Kenya

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Thematic Focus
• Progress on Aid Effectiveness
• Achievements

Overview

Kenya is the economic engine and key driver of stability in East Africa. Its strong private sector, infrastructure, and financial services contribute significantly to growth in the region. Kenya's diplomatic and peacekeeping efforts also reinforce its role as a regional stabilizer.

However, the country faces significant development challenges, such as cross-border insecurity, severe income inequalities, frequent droughts, and youth unemployment. The fallout from the disputed 2007 elections was devastating. Post-election violence had a particularly high impact on the educational system, as schools were destroyed or turned into camps for internally displaced persons. Students and teachers were themselves displaced, and many lost weeks or months of classes.

Following a power-sharing agreement brokered in 2008 that helped to end the crisis, Kenya has since embarked on an ambitious reform agenda. Most notably, a new constitution was passed in 2010 that promises to devolve power to new county governments and reform Kenya's legal and political institutions. Kenya's ability to achieve lasting prosperity depends on the country's commitment to improving governance and achieving the promise of its constitution. With Kenya's strong civil society and independent media, the country has great potential for progress. The country's vibrant private sector and growing middle class can also help to drive economic growth.

Kenya ranks 143 out of 187 countries in the United Nations Development Programme's 2011 Human Development Index. Although one out of five Kenyans is living on less than US$1.25 per day, the country has made significant progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals for universal primary education and gender parity in education.

Thematic Focus

CIDA's programming in Kenya is closely aligned with Kenya's long-term national planning strategy, officially known as Kenya Vision 2030.

The goal of CIDA's program is to help Kenya secure a future for children and youth by improving primary education and strengthen democratic governance by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.

Children and youth

CIDA continues to improve the quality of education in Kenya by working with the Government of Kenya to train quality teachers and make schools child-friendly learning environments in which children—especially girls—feel safe and secure, healthy, and well nourished. CIDA strives to work in the most disadvantaged areas of the country, where dropout rates are the highest, and supports initiatives that offer innovative solutions for the most marginalized communities, such as accelerated learning for refugee children and mobile schools for nomadic children.

Democratic governance

CIDA supports public sector accountability and citizens' engagement to improve the delivery of public services to Kenyans. By working with public institutions and grass-roots/civil society organizations, Canada is supporting good governance practices in areas such as basic education, women's political participation, conflict prevention, electoral systems, public financial management, and community participation.

Democratic governance is one of the Government of Canada's priority themes for international assistance and one of CIDA's crosscutting themes.

Progress on Aid Effectiveness

Kenya adheres to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (PDF, 317 KB, 23 pages). There has been considerable progress in implementing aid effectiveness principles, particularly donor harmonization through the Kenya Joint Assistance Strategy 2007–2012, which was signed by 17 bilateral donors, including Canada, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations. This strategy also aligns with the Government of Kenya's Vision 2030, indicating local ownership.

Achievements 2011–2012

Children and youth

• Contributed, along with other donors, to improving the rate of students going from primary to secondary school from 59.6 percent in 2007 to 72.5 percent in 2011.
• Provided Canadian technical assistance to Kenya's Ministry of Education in developing its Taskforce Report on Education, leading to a new legal and policy framework and strategy for the entire sector.

Democratic governance

• Contributed to the training of nearly 8,200 national and local government officials since 2004 on performance agreements so that public service delivery is more focused on clear results for Kenyans.
• Increased citizens' participation by supporting Kenyan civil society's contribution to the development of at least five key legal bills on elections, teachers, political parties, and public appointments.

Achievements 2010–2011

Children and youth

• Contributed to lowering the textbook-to-pupil ratio to 1:3 in lower primary schools and 1:2 in upper primary schools in 2010 from a ratio of 1:15 before 2005.
• Contributed, along with other donors, to the construction of 6,012 new classrooms and 7,043 separate toilets for girls through Kenya's School Infrastructure Investment Programme.

Democratic governance

• Supported civil society partners that successfully lobbied for the national budget to be more gender sensitive, resulting in $3.3 million set aside for sanitary pads (a key barrier to girls' attendance at school).
• Helped to establish a Commission on Revenue Allocation to better manage the resources of Kenyan taxpayers.

Achievements 2009-2010

Children and youth

• Helped develop a policy on equality between women and men at the Ministry of Education to ensure that girls have a safe and secure environment for learning
• Helped develop a national assessment of student achievement to provide information to improve the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools
• Contributed to increasing the primary school completion rate from 79.5 percent in 2008 to 82 percent in 2009, bringing Kenya closer to the national target of 90 percent by 2015
• Supported 2,500 public primary schools in completing report cards, enabling parents, teachers and students to assess school management and demand better quality education

Democratic governance

• Helped the Interim Independent Electoral Commission reform the electoral process using short message service, or text messaging, at polling stations and registering more than 12.5 million voters, leading to a peaceful vote for a new constitution
• Helped train more than 2,800 public servants in performance contract evaluations

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