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
In the Citizens Dialogues, citizens had a range of specific recommendations to improve inclusion of marginalised groups, including improving implementation of laws such as the Disability Act, better integrating marginalised groups into those laws, and improving programs to support marginalised groups and their economic and social integration. At a broader level, the project generated a set of recommendations to ensure citizens are better included in SDG implementation:
- 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.