Leadership and Governance

GROOTS Kenya is convinced that with more grassroots women in leadership positions, priority issues affecting communities are incorporated into the policy-formulation process, resulting in more transformative policies and programs that ultimately lift women out of poverty. Kenya is yet to realize parity in political or public leadership, and gender tokenism is often mistaken as progress in gender representation. In addition to our work advancing women in political leadership, we believe in further advocating for transparent and adequate public financing for gender equality, including through the adoption of gender-responsive budgets that channel adequate resources to both women and men. GROOTS Kenya, therefore, works to strengthen grassroots women’s knowledge and skills to influence public decision-making and hold governments accountable. The aim is to have more women and girls take up leadership positions at all levels in order to influence policies and create opportunities for grassroots communities

Activities

Laikipia, Murang'a

Money power

GROOTS Kenya in partnership with HORIZONT3000 is currently implementing a three year governance project entitled Money Power: Enhancing grassroots women, youth, marginalized and indigenous people’s voice and influence on public budget and fiscal policy at county level in Kenya” with funding from European Union which kicked off in January 2020. The action is being implemented in 2 Counties namely Muranga and Laikipia The project proposes to utilize a grassroots-led advocacy strategy, primarily driven by the solidarity movement which constitutes women, youth, marginalized and indigenous people groups. The project purposes to tap into policy makers from the departments of Finance and Economic Planning, County Departments of Gender, Youth and Social services, County Sectoral Departments of Water/Trade & Cooperatives/ Agriculture/ Health, Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) Budget Committee, County Budget and Economic Forums, Governors and Senators, amongst other stakeholders. These duty bearers will collaborate towards a more gendered public planning and budgeting with the solidarity movement. The solidarity movement consists 100 grassroots lobby groups specifically 50 Grassroots women groups, 30 Youth groups, 20 Marginalized and indigenous persons groups. The action is expected to realize the following outcomes; Strengthened solidarity movement of women, youth, marginalized and indigenous people, enhanced knowledge of women, youth, marginalized and indigenous people in Public Finance Management (PFM) and in political advocacy, enhanced capacity of county government to deliver effective public participation and improve public expenditure management and strengthened networking with mainstream and social media and experiences capitalized and shared.

Kiambu, Nyandarua

Policy Dialogue

GROOTS Kenya has been part of the policy dialogue initiative since 2014. Over this period, GROOTS has been able to influence County governments in the dairy and potato sector at the national and county levels. GROOTS Kenya is implemented in Kiambu and Nyandarua Counties. During the third phase of policy dialogue, GROOTS Kenya proposed to strengthen the capacity of community advocacy teams in public budgeting to influence policies that would benefit the marginalized and influence gender-responsive public investments. This was implemented in Kiambu and Nyandarua counties. Moreover, through the increase in the capacity of grassroots women, GROOTS Kenya took part in the public participation exercise of the Kiambu County Climate Change Bill, 2021. GROOTS Kenya recently signed a one-year Memorandum of Understanding with Kiambu County partners to develop its County Energy Plan. Kiambu County Government has mobilized resources from the Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance Project (SETA) for the development and implementation of the county energy plan which will be managed by GROOTS Kenya. GROOTS Kenya will therefore be directly involved in planning and supporting the literature review, household surveys on energy demand, and development of the energy plan. As such, in this fourth phase (2023 – 2025), GROOTS Kenya intends to continue with policy engagement through our grassroots communities led by budget champions in Kiambu and Nyandarua County in supporting ongoing engagements the 2 counties. This approach seeks to consolidate the gains made since 2014 in the two counties. GROOTS Kenya will further engage in cross-learning activities and knowledge management activities that will ensure we have our learnings and impact stories highlighted.

Countrywide

Strengthening the SDGs

The project intends to address many global social, economic, and environmental issues. The 17 SDGs are meant to serve as a global call to action to eradicate poverty, safeguard the environment, and guarantee that everyone lives in peace and prosperity. In light of this, GROOTS Kenya identifies that the SDGs offer a framework for gauging progress that has been made towards particular objectives and goals and enables governments, organizations, and people to monitor their development through time. This makes it simpler to see where improvements are being made and where work still needs to be done. GROOTS Kenya’s main concentration for this project is on SDG 5 “Gender Equality.” To respond to the indicators under Gender Equality, GROOTS Kenya will require the engagement of everyone in the community, including women, men, and all stakeholders working on Gender Equality issues. This engagement will include; advocating for policies that promote gender equality, such as equal pay for equal work, the elimination of gender-based violence and discrimination, access to healthcare and education, raising awareness about the importance of gender equality and the impact of gender-based violence and discrimination through community outreach, education campaigns, and social media engagement, and engaging men as allies in the fight for gender equality. This can involve education and awareness-raising campaigns targeted at men, as well as providing support and resources to men who want to become advocates for gender equality. Donor: SDG KENYA FORUM Project Objectives; Outcome 1: Increase implementation and funding of policies that advance women's economic empowerment and make it a priority at the national level Outcome 2: Strengthen the ability of governments and CSOs to deliver on gender equality policy priorities Outcome 3: Strengthen the Forum as an Accountability Platform for CSOs' Collective Advocacy and Impact on SDGs Outcome 4: Improved Data generation (Including SDG5 data) and capacity to use

