Making Voices Heard and Count in Kenya

The Leave No One Behind coalition in Kenya was founded in 2018. Country co-leads are VSO Kenya and Plan Kenya. The SDGs Kenya Forum is chair of the national steering committee.

Current members (October 2020) are:

ActionAid Kenya
ADRA Kenya
Caritas Kenya
CBM Kenya
Citizen Rural Network
Development Initiatives Africa Office
Humanity and Inclusion
International Federation for Red Cross in Kenya
Islamic Relief Kenya
Plan International Kenya (co-lead)
SDGs Kenya Forum (head of steering committee)
United Disabled Person in Kenya (UDPK)
VSO Kenya (co-lead)

The country coalition has delivered a project pilot between 2018 and 2019, focussing on women, people with disabilities, young people, farmers, elderly people and slum-dwellers. Target SDG was SDG 10.2.

The scaled up project will be conducted between 2020 and 2022, focussing on SDGs 1, 5, 10 and 16. Goal is to identify drivers and level of marginalisation among people with disabilities and other marginalised groups in four counties of Kenya. The project will reach 10,425 people (750 persons per county; total direct reach 3,000 persons with disabilities).

Pilot Project (2018-2020)Ongoing Project (2020-2022)

Country Publications Targeted SDGs

Kenya Pilot

SDG Target

Target 10.2:

By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic or other status.

Target groups

Women, people with disabilities, young people, farmers, elderly people and slum-dwellers.

How did we engage marginalised groups in SDG monitoring?

LNOB partners convened community dialogues in five sites where approximately 500 citizens, including representatives of marginalised groups, shared their views on the implementation of Target 10.2.

Ways target groups are left behind

The government has made efforts to include citizens in development processes, but marginalised groups are often excluded in practice.
Devolution in Kenya has created a structure for citizen engagement at local levels, but the majority of counties sampled have yet to effectively implement citizen engagement.
Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or tribal affiliation, corruption and nepotism are factors hindering social inclusion.
Rigid perceptions and prejudices about gender and social roles impact on social exclusion or inclusion (for example, boys’ education is preferred over girls’).
Specific minority groups such as people with disabilities, elderly people, girls and women suffer from discrimination in local culture, preventing their voices from being heard in their communities.

What is missed in national reporting?

Marginalised groups remain largely invisible in official statistics and data is rarely disaggregated enough.
Data on people with disability is contentious due to inappropriate methodology used for data collection.
Although CSOs and networks representing marginalised groups collect data on issues affecting those groups, this data is not integrated into the official national government reporting system. As a result, marginalised groups are often excluded from SDG implementation frameworks.

National advocacy impact so far

The coalition in Kenya, has been engaging with government through consultation meetings on planning and statistical processes and through a UN-supported accountability program. The coalition has engaged with the State Department for Planning and National Treasury to influence the review of planning, statistic and monitoring and evaluation legislation, advocating for the recognition of non-state led data in official reporting systems. The coalition also submitted a memorandum to influence the Statistics Law.

Recommendations

Create a citizen’s forum to support citizens’ strategic engagement in policy advocacy.
Promote inclusive public participation in development processes and institutionalise participation and representation mechanisms for marginalised groups in SDG processes.
Improve civic education among marginalised groups so they can meaningfully participate and demand accountability. Use local media to heighten awareness on SDGs.
Enhance information access particularly for people with disabilities and in local languages.
Recognise non-state led data in official reporting in government systems, including SDGs.
Contextualise SDG indicators for effective inclusion of marginalised groups as defined by the Constitution of Kenya.
Build partnerships with marginalised groups and development actors in the implementation and monitoring of SDGs.
Ensure plans and actions are responsive to the needs of marginalised groups.

Ongoing Project (2020-2022)

Country Publications Targeted SDGs

Kenya Ongoing Project

The LNOB project in Kenya seeks to amplify voices of marginalized groups including women, person with disabilities and youths and grassroot CSOs in the implementation of SDGs. It targets SDG 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries with specific focus on indicator 10.2. seeks to empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. It will also target SDG 16 to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development; provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels with focus on indicator 16.6 on government expenditure within budget and satisfaction with government service as well as indicator 16.7 on representation in public institution and inclusive decision-making.

The initiative in Kenya will also explore potential for collaboration with Partners for Review (P4R) to influence recognition of non-state led data. It will also collaborate with LNOB initiatives in other Countries including Nepal. The initiative will seek to reach 3000 people, that is, 750 people with disabilities in each of the four Counties (Embu, Makueni, Taita Taveta and Siaya) to establish the drivers and level of marginalization. A callaborative approach will be employed involving critical stakeholders CSOs, Disabled Person Organization, religious institiutions, local media and government institutions such Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and National Gender and Equality Commission will be involved.

Notably, in the period September 2020 to April 2021 with funding from Robert Bosch Foundation, the focus of our initiative in Kenya will be on person with disabilities to understand the drivers and level of marginalization in social, political and economic sphere.

Project duration:

Grant period: 01/09/2020 – 30/04/2021

Project period: 01/09/2020 – 30/06/2022

Desired goals and outcomes:

Enhanced knowledge capacity among PWDs and grassroots CSOs on CLM and community generated data approaches
Improved data availability on intersecting drivers for exclusion and vulnerability among PWDs
Improved enabling environment for inclusion of marginalized groups in SDG implementation

Research focus topic(s): Determining the drivers and level of marginalization among people with disabilities in four Counties of Kenya.

SDGs/indicators covered:

SDG 1 (1.4)
SDG 5 (5.A & 5.5)
SDG 10 (10.2, 10.3 & 10.4)
SDG 16 (16.6, 16.7 & 16.10)

Data generation methodology(s):

Community-driven data generation
Stakeholder forum with 55 participants (15 in-person and 40 virtually)
1 day county dialogue with 100 people in each of the 4 counties
Community score card: Mixed research approach (qualitative and quantitative), relying heavily on qualitative and contextual research, leveraging on secondary household surveys (e.g. recent Kenyan census and unofficial data by CSOs) to generate quantitative data on drivers and level or inequality

Marginalised groups targeted: People with disabilities (focus in Phase I of the project)

Research locations: Four counties (in each county, 4 wards will be targeted involving 188 people with disabilities)

Total number of people reached: Ultimate reach 10,425 people (750 persons per county; total direct reach 3,000 persons with disabilities)

Number of trainings / capacity building workshops: 36 trainings or capacity building workshops – 3 Face-to-face trainings with 15 participants each in 4 wards per county

Number of dialogues with local authorities / decision makers: 12 county-level dialogue meetings and 3 lobby meetings with county authorities in each county

Number of dialogues with national authorities: 4 dialogue meetings with national authorities.

Number of policy / service recommendations to be produced: 5 policy briefs (4 county level and 1 national) developed and presented to authorities.

Targeted government institutions: Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the SDGs Coordination Unit and the National Gender and Equality Commission.

Lead implementer: VSO Kenya

Other partner organisations:

ADRA Kenya
ActionAid Kenya
Caritas Kenya
CBM Kenya
Citizen Rural Network
Development Initiatives
Humanity and Inclusion
International Federation for Red Cross in Kenya
Islamic Relief Kenya
Plan International
SDGs-Kenya Forum
United Disabled Persons in Kenya

The ongoing project in Kenya is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

Country Publications Targeted SDGs

Kenya Publications

Our Target SDGS in Kenya

Click on the SDG to reveal more information

1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Extreme poverty rates have been cut by more than half since 1990. While this is a remarkable achievement, one in five people in developing regions still live on less than $1.90 a day, and there are millions more who make little more than this daily amount, plus many people risk slipping back into poverty.

Poverty is more than the lack of income and resources to ensure a sustainable livelihood. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making. Economic growth must be inclusive to provide sustainable jobs and promote equality.

Learn more from the UN here >>

Related Kenya Targets

1.4

By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance

5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world.

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.

Learn more from the UN here >>

Related Kenya Targets

5.5

Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life

5.a

Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws

10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

The international community has made significant strides towards lifting people out of poverty. The most vulnerable nations – the least developed countries, the landlocked developing countries and the small island developing states – continue to make inroads into poverty reduction. However, inequality still persists and large disparities remain in access to health and education services and other assets.

Additionally, while income inequality between countries may have been reduced, inequality within countries has risen. There is growing consensus that economic growth is not sufﬁcient to reduce poverty if it is not inclusive and if it does not involve the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental.

To reduce inequality, policies should be universal in principle paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations.

Learn more from the UN here >>

Related Kenya Targets

10.2

By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status

10.3

Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard

10.4

Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality

16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies

Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals is dedicated to the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.

Learn more from the UN here >>

Related Kenya Targets

16.6

Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

16.7

Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels

16.10

Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements