KENYA: MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
gave priority to increased primary school enrolment and expanded secondary school education. Sufficient resources were equally committed to the development of health facilities in rural Kenya. The policy direction adopted by the sessional paper resonates well with much of the content of the MDGs.
National Development Plans, anchored on the sessional paper, continued to focus on rural development, with the most notable ones being the 1974-79 National Development Plan, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) of 2001 to 2004 and the Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation (ERSWEC) that was implemented between 2003 and 2007. Development programmes implemented under the PRSP and the ERS were consolidated under the Kenya Vision 2030 in 2008. The Vision is implemented through sectoral flagship projects and programmes spread across the country, with the main aim of turning Kenya into an industrialized country with a high standard of living by the year 2030.
Despite Kenya being among the first signatories of the Millennium Declaration, the MDGs only became entrenched in Kenya in 2004 when the Government of the Republic of Kenya issued a cabinet memo directing all Government ministries, departments and agencies to mainstream MDGs into policy, planning and the budget-making process. MDGs were incorporated into major policy documents including sector plans and the Kenya Vision 2030. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 also gives prominence to some of the MDGs’ indicators including the right to clean, healthy environment (Article 42), right
to adequate food of acceptable quality and right to education (Article 43).
Kenya continued to devote more resources to the attainment of Millennium Development Goals through a shift of public expenditure to the social sectors, physical infrastructure development and expansion of agriculture. The agricultural sector witnessed efforts aimed at ensuring food and nutritional security for all Kenyans. To alleviate the adverse economic conditions occasioned by the worldwide financial recession, the Government of Kenya committed more funds through ‘the economic stimulus strategy’ that facilitated the development of health facilities, classrooms, irrigation and food security initiatives, and water distribution infrastructure in the rural areas. The economic stimulus package was expected to support development projects in rural areas through a raft of government interventions including the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF), the Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) and the Youth Enterprise Fund (YEF). These grassroots- based development programmes continue to influence the MDGs’ achievement rates especially for education, health and women empowerment.
While substantial progress has been made in the implementation of the MDGs, it is clear that the complete achievement of the goals by the year 2015 has been elusive. There was remarkable achievement in some of the areas such as education, child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, while progress of others is still low and remains off-target. The table opposite gives a summary of implementation status. Given the progress so far, it is safe to argue that MDGs
14 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue One
facilitated the attainment of critical milestones in National development efforts in Kenya.
Enhancing parliamentary engagement – lessons from the MDGs
The slow progress of the MDGs can partly be attributed to the long-delayed uptake of the MDGs by many parliaments in majority of developing countries across the world. The process remained, and still is very much an executive agenda with very little engagement (if any) of parliaments.
Whilst it is governments that sign up to internationally agreed goals and targets, as was the case with Millennium Development Goals and will be for the Sustainable Development Goals on behalf of their respective countries, and ultimately have the responsibility to deliver on targets, there is a growing appreciation for active engagement of the different stakeholders at the global, regional and national levels during the negotiation and subsequent implementation of such internationally agreed goals. Parliament is one such institution that has an important role to play in guaranteeing development goals are leveraged in the national agenda especially their domestication and ensuring adequate resources are channelled to the cause. Indeed, attempts to project the central role parliaments can play in reducing poverty and attaining the MDGs is well documented and was further reinforced in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005, and the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008.
From the Kenya perspective, parliamentary engagement with MDGs, as in many other jurisdictions, took long to materialize. Initial steps towards active engagement can be
traced back to the year 2008. This initiative by a group of 21 Members of Parliament lead to the formation of a Parliamentary Caucus on Poverty and the MDGs in 2009, by a resolution of the National Assembly. This action proved to be a bold initiative in filling the vacuum that existed between Parliament and the executive in ensuring participatory handling of MDGs. The Caucus was conceived with the following broad objectives: (i) To reinforce the role of parliamentarians in holding the government accountable for its commitments and progress in achieving the MDGs.
(ii) To build MPs’ understanding of the MDGs and to inspire them to pressurize the government to deliver on them by 2015.
(iii) To advocate for the mainstreaming of MDGs in local and national development plans and budgets.
(iv) To increase the visibility of the Parliamentary Caucus on Poverty and MDGs through advocacy.
Country-specific successes with parliamentary engagement with the MDGs to date remain mixed. However, for the Parliament of Kenya, the formation of the Caucus and subsequent awareness creation among Members proved instrumental in ensuring that Parliament mainstreamed MDGs in its various mandates to propel Kenya into delivering on the MDGs by the deadline of 2015.
In addition to policy and awareness creation, the formation of the Caucus opened a critical link for non-state actors to engage Members of Parliament on the MDGs. Through efforts of the Caucus, in collaboration with the then Ministry of Planning, National
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