From 2-6 March 2020 in Nakuru County, UNDP convened an Annual Review meeting of 40 civil society organizations (CSOs) to discuss future plans for community-led development, whilst taking stock of notable strides made towards improving the environment for CSOs in Kenya during the past year. UNDP partners with these CSOs through the Amkeni Wakenya project, a grant facility intended to support democratic governance in Kenya and which is currently engaged in the promotion of access to justice and human rights.

Through the Amkeni project, which is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the European Union through the PLEAD partnership, UNDP is working closely with CSOs to build capacity in areas of technical need as well as working at a policy-level with institutions such as the National Legal Aid Service and the Council for Legal Education to improve the environment in which CSOs work. This Annual Review meeting follows the recent launch of the UNDP-supported NGO Coordination Board Sector Report, which shed fresh light on the operations of and challenges facing CSOs in Kenya.

Opening the meeting, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Ms. Mandisa Mashologu affirmed these partnerships, and raised areas for deeper cooperation:

“UNDP is looking for new ways of responding to emerging development challenges - and so is counting on CSOs with a presence on the ground to help in ensuring that locally-developed solutions are identified and tested for possible scaling at national level,” said Ms. Mashologu in her opening remarks.

Ms. Mashologu went on to express the criticality of the work of CSOs in highlighting and addressing human rights violations, which is a prime example of grassroots contributions towards fulfillment of strategic development agendas such as the Political Pillar of Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In Kenya, CSOs are often the organizations with the greatest understanding of local issues and cultural considerations in regard to issues around access to justice, and as such are well-placed to make meaningful grassroots interventions. However, their scale as small-to-medium-sized local entities, and operation in often rural or isolated areas can also hinder their progress. At the meeting, issues such as capacity around financial and regulatory compliance, adverse weather, insecurity and difficulty in dealing with institutional actors were all raised as operational challenges. 

Notable progress at the meeting included the election of a new Project Steering Committee to oversee the Amkeni Wakenya project’s operations, whilst Ms. Florence Syevuo, County Coordinator of the SDGs in Kenya, presented on the role CSOs in SDGs implementation and highlighted how CSOs could contribute to the Voluntary National Reporting (VNR) process. The meeting concluded with presentations from CSOs on their different projects. In one notable case, Wajir Women for Peace (WWFP) Project Officer Fatima Abdullahi said due to WWFP’s advocacy, the County Government of Wajir has built a recovery center for survivors of gender-based violence.

This Annual Review meeting brought together strategic partners from the Government of Kenya, UN and civil society, with a joint resolution collectively made to work towards creating a better working environment for CSOs and streamlining agendas to focus on fulfillment of Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the SDGs.