Democracy & Governance
Like many other developing countries Kenya faces challenges related to the consolidation of democracy, the establishment of good governance, unequal distribution of resources, historical injustices and gender imbalances. Pact Kenya believes that these issues can be best addressed effectively in an atmosphere of trust where ‘Wanjiku’ participates in all in decisions and actions that affect her as this is the best way to bring about positive change. Safeguarding the democratic gains made in Kenya and improving the overall governance environment is key to progress of all kinds – economic, social and political, and especially to addressing the governments own objectives laid out in the Vision 2030. Key to this is getting good law and policy in place and holding all accountable to that law and policy in practice. The political crisis triggered by the December 2007 presidential election bears witness to Kenya's continuing struggle to democratize and improve governance.
Pact Kenya is addressing democtratic challenges in Kenya through 3 key programs. This is especially through the Kenya Civil Society Strengthening Program (KCSSP), and Deepening Government Civil Society Engagement programmes.
Kenya Civil Society Strengthening Programme (KCSSP)
KCSSP is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded program whose main goal is to ensure that targeted CSOs more effectively demand reforms, monitor government activities and provide other critical services to their constituents. Pact Kenya in collaboration with Pact, Inc is implementing a range of grant making and institutional and technical capacity building activities focused on achieving improved leadership and governance of Kenyan CSOs - better staying power, enhanced ability of CSOs to build and work within coalitions and speak with a common voice and improved quality and quantity of services delivered to CSO constituents. Pact Kenya achieves these through its developmental approach – capacity building, organizational development and grant making.
Find out more about KCSSP from here
Deepening Government-CSO Engagement
Pact Kenya’s seeks to build capacities of Civil Society Organizations in Kenya through improving the leadership and governance of Kenyan CSOs, enhancing the ability of CSOs to build and work within coalitions and speak with a shared voice, improving quality and quantity of services delivered by CSOs to constituents, and improving long term viability of CSOs. This however cannot be achieved without an enabling and empowering environment. In collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), Pact Kenya is doing case studies of the finest GOK/CSO collaboration in order to develop guidelines for GOK/CSO engagement. Pact Kenya believes that there is a lot to be gained when the government and the civil society work together as partners in development.
The Government led National Social and Economic Council has a mandate to work together with civil society in order to achieve economic and development outcomes for the benefit of all Kenyans. One of its terms of reference is to “Provide synergy between Government, the Private Sector and the Civil Society through collaborative engagement and networking in order to promote efficiency and effectiveness of economic planning process and effectiveness of economic planning progress.” Pact Kenya therefore hopes to showcase the need for creating an enabling environment so that the council can collaborate with the NGO sector as part of its mandate.
