Post by Steve Ogutu, MCLD Kenya
This month, we celebrate one year of a transformative partnership with the County Government of Makueni in Kenya. MCLD and the county signed a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) on September 30, 2021 to strengthen community-led development as an important tool to tackle development challenges. In just one year, we’ve collaborated to establish the Makueni Community-led Development School, a first in Kenya and the continent. The school is an available resource designed to strengthen the capacities of communities, civil society organizations, national and county governments, and development partners on how to integrate community-led approaches to localize SDGs.
With the promulgation of Kenya’s new constitution (2010), devolution has become a beacon of hope for its 50 million population. Citizen engagement, a constitutional requirement for all public projects, has helped to enhance accountability and address some of the world’s most pressing development crises like food insecurity, climate change, health access, poor governance as well as youth and women empowerment.
Besides Makueni, MCLD Kenya is collaborating with the national and other county governments to integrate community-led interventions in the design, implementation and evaluation of community development projects.
You can re-watch the MoU signing event with Makueni’s Governor, Prof. Kivutha Kibwana (now former Governor) here: