Major challenges

DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Kenya

Governance

Without good governance, and unless we beat corruption, we will never defeat poverty in Kenya.

DFID’s governance programme supports a broad range of initiatives which have:

strengthened the ability of the Kenyan Government to deliver services;
alerted millions of people to their rights and responsibilities in a democratic society;
enabled civil society organisations to monitor public institutions and ensure they are accountable;
strengthened systems to improve the effectiveness of Parliament
and supported key constitutional and electoral reforms following the 2007 election crisis, including a successful constitutional referendum in August 2010.

DFID’s aims are to help create a climate in which people, local and from abroad, will want to invest in Kenya and accelerate economic growth; creating jobs and opportunities for a better life.

UKaid has been used to:

make people aware of the importance of their right to vote and how to register, resulting in 12.7 million voters registering for the recent referendum on Kenya’s Constitution, of whom 49% were women
increase transparency and accountability of Parliament by opening parliamentary committees to the public and showing live debates on TV
provide support for organisations which investigate corruption and monitor the way in which taxpayers money is spent, or misspent. For example UKaid supports the National Taxpayers’ Association (NTA) which monitors Government use of taxpayers’ money.
support Kenya's public sector reform programme. This has helped make government institutions leaner and more efficient, reducing opportunities for corruption and making public spending more transparent.
protect women’s rights as well as promoting women’s participation in governance and decision making
improve the collection and analysis of statistical data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. This included support to the national census which took place in August 2009.

DFID is also one of the key supporters of the Kofi Annan process, which brokered a peace agreement (the National Accord) following disputed general elections in December 2007. We have supported the commission’s review of the elections and subsequent violence, and the institutions set up to implement the National Accord. We are also helping to tackle the underlying causes of the election crisis.

Further progress on the Kenyan reform agenda is critical to provide the stability that is needed to tackle poverty and ensure long term prosperity for all Kenyans.It is vital for Kenya’s stability and development that there is no repeat of the post-election violence, which deterred investors, slowed development and hurt the poorest most.

Health, HIV and AIDS

Currently around a third of DFID Kenya’s aid is allocated to health and HIV/AIDS; focusing on health systems, malaria, reproductive health and strengthening the delivery of essential health services.

Malaria
UKaid has made a significant contribution in the fight against malaria, including:

distribution of 17 million new insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) since 2001, contributing to a ten-fold increase in the percentage of children under-five (from 5% in 2003 to 47% in 2008/9) and pregnant women (from 4% in 2004 to 49%) sleeping under ITNs. This has led to a 36% decrease in mortality of children under-five over the last five years.
contributing to the roll-out of new anti-malarial combination therapies, improving the response to epidemics, and funding a net re-treatment and communication programme. In some areas annual malaria hospital admissions have been reduced by 57% in the last seven years.

Maternal Health
DFID has committed to improving maternal and child health, particularly in Nyanza Province which in the past accounted for approximately 25% of all maternal deaths in Kenya. We are working with the ministries of health centrally to develop the policies and systems required to deliver essential maternal and child health services across the nation.

The UKaid funded Essential Services Programmes (EHS) has focused on two key areas:

1. Improving the supply of maternal and child health services through:

building clinics
supplying equipment and training
and working with government staff to improve management and supervision of services.

2. Addressing the demand for these services by:

improving community awareness
improving referral mechanisms with motorbike ambulances
and creating new roles for retired midwives and traditional birth attendants.

Since the programme began in Nyanza Province in 2005 over 1 million women have benefited from improved services. The province now exceeds the national average for deliveries attended by a skilled worker – one in three births is now attended by a skilled health worker; it was only one in five in 2006 (2008 Demographic and Health Survey).

But more work is needed. Maternal mortality remains high and Kenya is off-track to meet MDG 5. Currently the maternal mortality ratio is 488 per 100,000 live births, in the UK it is only 8.2 per 100,000 live births.

HIV and AIDS
HIV and AIDs prevalence has remained static in the last seven years – about 7% of the adult population (15 to 49 years) are infected. Some 60,000 new infections are reported each year, and there are significant variations by sex, location and age. For example HIVand AIDS is twice as prevalent in urban areas as in rural ones.

DFID’s programme supports implementation of a National HIV and AIDS strategy which aims for universal access to prevention, treatment and care. Prevention activities have focused on high risk groups such as fishing communities and young adults, using innovative behaviour change interventions such as the use of community theatre and radio soap operas.

Achievements from selected programmes supported by UKaid include:

Distribution of over 29 million condoms in 2009/10. In total 199 million condoms have been distributed (2002-2010), helping to avert 14,000 cases of HIV and 428,000 pregnancies.
Raising awareness that using condoms prevents HIV, from 50% to 93% of Kenyans.
Helping over 800 civil society organisations (mostly community-based) carry out awareness raising activities, as well as home-based care and nutrition for vulnerable groups.
An increase in HIV testing at antenatal clinics from 50.4% in 2003 to 78.6% in 2007.
65,000 people accessing home-based care in Nyanza.
Supporting 110,000 orphans and vulnerable children.
Adoption of counseling and testing guidelines.
The development of a post-rape counseling policy.

Education

DFID’s support to the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP) 2005-2010 resulted in:

an additional 1 million children accessing education
delivery of 58 million free text books for primary schools
building of 365 classrooms and renovation of a further 325 classrooms
provision of 5,225 new desks, chairs and tables
provision of 930 new toilet cubicles
the development of a national HIV/AIDS prevention programme for upper primary
600,000 of the most vulnerable children benefiting from grants in 2009. Helping them to return to school by providing desks, school uniforms and shoes.

But due to allegations of fraud UK funds for Kenyan education (mostly primary, but some secondary) have been suspended. We have a responsibility to the UK taxpayer, and to Kenyans, to ensure british aid money is only used for it's intended purpose of poverty reduction. No UK aid has been transferred to the Ministry of Education since the fraud came to light in September 2009.

Over the next few months DFID support will be channelled outside the Kenyan government’s financial systems. Instead we will work alongside them to support Kenyan schoolchildren receive a good education. Their education as future Kenyan citizens is crucial so they can get jobs, secure livelihoods and hold their government to account.

Our plans include three activities: an innovation programme to pilot new approaches to improving quality and equity; an accountability fund that will enable people to hold teachers and officials accountable for the education provided in schools and a grants programme that will send essential funds directly to schools. DFID Ministers will be considering these plans in the coming months.

Humanitarian aid

In 2009/10 UKaid supported several humanitarian organisations in their work to provide emergency humanitarian relief to over two million Kenyans. This included:

treatment of over 40,000 cases of malnutrition in women and children
provision of clean water to 175,000 people
vaccination of 400,000 children against measles
training of over 240 community health workers
health promotion sessions for 160,000 people, including how to improve general hygiene
construction of latrines, rehabilitation of wells, making of fuel-efficient stoves and a rainwater collection system benefiting over 35,000 people in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya.

This assistance is being delivered by a range of UN and NGO partners e.g. UNICEF, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger, Merlin, Médecins Sans Frontières and Solidarités.

We are also developing a programme of longer-term support to Kenya’s arid lands to build sustainable livelihoods and reduce dependence on donor humanitarian assistance.

Social protection

Although in the decade running up to 2006 national poverty rates fell from 52% to 46%, Kenya still has high levels of income poverty. Inequality has increased in this period with the gap between the richest and poorest fifth of households widening by 20% (Kenya Poverty and Inequality Assessment, World Bank, April 2009).

UKaid is being used to improve the livelihoods of the poorest Kenyans through a ten-year social protection programme. The main focus of this is to provide direct cash transfers to those most in need. The cash transfers have shown long-term benefits by allowing recipients more flexibility in dealing with food insecurity and accessing basic services including health and education. Households are able to protect their assets, buy new ones and set up small businesses to improve lives and livelihoods. In addition the use of innovative private sector payments approaches has increased access by poor communities to financial services.

In 2009 10169,000 households (over 850,000 people) in Kenya were provided with some kind of social protection, with UKaid being used to fund 75,000 of these households (375,000 people), of which:

30,000 were households containing orphaned or vulnerable children, with the aim of encouraging fostering within communities
45,000 were households in the poorest and most food insecure areas in Kenya
85% of these households were headed by women.

The cash transfers have reduced poverty in beneficiary households by 13% since 2007 (Impact evaluation study of OVC programme (April 2010)).

As a result of DFID’s work the Kenyan government is introducing a provision of cash transfers to over 33,000 elderly person households.

DFID is also co-financing innovative crop and livestock insurance products to help poor households manage the risked posed by increasing climatic shocks.

Trade, growth and private sector development

DFID’s work focuses on promoting investment and job creation so that people have the skills and opportunities to provide for their families. Our work has supported the creation of up-to 350,000 jobs in recent years. We are supporting measures that improve investor confidence and reduce regulations and business risks by 25%.

Thanks to UKaid support:

In 2009, 900,000 more Kenyans had access to banks and other formal financial institutions than in 2006.
Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) became the first licensed microfinance institution for women in Kenya and only the second in Africa. Helping to mobilise more deposits and better financial products for over 330,000 female clients.
There was a 27% reduction in the number of business licenses, from 1,325 to 960. This is estimated to have saved the private sector $62 million every year. Such savings encourage more investment in Kenya, leading to more jobs being created.

DFID is one of the core funders of the Financial Sector Deepening Project, which aims to improve the ability of Kenya’s financial sector to meet the needs of poor people. The project hopes to achieve this aim by developing products that increase access to finance, improving lending to small enterprises and supporting the government to put in place new legislation to expand access to financial services.

Through our regional work across east Africa we are promoting larger and easier trade, which will lead to new business opportunities, job creation and the decrease in price of some goods. TradeMark East Africa is an initiative funded by DFID and other partners, to promote regional trade and economic integration in east Africa. The initiative works closely with east African community institutions, national governments, business and civil society organisations.

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