeoning EV industry is seeing demand for lithium soar to previously unseen levels. These three lithium mining stocks are positioned well for the future — and also pay regular dividends.
“The problem was, he took our money. And so he needs to get prosecuted,” says Novogratz, whose Galaxy Digital disclosed $76.8 million exposure to FTX.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) have each proven themselves as excellent growth stocks, with their share prices seeing triple-digit growth in the last five years despite declines this year. As the most valuable company in the world by market cap, it's hard to argue against investing in Apple. For instance, people who buy an iPhone are more likely to choose Apple again when looking for a laptop, smartwatch, or tablet in the future, thanks to the effortless connectivity between its products.
(Bloomberg) — Stock investors’ optimism around a cooling labor market and a Federal Reserve pivot is overdone, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists, who recommend selling the rally ahead of a likely surge in job losses next year.Most Read from BloombergMusk’s Neuralink Hopes to Implant Computer in Human Brain in Six MonthsGoldman Jolts Traders With Bonus Warning After Bumper HaulMusk Suspends Ye From Twitter After Offensive Image PostBeverly Hills Cop Was California’s Highest-Paid Mun
Capitulation occurs when investors give up because of despair, the last emotional stage of bear market grief.
Weaker demand for lumber has weighed on prices, making it one of the biggest commodity price decliners this year. The outlook isn’t good, either.
Thanks to a mild obsession with so-called “cash stuffing” — which has racked up more than 700 million views on TikTok — Gen Z has made an old-school money hack a viral sensation. Cash stuffing is a technique that encourages people to pay for things with cash, and as a result, they should end up saving more of their money. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Cash stuffing mimics a strategy used by Dave Ramsey, known as the envelope system.
When people think of the players that dominate the Las Vegas Strip, their thoughts generally turn to Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International , which dominate the south and central parts of the Strip. Caesars owns its namesake Caesars Palace, Harrah's, Planet Hollywood, the Cromwell, the Flamingo, Bally's (soon to be Horsehoe), the Linq, and Paris Las Vegas. After that, thoughts turn to other players like Wynn Resorts , the brand new Resorts World International, and the Venetian, which is operated by Apollo Global Management .
Telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T) has been dead money for years. Its share price is down 25% over the past decade. But AT&T's recent success in getting out of the entertainment business and growing its wireless business could change the stock's trajectory.
Bionano Genomics, Inc. (BNGO) witnesses a hammer chart pattern, indicating support found by the stock after losing some value lately. This coupled with an upward trend in earnings estimate revisions could mean a trend reversal for the stock in the near term.

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In today’s market, many PDF editors can perform multiple tasks, from editing PDFs to converting a range of file formats into PDFs. With the number of PDF editors available today, it can be difficult to choose the best one tailored to your needs and budget. Options like Adobe Acrobat (the original PDF Editor) are quite expensive.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to Wondershare PDFelement, a great option for PDF editing with great pricing options for both businesses and individuals.
We created this article in partnership with Wondershare. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.
Working with PDF files can be challenging and unpleasant at times, and for a range of reasons. Most PDFs are delivered as finished products. This means that the file is “flattened”, with every object being placed on a single layer. Thus, trying to edit one object affects every other object in the file.
Converting a PDF file to an editable format — such as Word — might sound like an intuitive way to edit it, but most PDF files don’t contain any underlying structure such as paragraphs, columns, tables and other building blocks that keep the contents of a Word file in place. This makes it difficult to read and convert them accurately, and some of the PDF editing software on the market tends to trade off quality and affordability.
Wondershare PDFelement simplifies the way people manage PDF documents across desktop, mobile, and web, offering an intuitive and powerful solution.

PDFelement currently has four main pricing plans for both Windows and macOS, and they all offer good value.
The pricing varies depending on whether you’re purchasing as an individual, for teams/businesses, for education, or in bundles. The desktop software is also available for a one-time, perpetual license fee that gives users ownership of this product.
Additionally, users can sign up for a free trial edition of the software to test it out before choosing an appropriate plan.
Although working with PDF files has several constraints, the PDF format is unavoidable in the workplace across different industries and professions. Switching back and forth between several services to complete simple tasks isn’t ideal for consumers.
To help employees and small business owners keep up with the digital transformation, Wondershare rolled out the latest version of PDFelement, equipped with a faster loading speed and advanced features including document management in the Cloud. You can easily edit, convert, sign PDFs, and more, across desktop, mobile and web — anytime, anywhere.

PDFelement makes PDF reading very simple. Users can effortlessly transform their PDF into an engaging learning experience. You can easily add notes, zoom in using the magnifying glass feature, write comments while reading, and also switch between light and dark modes. PDFelement allows you to open, view, and read PDFs regardless of location or device. PDFelement can read PDF files in the following ways:
With PDFelement, users can add comments or notes to a PDF document to provide feedback or explanation on a specific section. This feature is great for collaboration, as users can annotate PDFs by selecting text, adding sticky notes, shapes, signatures, stamps, corrections, and more. Here are different scenarios:


With PDFelement, you can create PDF documents in different ways that stand out. It allows you to do the following:
With this PDF merge tool, you can quickly combine multiple PDFs and images into a single document. You can do this by selecting Tools in the top panel and clicking Combine.

In addition, PDFelement enables you to do the following:
With PDFelement v9.0, it’s possible to convert a wide variety of file types into PDF format. Additionally, it’s also possible to convert in the opposite direction. Also, PDFelement can handle the following:
The supported formats are:
With this feature, users can edit PDF text, like a Word document using a PC or mobile device. It allows users to edit a wide range of assets on the document with consistency:
The PDF editor can make changes to the text while maintaining its format, adjust the text’s size, font, color, and alignment, and includes a spellchecker.
With this feature, users can flip and rotate pictures, crop images, and adjust the opacity of the images.
PDFelement compresses the size of PDF files with ease while maintaining their original quality. This optimizes the file for storage, handling, and transfer.

With PDFelement PDF compressor, users can:
With PDFelement, you can rearrange pages in a PDF in a snap to delete, split, add, rotate, and crop PDF pages. It allows users to handle the following:
Making forms with PDFelement v9.0 is simple, and the resulting PDFs are easy to fill out. With this PDF form maker, you can easily create forms and extract the data from those forms directly into spreadsheets for analysis. This lets you avoid the mistakes that can happen when you enter the information by hand.


With PDFelement v9.0, you can securely and quickly fill out and sign PDFs from any device, anytime, anywhere. It allows you to do the following:

You can secure sensitive information with PDFelement v9.0 by using passwords to prevent PDFs from being copied, edited, printed, or viewed. It allows you to do the following:

PDFelement v9.0 allows for batch processing of PDF documents. It allows you to carry out the following:

PDFelement v9.0 allows for accurate text recognition on images or scanned PDFs and editing scanned files in one click. It also allows you to do the following:
For users that frequently work with PDF files, choosing the right PDF editor that meets every need may be challenging. Users have to consider the price alongside other features.
Finding a tool with the right balance between platform, pricing, and user experience is key to measuring performance for power users. PDFelement by Wondershare is designed to suit all your PDF needs. It’s easy to use and offers a wide range of editing tools at an affordable price.
It has several advantages in comparison to some other editors — one of which is its availability across several devices and operating systems. The option for integrating one account across several devices and creating a shareable link makes it ideal for collaboration.
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What is the ONLYOFFICE Community feature, and why should you use it?
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ONLYOFFICE is not only a great web-based office suite and project management tool but an effective platform to keep your teams engaged with one another and the company.
I’ve been on an ONLYOFFICE kick for some time now. Why? Simply put, it’s a great way to add a document management service to your LAN. However, as you’ve probably seen, it’s much more than that.
SEE: Hiring kit: Project manager (TechRepublic Premium)
Upon deploying the ONLYOFFICE server, you’ll find it includes tools like:
Along for that ride is the Community tool, which for some will be a very pleasant surprise.
The Community feature in ONLYOFFICE is all about sharing information with a community of people. Said community would be the users who connect to your ONLYOFFICE instance. In other words, those in your company.
With Community, you can share bookmarks, news, maintain a corporate wiki, write internal blogs, host company forums, share polls and surveys, exchange instant messages and create group chats (via Talk) and configure notifications.
The ONLYOFFICE Community feature is a great addition to keep your staff engaged and updated. And, best of all, it’s built-in and easy to use. If your company depends on the likes of email to keep employees abreast of news, updates, documentation, events, and even keep a shared collection of important bookmarks, ONLYOFFICE Community is one of the simplest on-prem options available. And because ONLYOFFICE can be quickly deployed as a Docker container, your staff (both on-prem and remote) can enjoy the Community feature in no time.
This is a no-brainer for any company looking for an internal platform to keep teams in the know.
Now that you’re aware of ONLYOFFICE Community, how do you use it? Log into your ONLYOFFICE instance and click the Community icon (Figure A).
Figure A
You will be prompted to walk through the Welcome wizard and, on the last page, you’ll be asked to create your first Welcome post. Go ahead and create that post, which will take you to what should be a fairly familiar web-based editor (Figure A).
Figure B
Your Welcome post will be the default page every team member sees when they open the Community feature.
After creating the Welcome post, you’ll be taken back to the main Community page. Click the Create drop-down and you’ll see how easy it is to create a new Blog post, News item, Order, Announcement, Poll or Bookmark.
The only bit of confusion I experienced using the Community feature was the Order option (found in the Create drop-down). I assumed this would be used to create orders for resources (such as computer hardware, facility supplies, etc.). It’s not. My guess is that Orders are used to distribute tasks of higher importance to the company. The only caveat to that is you cannot assign orders to users, which means they can be viewed by anyone with an account on your ONLYOFFICE instance.
Although features like chat and forums are listed as part of the Community feature, in reality, chat exits outside of the feature (in the form of the Talk tool), and forums aren’t enabled by default. To enable forums, log into ONLYOFFICE as an administrator and click Settings. In the resulting window, click Modules & Tools and then, click to enable Forums under Community (Figure C).
Figure C
Click Save and Forums will then you’ll be able to create your first forum by going to Community | Create | Forum. On the Forum creation page (Figure D), you can create a new category, and add a title, name, and description for the forum.
Figure D
Once the Forum has been created, any user with access to ONLYOFFICE can join in on the discussions.
All-in-all, ONLYOFFICE Community is a great addition to the platform, one that will keep your teams informed and connected. If you use ONLYOFFICE, I highly recommend employing this option, so your employees are better informed and engaged with one another and the company.
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What is the ONLYOFFICE Community feature, and why should you use it?
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Organize a number of different applicants using an ATS to cut down on the amount of unnecessary time spent finding the right candidate.
Whether you are a Microsoft Excel beginner or an advanced user, you’ll benefit from these step-by-step tutorials.
In order to maintain a consistent, predictable and supportable computing environment it is essential to establish a pre-defined set of software applications for use on workstations, laptops, mobile devices and servers. When employees install random or questionable software on their workstations or devices it can lead to clutter, malware infestations and lengthy support remediation. Company-approved …
Password-driven security may not be the perfect solution, but the alternatives haven’t gained much traction. This policy defines best practices that will make password protection as strong and manageable as possible. From the policy: Employee passwords are the first line of defense in securing the organization from inappropriate or malicious access to data and services. …
Recruiting candidates with advanced software engineering experience and a least some familiarity with applied blockchain technology will take time and effort. This hiring kit provides a workable framework you can use to find, recruit, and ultimately hire the best candidate for Blockchain Engineer in your organization. From the Hiring kit INTRODUCTION Moving well-beyond its cryptocurrency …
This policy provides guidelines for secure and effective cloud computing operations to ensure the integrity and privacy of company-owned information. From the policy: The list of advantages to cloud computing includes lowered operational costs, greater technological flexibility, and the ability to rapidly implement new systems or services. Gains in business continuity are an especially noteworthy …

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Scribble eSign offers a cost-effective alternative to remote signing for BuildTopia users and their customers.
TORONTO, Nov. 30, 2022 /CNW/ — Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, North America’s largest provider of home building software solutions, today announced the launch of Scribble, a new electronic signing solution that supports eSigning of digital documents and contracts, designed specifically for homebuilders. Scribble offers builders on the BuildTopia construction management software platform a streamlined signing workflow, including multiple signers and documents, secured signing sessions and secured document storage.
“Builders are looking for cost effective and reliable e-sign alternatives that easily integrate into their existing construction management solution, while securely and efficiently collecting and managing eSignatures,” said Sean Wilhelm, vice president of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.
“Despite homebuyers demanding a more digital homebuying experience, we’re still seeing frustration among builders who are trying to make technology decisions based on a myriad of eSign solutions that claim efficiency improvements, but in reality, lack simplicity and pricing transparency” continued Wilhelm. “Scribble delivers all the mainstream workflow automations, security and compliance features that builders are looking for, but at a more cost-effective price point.”
Scribble offers flexibility for builders to scale their operations with electronic signatures. Learn more about Scribble for eSignatures, forms, workflows, and learn about its detailed integration with BuildTopia, click here.
About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the largest provider of software and services in the building industry. Their innovative software solutions, available as standalone or integrated systems, empower builders with information to drive business objectives and simplify the process of building homes and condos. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the home building software division of Constellation Software Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and services for specialized industries, which is traded publicly on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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How to always open files in desktop apps with Microsoft 365
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Learn how to use a Microsoft 365 setting that lets you determine whether to work in an online or desktop environment for each file.
By default, Microsoft 365 saves a file in the environment you used to open it and opens the file in the environment you last saved it. It doesn’t take much switching back and forth to find yourself in Word for the web, when you thought you were working in the desktop app. If you prefer to work with desktop apps, even when working from your online Office account or Edge’s new Office 365 dashboard, you can force the issue with a simple setting.
SEE: Windows, Linux, and Mac commands everyone needs to know (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to determine which environment you’re in at any given time. Then, I’ll present a quick way to force Office 365 to always open a file in the desktop environment, regardless of where you open it or save it.
I’m using Office 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system. I’m using Word, but this behavior also applies to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
If you open a file while working online, you might find it difficult to tell whether you’re working online or in a desktop app; fortunately, it’s quite easy to discover which environment is active. To do so, click the File tab and then click Info. The document shown in Figure A is open in Word for the web. If you click Open in Desktop App, Word will switch to the desktop version.
Figure A
The online apps are convenient. You can open a file quickly, make changes and save those changes in SharePoint or OneDrive automatically. Despite the convenience, if you need to use the desktop app, you can choose that environment from the online environment as follows.
Figure B
You must be working with a system that has Microsoft 365 installed to choose that option. Use this option when you’re unsure of the file’s default environment setting.
Microsoft 365 apps for the web are incredibly convenient, despite their limited functionality. Those limitations are the reason most users prefer to work in the full-featured desktop environment. Thanks to the easy-to-use Office online and Microsoft 365 dashboard in Edge, many of us are now working in one of those environments. That means it’s easy to open a file in the web app, and not even know it until you try to do something that the web app doesn’t support. It’s not a huge deal, but it is frustrating and totally unnecessary.
When you know you want to use a desktop app when working most of the time, you can force the issue with a simple setting. If you open the file online, Microsoft 365 will open it in the desktop by default, so you can skip the manual process without worry.
To set this default setting, follow these steps.
Figure C
Regardless of where you created or saved the file, once you enable this setting, Word will always open the file in the desktop environment if available.
To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft 365 doesn’t offer a setting for always defaulting to Word for the web; however, if you create the file online and never save it to the desktop app, Microsoft 365 will always open the file in Word for the web.
If you can’t make this setting stick, talk to your administrator. If the feature is available to your organization, an administrator can make it available to you.
This is a simple change, but sometimes it’s the little things that frustrate us the most when we’re busy. If you know that you want to use Word desktop most of the time, enable this setting and avoid a bit of unexpected frustration when working online.
Be your company’s Microsoft insider by reading these Windows and Office tips, tricks, and cheat sheets.
How to always open files in desktop apps with Microsoft 365
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Coursera offers a variety of training options for the growing data professional. Explore top data science courses from Coursera now.
Organize a number of different applicants using an ATS to cut down on the amount of unnecessary time spent finding the right candidate.
Whether you are a Microsoft Excel beginner or an advanced user, you’ll benefit from these step-by-step tutorials.
Password-driven security may not be the perfect solution, but the alternatives haven’t gained much traction. This policy defines best practices that will make password protection as strong and manageable as possible. From the policy: Employee passwords are the first line of defense in securing the organization from inappropriate or malicious access to data and services. …
Recruiting candidates with advanced software engineering experience and a least some familiarity with applied blockchain technology will take time and effort. This hiring kit provides a workable framework you can use to find, recruit, and ultimately hire the best candidate for Blockchain Engineer in your organization. From the Hiring kit INTRODUCTION Moving well-beyond its cryptocurrency …
This policy provides guidelines for secure and effective cloud computing operations to ensure the integrity and privacy of company-owned information. From the policy: The list of advantages to cloud computing includes lowered operational costs, greater technological flexibility, and the ability to rapidly implement new systems or services. Gains in business continuity are an especially noteworthy …
For SMBs, hiring a service to handle payroll calculation, processing and documentation can save valuable time and resources. This comparison chart with sample information provides a framework for comparing potential services. More on choosing a service: Payroll services The are several basic payroll services that all vendors should offer regardless of cost or additional services …

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Kenya is faced with a triple burden of malnutrition which is multi-faceted with health and socio-economic implications. Huge geographical disparities exist, especially, in the arid and semi-arid lands exacerbated by inadequate resource allocation to the nutrition sector and challenges in multi-sectoral coordination and nutrition governance. UNICEF’s Maternal and Child Nutrition Programme is a four-year (2018–2022) resilience-building, multi-sectoral program focused on pregnant and lactating women, mothers of children under five years and children under five years. The objective of the mid-term evaluation was to establish the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the programme.
The field evaluation conducted between June and July 2021, adopted a concurrent mixed-methods approach, where qualitative information was gathered through 29 key informant interviews and 18 focus group discussions (6 FGDs per population group; women of reproductive age, adolescent girls and men). Quantitatively, data were obtained through desk review of secondary data from programme reports, budgets, and project outputs where descriptive analysis was undertaken using Excel software. Qualitative information was organized using Nvivo software and analyzed thematically.
The findings provide evidence of the relevance of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Programme II to the nutrition situation in Kenya and its alignment with the Government of Kenya and donor priorities. Most planned programme targets were achieved despite operating in a COVID-19 pandemic environment. The use of innovative approaches such as family mid-upper arm circumference, integrated management of acute malnutrition surge model, Malezi bora and Logistic Management Information Management System contributed to the realization of effective outputs and outcomes. Stringent financial management strategies contributed toward programme efficiencies; however, optimal utilization of the resources needs further strengthening. The programme adopted strategies for strengthening local capacity and promoting ownership and long-term sustainability.
The programme is on track across the four evaluation criteria. However, a few suggestions are recommended to improve relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. A formal transition strategy needs to be developed in consultation with multi-stakeholder groups and implemented in phases. UNICEF Nutrition section should explore a more integrated  programming mode of delivery through joint initiatives with other agencies under the Delivery as One UN agenda, along the more gender transformative approaches with more systematic involvement of males and females in gender-based discussions.
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As much there has been a 40% reduction in stunting among children under 5 years [1], according to the Global Nutrition Report of 2021, malnutrition persists in the under-fives. Close to 150 million are stunted, 45.4 million are wasted and 38.9 million are overweight [2, 1] Despite progress showing that 27% of 194 countries are on track to meet stunting goals, the world is off track to meeting five out of six global Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) targets; stunting, wasting, low birth weight, anaemia, and childhood overweight [2].
Kenya is classified as a low-middle-income country (LMIC) with a population of 47.5 M (males: 23.5 M; females: 24 M) with an under-five population of about 6 M (KNBS, 2019). In 2020, Kenya was on course to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for stunting, wasting, underweight and exclusive breastfeeding [3]. The stunting level reduced from 35.3% in 2008–2009 to 26% in 2014, while underweight and wasting prevalence reduced from 16.1% and 7% to 11% and 4%, respectively [4]. The policy environment in Kenya is aligned to achieve the SDGs. For instance, the current Medium-Term Plan [5] has mainstreamed the SDGs. Further, mainstreaming of SDGs in performance contracting, actions plans and sub-national County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs), 2018 -2022, positioning Kenya to better implement the SDGs. The Government prioritized the “Big 4 Agenda” focusing on Food and Nutrition Security that accelerates SDG 2. Multi-stakeholder engagement forums such as Parliamentary Caucus on SDGs and Business, Kenya Private Sector Alliance and Council of Governors for the sub-national governments through the devolved government system that oversee the implementation and progress of SDGs as the conceptualization and implementation of interventions will be targeted to the local needs and constraints such as agro-ecological, socio-economic, and political variations. Kenya’s Beyond Zero campaign, aimed at eliminating all preventable maternal and child deaths by 2023 is also a key step towards achieving SDG 3 (good health and well-being including maternal and child health). Despite this progress, Kenya is still facing the triple burden of malnutrition characterized by the coexistence of undernutrition as manifested by wasting, underweight and stunting; micronutrient deficiencies; and overweight and obesity including diet-related noncommunicable diseases.
The Cost of Hunger study in 2019 estimates Kenya lost 6.9% of its Gross Domestic Product due to undernutrition [6]. Huge geographic disparities especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) regions exist and are associated with the inequitable allocation of resources, chronic poverty, and cyclical emergencies. As a result of these repeated crises and limited capacities to absorb shocks, children in the ASAL areas experience multiple deprivations of their rights to health, adequate food and nutrition, and safe water amongst others—and remain disadvantaged compared to the rest of Kenya. Stunting prevalence remains very high (above 30%) in West Pokot, Kitui, Kilifi, Narok, Samburu, Mandera, Uasin Gishu, Bomet and Tharaka Nithi [4, 7].
Women’s micronutrient status and dietary diversity in the ASAL areas are poorer as compared to other regions in Kenya, and this situation has had minimal changes in the last two decades [8] Since the total government budget allocation to health increased from 7% in the financial year (FY) 2017/18 to 9.2% in FY 2018/19 [9], a gradual progression towards the Abuja Declaration target of 15% for Kenya, the nutrition sector stands to benefit from the devolution.
Despite such progress in the overall health sector funding, the nutrition sector remains grossly underfunded. Counties’ expenditure on nutrition is about 0.8% of the total county budgets which is inadequate for the nutrition sector needs in the counties.
The Maternal and Child Nutrition Program (MCNP II) is a resilience-building, multi-sectoral program focused on pregnant and lactating women, mothers of children under five years and children under five years. The first phase of the program i.e., MCNP I was introduced in the year 2014 to 2018. Based on the key learnings from the first phase, the MNCP II was launched in July 2018.
The focus of MCNP II is for UNICEF to provide technical and financial support to the most marginalized and vulnerable areas through various ministries and government departments to ensure that: 1) communities adopt healthy infant and young child feeding behaviours and practices, as well as the demand and utilize quality nutrition services; 2) communities are provided with quality integrated nutrition services; 3) the capacity of national and county governments, and other service providers are improved, and commitment strengthened, to deliver quality integrated services; and 4) government and non-government partners adopt risk-informed integrated approaches to emergency preparedness, planning, and response to humanitarian needs [10].
This midterm evaluation was undertaken after two years of MCNP II implementation and aimed to evaluate the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of MCNP II based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation – Development Assistance Committee/United Nations Evaluation Group [10] criteria. The evaluation also identified key successes and lessons learned and covered aspects of gender, human rights, and equity sensitivity of the program.
The evaluation was executed using a non-experimental concurrent mixed method approach. The quantitative data on key indicators from the programme’s result framework were collected through a desk review of programme reports and relevant documents detailed under the data collection section.
Further, The Theory of Change Additional file 1: Annex 1 was used as a guide for the logical relationships between strategies, activities, and the results chain. Before the evaluation, a comprehensive review of processes and approaches was undertaken to understand the strengths and gaps in programme implementation and complement the evaluation findings.
The [10] evaluation matrix used included key evaluation questions, sub-questions (probes), primary and secondary key indicators and data sources.
A comprehensive mapping of the relevant stakeholders was done to understand their role in the program. Following this, purposive sampling was used to identify stakeholder groups and key informants, involved in the program implementation. Key stakeholder groups included government ministries and departments (Ministry of Health (MOH), Division of Nutrition and Dietetics (DND), Ministries of Education, Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Labour and Social Protection, Treasury and Planning); implementing partners, County Departments of Health, donor agencies and private sector organizations; UNICEF representatives including decision-makers involved in program planning and design and field teams including zonal officers and nutrition support officers (NSOs); and the communities in which the program was implemented.
Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to identify counties, sub-counties, and recruitment of participants for the beneficiary field study.
Three counties—Kitui, Isiolo and Turkana (Fig. 1), were purposively selected from 13 program counties based on the intensity of MCNP II, levels of malnutrition, UNICEFs investment, livelihood cluster, UNICEFs field presence, partner presence, access and characteristic of the region—arid or semi-arid.
Selection of counties and sub-counties
Mapping of sub-counties in each of the three selected counties was conducted using Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data. The selection of sub-counties was based on the intensity of MCNP II and performance of Integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) program indicators and Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) coverage. Based on these criteria, Kitui Central (Kitui), Isiolo sub-county (Isiolo) and Turkana Central (Turkana) were selected based on poor programme performance while Mwingi West (Kitui), Garbatulla (Isiolo) and Turkana South(Turkana) (Fig. 1) were selected based on better performance.
In each sub-county, key community groups were recruited based on their influence on nutrition and health-seeking behaviour. They included—Community health volunteers (CHVs); Community health extension workers (CHEWs); Community leaders; Mothers of children below 5 years of age; Pregnant and lactating women; Adolescent girls and Fathers/Males/Household influencers. The sample size was determined based on an assumption that saturation of information will be achieved through this sample size. The sample for qualitative design is based on the premix of saturation.
Training the teams on data collection tools and evaluation matrix was conducted in two phases:
Phase 1: A two-day training for the evaluation team including qualitative researchers and note-takers to undertake key informant interviews with the stakeholder groups and Phase 2, one-day training for the beneficiary field study. In both phased training, a team of six were trained on evaluation tools, probing techniques, evaluation questions for key informants in the community and how to conduct focus group discussions with the beneficiaries, ethical considerations, field-level practicalities, probing techniques and note-taking. UNICEF team and members from the Expert Review Group constituted by the MoH also participated in phase 1 training as observers. the tools were pre-tested with different participants, not part of the study. In both pieces of training, debriefing sessions to discuss the flow of questions, challenges in eliciting responses and probing were undertaken. The training were conducted at the IQVIA Nairobi Office.
A comprehensive desk review of key MCNP II programme documents was conducted to understand the project context, key approaches and the results achieved by the programme. The document included programme-level data sets on nutrition indicators, LMIS, nutrition action plans and budgets, MCNP II progress reports and briefs.
Through field visits, primary data using semi-structured interview/discussion guides, across two phases, to capture insights from both demand and supply sides were collected. Qualitatively, a total of 167 participants (55 males and 112 females) were interviewed. At the policy and program implementation and oversight level, the study conducted online 29 in-depth interviews through Microsoft Teams with the key informants from the selected key stakeholder groups.
At the community level, 18 face-to-face FGDs (6 per county) were conducted with beneficiaries of the program who included women of reproductive age, adolescent mothers and other decision-makers in the family (including men) at convenient levels majorly health facilities Eighteen (18). In-depth interviews with the key informants from the community including community leaders, health workers and community health volunteers (CHVs). were conducted. At the community level, tools translated into Swahili were used. Each KII lasted between 45 -60 min while the FGDs lasted between one and half hours to two hours.
All interviews were audio recorded and notes were taken to capture insights. The interviews were sufficient, and saturation was achieved.
COVID-19 public health guidelines were observed as provided for by SMART Interim guidance on restarting population-surveys and household level data collection in humanitarian situations during the Covid-19 pandemic” [9].
All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Where necessary, the translations were undertaken. Stringent quality assurance mechanisms were followed to ensure the quality of data and transcripts. The qualitative data were organized, and the Inductive method was used to code and generate themes and sub-themes using NVIVO software. Quantitative data from the secondary datasets was analyzed using EXCEL. Insights were generated for comparative and trend analysis of results and program indicators. Quantitatively the review assessed the changes between the midpoint and endpoint. Analysed budget allocation versus utilization for both UNICEF funding and implementing partners’ contributions.
Through key informant interviews with the programme implementers and in consultation with the MCNP II programme documents and reports, the Program activities included upstream support to key stakeholders to provide a positive enabling environment through advocacy, evidence generation, policy support, and resource leveraging. The programme supported the establishment of multi-sectoral platforms creating an environment for coordinated collaboration across the sectors of health, education, WASH, social protection, implementing partners, and the private sector. Besides governance, the programme further supported joint evidence-based planning and budgeting, service delivery monitoring and evaluation, policy change where appropriate, and emergency preparedness and response.
Through C4D, the significant role of men in balancing gender inequalities were ensured by the inclusion of men in the C4D strategies. The father-to-father support groups were formed to facilitate positive behavioural change in feeding practices and to champion the importance to seek services in health facilities. Based on positive findings of the SanNut study in the previous country programme where collaborations with the WASH sector to scale up and strengthen nutrition messaging and counselling in the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme were scaled up under MCNP II.
The MCNP II integrated nutrition counselling into cash transfer programmes at scale to promote nutrition-centric responsive safety nets. Building upon the findings of studies conducted in the previous country programme of 2018, the programme explored and advocated for enhanced linkages with agencies focusing on agriculture and livestock regarding food production and increased access to availability and sustainability of appropriate nutritious local foods for young children throughout the year to ensure household resilience and value addition for sustained access to milk for young children throughout the year.
Community-level nutrition service delivery through the Community Health Strategy (CHS), including the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI), integrated packages of services for children and women of reproductive age, focusing on health, nutrition, WASH, and HIV services were scaled up to ensure that the pathway between improved awareness and enhanced health-seeking behaviour were not hindered by limited access to services.
Maternal and Child Nutrition Programme II is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2018–2022 [11], the programme evaluation was undertaken in line with the Organization for Economic Cooperation – Development Assistance Committee/United Nations Evaluation Group [10] criteria. The findings are presented under the four evaluation criteria – relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability (REES).
Interactive discussions with stakeholders confirmed that MCNP II was relevant and aligned to the nutrition situation in Kenya; the government and UNICEF priorities, UNICEF global and regional strategies, and considered gender, equity, human and child rights perspectives.
MCNP II program design was based on a comprehensive analysis of the nutrition situation in Kenya. An analysis of the Kenya nutrition situation identified demand, supply, enabling environment and emergencies as key bottlenecks and barriers to achieving optimal nutrition for children under five and women. This informed the choice of interventions and programme focus counties for MNCP II. The ASAL counties which are prone to high levels of acute malnutrition among children under five years of age were prioritized. Further, the identified bottlenecks informed the program theory of change and alignment of program strategies to achieve the desired results.
The MCNP II result framework was found to be aligned with key Government and Ministry of Health policies including Vision 2030, Medium-Term Plan (MTP) [5], the Kenya Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan (KHSSIP) 2014–2018 [12], Big 4 agenda [13], Food and Nutrition Security Policy (FNSP) [14] and Kenya Nutrition Action Plan (KNAP) [15]. The Programme is aligned to the social pillar of Vision 2030 on social protection, strengthening the supply chain through the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) and scaling up community strategy for nutrition. Importantly the program focus on the reduction of maternal and child mortality, an objective of MTP III. While under the KHSSIP, the programme supports the objectives of reduction of mortality, the burden of malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, among others. Further, the program is coherent with almost all the key result areas of the KNAP.
MCNP II was aligned with the UNICEF’s Global Nutrition Strategy (2020–2030) [16] strategy that focuses on maternal and child nutrition targeting to reduce stunting [11] and builds on the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018–2021, and the 2016 Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Kenya. Although the program is largely aligned to these strategies, there are some areas beyond the program coverage, for instance, the burden of overnutrition and obesity; and the adoption of a lifecycle approach covering middle age childhood and elderly.
Donors reported their satisfaction as the programme’s strategic priorities were aligned to their priority focus areas such as systems strengthening and cross-sectoral integration, risk-informed programming and resilience building for nutrition emergencies as well as prioritization of ASAL counties for nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programming.
All 13 target counties implemented community feedback mechanisms, including community dialogues, feedback boxes in health facilities, and other feedback processes to inform program improvements. A reconnaissance with community discussions showed that community members acknowledged the feedback mechanism and community involvement in the programme and made efforts towards gender mainstreaming, citing increased male involvement and father support groups that had been established were effective in garnering spousal support to use health services as detailed in the quotes below.
“They talk about pregnant mothers, children under five, and old age. Then as to whether such a facility is stocked with medicines or not, the community themselves sit down and get involved so they can find out. When my wife is pregnant, I take her to the clinic, she gives birth at the maternity clinic, a month later. If she is sick, I will take her to the hospital, they will bring her back to good health.” – FGD Participant (Male)
“Exactly. Mother-to-mother support. They meet to exchange ideas and support each other. At the end of the day mothers in the mother-to-mother support group are better off compared with those tucked up in the villages. Something else I want to say as a chief of this community is that this community is very vulnerable, and it is facing a lot of challenges. Despite the availability of a hospital, not everyone can get to the hospital and the available CHVs cannot manage to reach to help in every household.” – Community Leader
Were found to be relevant aligned to the gender equality and human rights policies including session paper No 2 0f 2019 on National Policy on Gender and Development [17] under the Kenya Vision 2030 [18], Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC), [19, 20]. Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) [21] as well as human rights of persons with disabilities. Key informants noted that the sex and age disaggregated data is being collected in the Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) survey. Similarly, gender roles and maternal workload were captured through qualitative ‘Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior, Practice’ (KABP) surveys creating the opportunity for gender sensitization on the reduction of maternal workload to enhance nutrition outcomes in the communities. However, a systematic approach needs to be adopted to include women in programme design and conduct gender-based discussions [22, 23, 17,18,19,20,21].
Effectiveness relates to the utilization of resources to achieve the intended results. For the MCNP programme the effectiveness was identified on MCNP programme approaches used, advocacy, and value for money for cost-effectiveness. Table 1 provides a comparative analysis between the planned and achieved targets for the 13 focus ASAL counties except for admissions of children with SAM in 2020 and the proportion of facilities that offered SAM services in 2018 and 2020. In 2020, the sector had a SAM target expectation of 88,451 admissions, However, a lower target of 63,443 SAM admissions was achieved through MCNP II.
In 2018, 5 out of 13 counties were implementing plans to improve dietary diversity in children. However, in 2019 and 2020, the planned results were achieved for all 13 counties. In 2018, 7 counties had the existence of a functional national multisectoral committee for nutrition, however, this number rose to 10 counties in 2019 and in 2020, 12 out of 13 counties achieved this result. In 2019 and 2020, all 13 counties have had an existence of emergency preparedness plan for nutrition.
The effectiveness of the programme was associated with the service delivery approaches and innovations, use of technology and tools and alignment to government priorities as key enablers that facilitated the achievement of planned results., Malezi Bora, the child health week was used as an opportunity to reach beneficiaries for health and nutrition services including vitamin A supplementation; the family Mid-arm upper circumference (Family MUAC) for screening of malnutrition at home and self-referrals, integrated Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (ICMAM) are the service delivery models and innovations under the program. Similarly, the use of technology facilitated efficient supply chain management and improved tracking of budget expenditure. The introduction of the Logistic Management Information System (LMIS) to manage the supply chain of essential nutrition commodities contributed to achievements in zero RUTF stock-out rates in the 13 target counties; the Nutrition Financial Tracking Tool (NFTT) was critical for adequate budget allocation and tracking expenditure for nutrition sector and Rapid Pro SMS platform was leveraged for outreach and social behaviour change communication activities.
Key informants also noted that MCNP II established community peer support groups for cascading nutrition knowledge from health workers to the community. CHVs were instrumental in nutrition counselling, supporting community-facility referrals and providing support at the health facilities. Data from the focus group discussions indicated that community members perceived the provision of micronutrient supplements and nutrition counselling effective in improving service delivery. These thoughts are elaborated in the following quotes:
“…But after sensitization, the targeted mothers now know that they need to breastfeed a child for 6 months, and then introduce other foods. Also, they were not buying fruits for children, they would only give ugali with potato soup, in the morning, for lunch and dinner times. But nowadays they give fruits—the local fruits, what is available here” – HCW.
“….the community members are no longer afraid to seek medical attention, they do not fear bringing children, they have really changed” – Community Leader.
“The community members air their problems through CHVs or Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs); the TBA will bring their issues to the hospital and take the feedback to the community. Then the CHV will talk to the CHEW, who will talk to the In-charge. Then he will give the information to the CHEW, then disseminate it to the CHV then she takes it to the households.” – FGD Participant [24].
The programme fairly fulfilled its role to advocate for women and child nutrition rights through upstream advocacy. Advocacy led to the inclusion of more nutrition activities in county annual work plans and county integrated development plans (CIDPs) for all 13 counties. MCNP II led to the development of women and children-sensitive policies and frameworks. Advocacy efforts led to securing nutrition-specific funding in the programme-based budgets (PBB). The counties of Kilifi, Wajir, Turkana, Baringo, and Samburu, now receive nutrition-specific budgets under the PBB. Further, the programme contributed to the development of terms of references (ToRs) for the multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs), critical for cross-sectoral advocacy at the sub-national level and coordination with the national level. MSPs were functional in 12 counties, except in Kitui.
Cost-minimization approaches under the programme included Training of the trainers (ToT) trainers who then cascaded the learnings to the sub-counties, reducing the cost for training all sub-county and facility level staff. On-the-Job Trainings (OJT) enabled the programme to directly reach out to the trainees (healthcare workers/facility staff) while reducing logistical costs for training. Integration of nutrition in health outreaches also emerged as a key approach to reducing costs for vertical service delivery.
To reduce the operational and overhead costs, the Value for Money (VfM) policy was leveraged under the Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) arrangements with the implementing partners. Before the introduction of the Value for Money (VfM) policy, implementing partners were supporting costs at about 25% of the program costs; however, with the introduction of VFM, IPs’ contribution increased. Similarly, the cost of doing business with implementing partners is reduced. Notably, UNICEF’s contribution to overhead costs was reduced, by about 12–23%. Out of the 15 implementing partners contracted from September 2018, 5 partners contributed more than 25% to the direct program costs and 10 partners contributed at least 15%, as recommended by UNICEF. To achieve value for money, implementing partner overhead ratio should be below 25%. Thus, overall, the value for money and cost-effectiveness of program implementation was moderately achieved, by the time of mid-term evaluation.
Efficiency was associated with the demand and supply of nutrition commodities and supplies, stringent financial management strategies, partnership modalities and cross-sectoral integration.
Table 2 presents a comparative analysis of expenditure ratio, the amount of budget utilized in proportion to the allocated budget. The ideal expenditure ratio should be 100%. For the MCNP II, on one hand, the expenditure ratio was over 100% for the years 2018 and 2019 while on the other hand, it was about 70% for the year 2020.
The utilization of the allocated budget for demand outputs was consistently lower from 2018 to 2020, The supply outputs on the hand, the expenditure was higher than the allocated budget in the first two years of the programme (2018 and 2019) while in 2020, about 0.4% of the total budget was utilized for the supply related programme activities. This was attributed to the reduced funding following the seizure of FCDO’s support in June 2020, and the redirection of funds towards the COVID-19 response. In the first year of the programme’s inception (2018), the expenditure toward output 3 was higher than the allocated budget due to increased efforts toward creating an enabling environment. However, in both 2019 and 2020, the budget was underutilized. unlike output 3, the risk-informed programming budget was underutilized with only about 3% used in the first year of MCNP II inception. However, an improvement was noted in the subsequent years where a higher expenditure in 2019 than the allocated budget was observed. This was attributed to the programme adjustments and shifting priorities during the 2019 drought and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Table 3 highlights the planned v/s actual distribution of RUTF under MCNP II. The higher than planned distribution of RUTF supplies for the years 2018 and 2019, were attributed to the evolving demands and nutrition needs of the counties during the programme implementation. Situations like droughts, floods and other nutrition emergencies lead to worsening nutrition situations and increased requirements for RUTF. However, distribution was reduced in, 2020 due to COVID-19.
As shown in Table 4, in 2018, the counties of Baringo, Wajir, West Pokot, Garissa, Marsabit, Kitui, Kilifi, Kwale, Mandera, Tana River and Turkana, distributed more RUTF than the planned threshold of 100%. While in 2019 counties of Kilifi and Tana River. In 2020, Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa, had less than 50% RUTF distributed.
The Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) approach supported risk management with a focus on reducing transaction costs associated with programme implementation by harmonizing procedures as well as promoting reporting on funds that were disbursed. The funding requests were managed through Funding Authorization and Certificate of Expenditure (FACE), which required authorization from the programme managers before funding allocations. MCNP II adopted appropriate financial management procedures and approaches that collectively contributed toward bringing cost savings and efficiencies.
The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) a partnership modality for engaging with other UN entities provided infrastructure, procurement and project management services for UNICEF to implement program activities and achieve results. Nutrition Support Officers (NSOs) were recruited through UNOPS financially and technically supported by UNICEF. NSOs were embedded in selected ASAL counties for the provision and scale-up of nutrition services, working closely with the GoK County Nutrition Coordinators (CNCs). Quantitative data revealed that engaging NSOs helped UNOPS to reduce its budget from US$4,578,433 to US$3,585,516 translating into savings of US$992,917 while achieving the same results. Importantly, the government contributed towards the programme costs through matching of funds. A total of $250 k (KES 26 M) was obtained from the Government of Kenya. The Counties of Garissa, Marsabit, Turkana, Wajir and West Pokot contributed finances for nutrition SMART surveys in 2018 and 2019. However, there is a need to enhance private sector involvement in programme planning and monitoring and evaluation. For instance, the partnership with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) on the ‘Building Business Practices for Children’ Partnership, a tripartite partnership between the county government, Unilever and UNICEF to scale Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) models across industries is one of the key examples of private sector involvement to improve quality, coordination and efficiency.
The four thematic/result areas of demand, supply, enabling environment and risk-informed/shock responsive programming focus of MCNP II, have provided opportunities for integration and cross-sectoral programming with health, WASH, livestock and agriculture, education, child protection and social protection sectors as outlined in Table 5. The project bolstered the existing community sanitation initiative with a set of nutrition behaviour-change messages targeted at caregivers of young children. Evaluation of the project found that it improved families’ sanitation practices and nutrition knowledge [23] without adversely affecting other sanitation components, UNICEF scaled the integrated sanitation and nutrition programme to the second county in Kenya, West Pokot. In addition, implementation of the combined programme helped to reduce implementation costs and scale up at a more accelerated pace.
As part of REES, Sustainability assessed to what extent the achievements that had been made over the first half of the programme were likely to continue even when UNICEF support for key programme areas gradually reduced. The programme review provided an insight into decentralization of processes and services, the policy environment for nutrition for children, development and integration of plans and nutrition activities at the county level and system strengthening including capacity building of national and county staff with risk programming and disaster reduction approaches.
The decentralization of processes and services to counties through the new constitution 2010, governance structure in the year 2013/2014, saw health functions devolved to the county governments. To ensure the sustainability of the provision of nutrition services at national and county levels, the MCNP II programme supported the following initiatives.
Through capacity building, UNICEF trained national and county-level staff on Nutrition Financial Tracking Tool(NFTT) to address limited capacities to formulate budgets and financial plans and to improve skills in budget analysis, track expenditures and develop county budget briefs for advocacy and resource mobilization. Additionally, GOK personnel at the two levels of government were trained in the Logistic Information Management System (LMIS) for nutrition commodities to impart them with requisite knowledge and skills to forecast, request and monitor consumption of nutrition commodities at county-level. Under MCNP II, 10 out of 13 counties in ASAL regions were supported with capacity assessment and nutrition financial tracking respectively.
The programme further supported the development of plans including the National Nutrition Action Plan and County-specific Nutrition Action Plans to provide roadmaps for implementation of both nutrition-specific and sensitive interventions at the national and county-level respectively. All the ASAL counties developed county-specific nutrition action plans anchored on the national action plan. County-level leadership were engaged in the development of child-friendly legislation including Community Health Services Bills.
The Programme supported the development of the Nutrition Programme Maturity Analysis (NPMA) model that enabled the definition and measurement of the level of nutrition programme maturity across the 13 target counties implementing MCNPII. Assessment of system readiness using the NPMA model showed great improvements across the 13 counties between 2018 and 2020. These assessments checked counties’ readiness and self-sufficiency to gradually take up, finance and implement nutrition programmes using domestic financing. Based on the assessment, significant improvements were observed between 2018 and 2020 across each of the MCNP II counties, showing that most of the counties were on a journey to optimize programme maturity aimed at ensuring increased transition to county-led programme implementation integrated programming and cross-sectoral linkages were enhanced through support to establish or strengthen existing multisectoral technical County Nutrition Technical Forums along with the TORs in 9 out of 13 focus ASAL counties). However, the functionality of these forums largely depended on donor funding, hence there is a need for more domestic financing to ensure their sustainability beyond the MCNP II.
“UNICEF has been one of our greatest supporters in terms of running the structures in nutrition, especially the convening of nutrition inter-agency coordinating meetings which are cross-sectoral. Also, the nutrition technical forum. Therefore, these are the platforms where the interventions followed by other sectors are brought to the fore. And, we have even been able to strengthen one in agriculture called food and nutrition linkage technical working group which is also now bringing together the nutrition-sensitive players in the food security and nutrition arena”-Respondent, MoH DND.
Despite these initiatives, there are challenges such as sectoral mandates and competing priorities that hamper adequate funding allocation and implementation of nutrition interventions in the sectors. These sectoral challenges have implications for the MCNP II [23].
The programme engaged national and county governments to promote ownership of programme implementation and outcomes by adopting the direct implementation modality (where the Government entity as opposed to Civil Society Organizations and non-government organizations implement components of the programme directly through PCAs. The use of community peer support groups played a crucial role in strengthening and empowering community capacities through increased knowledge around nutrition and activities such as kitchen gardens for sustainability. However, the community also noted that it is important to develop community resource persons to sustain knowledge at the community level.
“…. of these groups up to now even without the support, they are continuing with support from the link facilities. So, some of the interventions are still there, they are sustainable– the mothers there are supporting one another. And the level of awareness I feel and I think though is improving. I have not done an assessment, but you know, you can tell – you are living in this community, I can say that our mothers with the different interventions which have been done geared towards nutrition, there is some level of improvement in terms of knowledge” – Respondent, CHV.
Notably, to ensure the sustainability of risk-informed programming and disaster risk reduction approaches, the MCNPII programme supported the development of child-sensitive bi-annual emergency preparedness response plans driven by robust information and surveillance systems at the national and county level.
MCNP II aligned its approaches and contributed to EDE in the ASALs and the Ending Drought Emergencies Country Programme Framework (EDE-CPF) pillars, particularly the Human Capital Pillar, where nutrition and health facilitated GoK’s commitment to end drought emergencies.
In addition, the programme supported the integration of essential nutrition commodities including ready-to-use therapeutic feeds (RUTF) into the GOK supply chain management system as well as scaled-up innovative approaches such as IMAM surge. Currently, 63% of the health facilities are implementing the IMAM surge model. Through MCNP II, the capacity of GoK personnel was strengthened to conduct a bi-annual food security assessment.
Under the MCNP II, UNICEF supported the MOH to develop a business continuity plan for nutrition services within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and nutrition surveillance and information guidelines.
“Yes, the government through the ministry of livestock, through the ministry of registration, the office of internal security usually warns us about floods, so that we can move because we will get problems.” – Community Leader.
However, some challenges were noted that may affect the sustainability of the implementation of risk-informed programming and DRR approaches. These included: (1) weak multi-sectoral coordination system (2) inadequate adoption of EDE by other line ministries and stakeholders (3) inadequate mainstreaming of EDE into county integrated development plans (4) inadequate financing of innovative approaches for risk-informed programming such as IMAM surge that limited the scope and scale of coverage.
UNICEF used a two-pronged approach in resource mobilization through internal and external mechanisms. The key donors for the MCNP II included USAID and UKAID-DFID/FCDO, EU, ECHO, and World Bank. UNICEF has over the last few years successfully implemented multi-year grants which offer flexibility in terms of programming in nutrition.
Figure 2 gives an overview of the funding contribution by different donors and internal resource mobilization by UNICEF (2018–2020) [26].
Percentage contribution to funds by donors and UNICEF (Information Source: MCNP II database 2018–2020)
The inclusion of males and females in nutrition programming and initiatives such as community peer support groups is gender transformative and has a positive impact on nutrition outcomes that can be scaled up and applied to other nutrition programmes.
The influence on the policy landscape and national and county resource commitment and allocation to nutrition is highly dependent on sustained advocacy for the nutrition sector priorities and needs to be adequately supported for the achievement of intended outcomes.
Cross-sectoral programming such as multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan, multisectoral coordination and multisectoral interventions such as Nutrition Improvements through Health and Education have demonstrated synergies between sectors that have proven effectiveness and efficiency in programming.
Nutrition innovations and approaches such as family MUAC, IMAM surge model, NFTT and NPMA and adaptation strategies contributed to the realization of intended results and provide learnings for other programmes.
Integrated service delivery approaches and innovations such as Malezi Bora, Training of Trainers and On the Job Training are cost-effective for improving service delivery and access.
Leveraging on strategic partnerships with the local CSOs and enhancing community capacity through community peer support groups, use of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) and community feedback mechanisms were some of the other to enhance local capacity, ownership, and sustainability.
Direct implementation approaches as a health system strengthening strategy to reinforce county leadership, ownership and accountability should be emulated in programme sustainability.
The MCNP II program was identified as an important programme aligned with the Kenya nutrition situation and priorities and the relevant policy frameworks of the Government of Kenya. Although slightly different focus, the study by Masters et al. (2017) [27] to fill evidence gaps about the costs and impacts of nutrition-sensitive interventions relied on consultations for priority setting to ensure accuracy and relevance for policymaking, similar to the significance of MCNP II to the government [15, 11, 28, 19].
MCNP II was designed to address the geographic inequities, given its focus on the arid, semi-arid counties and urban informal settlements. Imwati and Harrison (2019) using secondary data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey [29] modelled various causal factors of malnutrition in ASAL areas of North Rift Kenya. The duo’s results indicated that geographical factors such as temperature, enhanced vegetation Index, Illiteracy and drinking water sources had an association with malnutrition whereas the highest association was between emperature and malnutrition. Therefore, the selection of ASAL for the MCNP II implementation where the programme objectives and plans and resource allocation were aligned to the specific county needs based on priority setting exercises was timely, thus, addressing the geographic inequities.
The strategic approaches of MCNP II were aligned to the gender equality and human rights policies and conventions community feedback mechanisms by males and females from vulnerable communities ensured community participation. Other studies have also highlighted the central role of gender in nutrition. A study by Muraya et al. [30] stated that gender dynamics is one of the key social determinants of maternal and children’s nutrition status and is a key contributory factor to poor nutrition [31]. According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), gender transformative approaches orient the need to move away from burdening women with the responsibility for equality and engage men and women together as agents of change [32]. MCNP II was uniquely positioned by involving both women and men in gender-based discussions. The involvement of fathers has been shown to improve relationships with wives and fathers can become more involved in sharing responsibilities with their wives despite going against traditional norms [33].
However, the programme can be further strengthened by adopting a more gender transformative approach. Further, the programme can enhance its coherence and relevance to these strategies by expanding its scope to areas such as non-communicable diseases and adopting a lifecycle approach to include middle age childhood.
MCNP II was effective across all the four planned output areas of supply, demand, enabling environment and emergencies. By mid of the programme, the planned targets had been achieved for all the MCNP II indicators, except, the number of admissions for severe acute malnutrition in the year 2020, which was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to reduced hospital visits [34].
The programme moderately achieved cost-effectiveness and value for money during the first half of the programme. A systematic review by Njuguna et al. [35] found that most costs of the nutrition programs were on personnel and therapeutic feeds. The engagement of community health workers was found to be cost-effective in the treatment of uncomplicated SAM. According to Wilfold (2017) [36] and Njuguna et al. [35], the integration of outpatient and inpatient care of undernourished children through the CMAM program is cost-effective [36]. MCNP II explored integrated programming through its cross-sectoral initiatives and diversified partnerships. This is supported by a study by Levin et al. [37] and Abdulahi et al. [38] highlighted that multi-sectoral nutrition programmes should explore integration into routine services for economies of scale to lower costs. Similarly, MCNP II made efforts toward health systems strengthening through integrated approaches at the community level.
Despite the stringent financial cash flow management and strong monitoring strategies being adopted the optimal utilization of resources was yet to be achieved by the midterm. Resource allocation was based on priority setting exercises and comprehensive situational analysis where MCNP II adopted partnership modalities that contributed towards enhancing programme efficiencies that led to improved efficiencies and cost savings.
The gains achieved in MCNP II have been sustained across two years for all programme results. The programme has contributed to the devolution process by influencing policy, budgeting, planning and monitoring and supporting capacity development. The NSO approach at the counties was instrumental towards the achievement of results for HiNi and critical to building the capacities of the county level staff, mobilising resources, engage with leadership at the county level to advocate and direct their focus on specific areas of nutrition and support multi-sectoral coordination,
The programme provided opportunities for integrated programming with health, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), livestock and agriculture, education, child protection and social protection sectors through the scale-up of NICHE and SanNut initiatives. Prior evidence from research suggests that combined interventions for improving nutrition and sanitation practices could reduce mortality among children under five years by 15% [22, 23]. The integration helped to reduce implementation costs and scale up the combined programme at a more accelerated pace.
To strengthen systems, MCNP II focused on building local capacities and enhancing local ownership. These findings agree with other similar systems strengthening projects aimed at improving the nutrition and health of pregnant women and newborns in Kenya. According to Kung’u et al. [39], key approaches for systems strengthening include building commitment, coherence, accountability, capacity, and leadership by community sensitization and early dialogue and engagement of political and community leaders as part of stakeholder dialogue and agreement on common results’ framework;
However, MCNP II lacks a formal transition strategy and hence, there is a need to develop one. While formulating the transition strategy, it will be imperative to undertake a phased approach to ensure that the process is gradual and progressive. According to FAO [40] several strategies are recommended to allow for programme transitions and ensure sustainability. There is a need to consider institutionalization of components of the programme into selected relevant sectoral activities. The nutrition activities must be included in the budgets and plans of nutrition-sensitive sectors. There is a need to assess programme resources and accordingly, plan for handover to the local governments through a consultative process including community participation to allow for institutionalization and ownership. The county government’s commitment and buy-in, especially for human resource development are crucial. Notably, Inadequate funding for emergency response due to challenges in mainstreaming the EDE has led to, delays in scaling up the IMAM surge.
Though MCNP II is made efforts to secure buy-ins from donors, there is a need to diversify partnerships. However, there is also an indication from the traditional UNICEF donors of declining support as a factor of COVID 19 impact. This calls for the need to rapidly enhance engagement with actors like the private sector to further diversify the funding basket. Similarly, there is recognition that as donor support declines, there should be a progressive increase in investment by the government. This informs the continued advocacy efforts with national and county governments to enhance public financing for nutrition.
The interviews with key stakeholders were conducted remotely on an online platform to minimize in-person contact as a measure to control the COVID-19 spread. Qualitative data collection on an online platform comes with limitations of rapport building with the participant and the inability to see the visual cues for probing. To mitigate these challenges, training was provided to the evaluation team including role plays for remote interviews. Underage mothers keep pregnancies in secrecy and rarely visit health facilities for fear of being ridiculed. Therefore, it was a challenge to mobilize the adolescents group for the interviews, especially where some were attending school. To mitigate this challenge, trusted community volunteers were engaged to mobilize the young mothers through their guardians. Communication with the adolescents was limited due to shyness/fear to speak despite having organized separate FGD sessions. This was mitigated through reassurance on confidentiality and the benefits of getting support. Security challenges forced a change on the selected counties replacing Merti sub-county with Garbatulla sub-county. The sub-counties were selected based on their performance on the key IMAM indicators. While Merti was a better performing sub-county than others, Garbatulla was average performing. These contextual differences in counties might have influenced the nature of the data collected and the subsequent analysis. Though the study adopted a mixed methods approach, there are certain limitations of this design such as challenges in comparison and integration of results from analysis of different data sources. Triangulation of data from multiple data sources was done to arrive at the findings.
To conclude, the programme is moving in the right direction for all four evaluation criteria of REES. The findings highlighted areas that have worked well for MCNP II and have potential implications for the overall nutrition sector and other programmes. Relevance and coherence to the community and other stakeholders’ needs and the alignment to the government priorities and existing structures are key enablers for programme success. Further, gender sensitivity is critical for nutrition programming including the involvement of males and community peer support groups. MCNP II demonstrated synergies between sectors for cross-sectoral and multi-sectoral initiatives and the cost-effectiveness of Integrated service delivery approaches and innovations. The direct implementation approach worked well in terms of enhancing the county leadership, ownership and accountability. Technical and donor agencies should move towards a more enabling role and promote local capacity development for programme success. There is a need to strengthen public–private partnerships to enhance results for children. The programme has also demonstrated a successful example of public–private partnerships through the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI). However, there are larger sectoral challenges and gaps in the programme that need mitigation. As MCNP II comes to an end, there is a need to develop a transition strategy through a consultative process with all relevant stakeholders including community participation. The transition strategy can focus on areas that have worked well. In collaboration with the counties, It will be beneficial to develop resource mobilization plans that explore opportunities for multi-year funding and emerging donors while encouraging the inclusion of critical nutrition costs in the national and county budgets. There are still gaps that UNICEF can support and provide technical assistance, such as capacity development, financial planning and nutrition governance and multi-sectoral coordination mechanisms including the need to operationalize the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) Council through sustained advocacy. Efforts should be made to achieve a more gender transformative role through systematic and sustained initiatives around gender sensitization and improving awareness that can translate into practices. There is also a need to strengthen UN guided approach of ‘Delivering as One’. The Nutrition section should  explore more inter-agency collaboration opportunities for improved nutrition outcomes and peer-to-peer learning from other UNICEF-supported programmes in Kenya.
The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the nature of the data that contains audio recordings and the programme is still under implementation but is available from UNICEF on reasonable request. The request for data can be requested from the Chief of Nutrition, Kenya Office through email to co-author Lucy Maina-Gathigi at lmaina@unicef.org.
African Medical and Research Foundation
Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative
Community-Led Total Sanitation
County Nutrition Coordinators
Community Health Extension Workers
Convention on the Right of the Child
Community Health Volunteers
Civil Society Organization
County Integrated Development Plans
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Community Health Strategy
Communication for Development
Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women
Division of Nutrition and Dietetics
Ending Drought Emergencies
European Union
European Union, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Operations
Ending Drought Emergencies Country Programme Framework
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Focus Group Discussions
Funding Authorization and Certificate of Expenditure
Food and Nutrition Security Policy
Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers
Healthcare Worker
High Impact Nutrition Interventions
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Integrated Community Management of Acute Malnutrition
Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition
Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior, Practice
Kenya Medical Supplies Agency
Kenya Private Sector Alliance
Kenya Health Sector Strategic and Investment Plan
Kenya Nutrition Action Plan
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics
Logistic Information Management System
Low and Middle Income Countries
Maternal Child Nutrition Programme
Maternal infant Young Children’s Nutrition
Ministry of Health
Multi-Stakeholder Platforms
Medium-Term Plan
Mid-Upper Arm Circumference
National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation
Nutrition Financial Tracking Tool
Nutrition improvements through Cash and Health Education
Nutrition Programme Maturity Analysis
Nutrition Support Officers
Nutrition Technical Forum
On-the-Job Trainings
Programme-based budgets
Programme Cooperation Agreement
Relevance, Efficiency, effectiveness, and Sustainability
Ready to Use Therapeutic Feeds
Sanitation and Nutrition programme
Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Severe Acute Malnutrition
Sustainable Development Goals
Trainer of Trainers
Terms of Reference
Traditional Birth Attendant
United Nations Childrens Fund
United Nations
United Nations Office for Project Services
United States Agency for International Development
Department for International Development (DFID), now Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework
Vitamin A Supplementation
Value for Money
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The authors would like to acknowledge the UNICEF Kenya and External Reference Group (ERG) under the leadership of Patrick Codjia (Chief, Nutrition) with support from Edward Kutondo (Evaluation focal staff), Penjani Kamudoni, Laura Kiige, Sicily Matu, Francis Wambua, Lucy Maina, Olivia Agutu, Janet Ntwiga, Susan Jobando, Tom Amolo, Nicholas Kirimi, Francis Kidake, Victoria Mwenda, Betty Samburu, Stacy Katua, Vikas Singh, Kinlay Penjor and Cameline Ngure.
This evaluation has benefited from the perspectives, advice, and expertise of many people. We express our appreciation and gratitude to all the stakeholders from ministries – Ministry of Health, Division of Nutrition and Dietetics, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Ministry of Education, National Treasury, Scaling Up Nutrition- Nutrition Focal Person, Department of Environmental Health), Health Departments-County Governments of Turkana, Kitui, Isiolo, Council of Governors; state agencies – National Drought Management Authority and Kenya Medical Supply Authority; implementing partners – International Red Cross, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Vision, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger, World Food Programme Kenya Red Cross Society, Population Services Kenya, Terre Des Hommes, Catholic Relief Services, Concern Worldwide; donor agencies – European Union, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Operations, USAID, World Bank, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; UN Agencies – World Health Organization, World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, UN Office for Project Services, private sector partners through Kenya Private Sector Alliance and UNICEF nutrition and other sections, who have given their valuable insights and have contributed to the mid-term evaluation of the MCNP II in Kenya.
We would also like to thank the Kenya team members, Lorraine Ombogo and Miriam Wanjiru, for their contributions to data collection and analysis.
The sincere efforts of IQVIA team members (Mridu Bhutani and Meshack Ndolo) in the compilation of overall findings are acknowledged.
The evaluation was funded by the UNICEF Kenya Country Office.
United Nations Children’s Fund, Dar Es Salaam, TZ, Tanzania
Patrick Codjia, Edward Kutondo, Penjani Kamudoni, Tom Amolo, Lucy Maina-Gathigi & Victoria Mwenda
Kenyatta University, Nairobi, KE, Kenya
Judith Munga
IQVIA (India), IN, New Delhi, India
Aneesha Ahluwalia, Indrani Sharma & Hemant Chaudhry
IQVIA, Gouda, NED, Netherlands
Yvon de Jong
Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, KE, Kenya
Zipporah Bukania
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PC, EK, PK, LM and TA provided the overall guidance and directions for the evaluation and provided support in reaching out to the stakeholders, sharing the required data and information and regular inputs on the evaluation deliverables. ZB guided on the overall evaluation methodology, matrix and tools. ZB also conducted the key informant interviews and the FGDS in the community and was responsible for quality assurance of the interview/field transcripts as well as analysis and compilation of the evaluation findings and drafting of the manuscript. JM provided technical support in finalizing the evaluation matrix and evaluation tools as well as in the drafting of this manuscript. AA supported in drafting the methodology, evaluation matrix, evaluation tools, conducting the secondary review, conducting key informant interviews and note taking. data analysis and compilation of the findings and drafting manuscript. IS supported in drafting the evaluation methodology, matrix, tools, conducting analysis and compilation of the findings. YJ provided project management support through coordination with the different stakeholders, logistics, financial and people management as well as in compilation of the findings. VM provided coordination for stakeholder engagement and review of results. HC provided overall programme management support and guidance during the different phases of the evaluation, including the compilation of the findings. All authors reviewed and contributed to the paper. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Zipporah Bukania.
The evaluation was approved by the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) Ethics and Scientific Review Committee. Written informed consent was obtained from the participants. “permission to interview teenage mothers and written informed consent was obtained from their parents/guardians. As a government requirement, the team registered the evaluation with National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), for the research permit to allow the evaluation to be implemented. Ethical approval was not required for secondary data review and analysis. Further administrative approval was obtained from the relevant sub-national governments where the evaluation was undertaken. The evaluation methods comply with the relevant national and institutional committees on human studies, including the ethical standards outlined in the 1975 Helsinki Declaration, as revised in 2013.
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Codjia, P., Kutondo, E., Kamudoni, P. et al. Mid-term evaluation of Maternal and Child Nutrition Programme (MCNP II) in Kenya. BMC Public Health 22, 2191 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14627-2
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Received: 02 May 2022
Accepted: 14 November 2022
Published: 28 November 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14627-2
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