Kiambu, Nairobi

Citizen Hearing Report

GROOTS Kenya implemented the Citizen Hearing Report project with the aim of promoting the monitoring and review of SDG implementation through citizen-generated data. The objective of this project was to use the data collected on the status of women and youth to monitor and measure progress of their involvement in SDG implementation. Project Activities GROOTS Kenya youth champions from Mathare, Mwiki and Rombo collected data on six SDGs specifically geared around women and youth:

SDG 1: No Poverty
SDG 4: Quality education
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
SDG 16: Peace Justice and strong Institutions

GROOTs Kenya champions used the opportunity to interact and share their views with different members of the Parliament sharing their experience and understanding of SDGs at the grassroots. Gaps were discussed that were to be addressed at the grassroots level. The findings were then shared with the youth and gender policymakers from the Counties concerned where they committed to use the findings for planning Donor: AFRICAN MONITOR TRUST Participants: Women and youth from Mabatini ward in Nairobi County, Mwiki ward in Kiambu County and Rombo ward in Kajiado County. Achievements To successfully and efficiently collect data, GROOTS Kenya trained grassroots women in the use of Open Data Kit software for mobile phones. With this easy-to-use mobile tool, the data from the grassroots women’s household questionnaire are directly transferred to a central database. Through the use of their community-generated data and evidence, the grassroots women champions were been able to engage policymakers and local authorities and have collectively influenced county budgets (alongside other key stakeholders). GROOTS Kenya’s community-generated data can helped analyze the implementation of various policies meant to positively impact the lives of girls and women. For example, national data showed that many people in Kenya had been registered for health cards that give them access to state-subsidized healthcare under the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). However, through oral reports provided during their community research, GROOTS Kenya found that people in the counties they studied were unable to afford the minimum fee to be able to benefit from the health card.

Nakuru

Policy Dialogue Small Action Fund

The training series within the Policy Dialogue Project enabled partners to learn from each other and from experts in the field on how to engage more effectively with policymakers to turn their target group's issues and struggles into agendas of policy development and implementation processes. The Policy Dialogue Project aimed at closing the gap between policy and practice by creating a collaborative change agenda between grassroots women, community leaders, and national-level policymakers. Donor: HORIZON T3000 Target county: Nakuru Project Activities: GROOTS Kenya used this opportunity to organize women potato farmers in two counties (Nyandarua and Nakuru counties) in Kenya and built their capacities to understand the policy environment around the potato value chain, which was affecting them. The organization trained them on how to engage with relevant stakeholders and the county government so that they could improve their livelihood sustainably. These women were daily growing potatoes, marketing potatoes, and engaging in different value chains of the potato. In Nakuru County, where the project was initiated, we witnessed significant changes. Women farmers became more empowered in terms of how they engaged with policy makers and understood the strategies and approaches to employ. The Policy Dialogue initiative played a vital role in helping them map the stakeholders, comprehend their roles, and identify the responsible stakeholders. Consequently, they established an advocacy team that addressed various issues affecting potato farmers, including infrastructure, marketing, and production. The project enabled these women to be more organized in their interactions with county officials, even when not receiving direct support from GROOTS Kenya.

Kakamega

Improved Democratic Governance through effective Public Participation

The project worked towards raising awareness among citizens on the role they played in holding their leaders accountable and ensuring that provisions in the Constitution are upheld. This was achieved through local-to-local organizing, knowledge transfer and public/mass education. It is envisaged that public education would bridge the gap between what was envisaged in the law and what is implemented on ground. The purpose was therefore to raise the quality and effectiveness of public participation from being a tick box, rubber stamp to a process that would bring about transformative leadership in the communities, especially for its grassroots women. GROOTS Kenya invested in training 180 TOTs from all the 60 wards of Kakamega (3 per ward). The TOTs were trained in Public Expenditure Management (PEM), which is the process through which the County managed its finances. In turn, the TOTs carried out civic education in their respective communities. The TOTs conducted continuous and targeted civic education in Kakamega County on devolution and the PEM cycle. This was accomplished through local house-to-house meetings, community barazas, chief's meetings, etc. The TOTs also used mass media through local and community radio to raise awareness in the community. The project also supported the TOTs in mobilizing communities to effectively engage in the County Budget estimate. Another key activity under the project was the Social Audit of community projects that the TOTs carried out in the community. Donor: USAID- AHADI Kenya Target County: Kakamega Project Achievements By educating the public and especially women on their civic rights & responsibilities as well as providing a platform on which to communicate in a timely and productive manner with County Government officials, women who are traditionally and routinely left behind were not only involved in the governance process but were able to influence decision making. Most importantly, the women champions were able to influence budget allocations towards community needs. GROOTS Kenya utilized the trained TOTs to sensitize and mobilize more community members towards effective engagement in the relevant county development planning processes.

Kiambu, Nairobi

Women Count - Phase 2

GROOTS Kenya is committed to deepening gender mainstreaming in county plans and budgets. The organization has developed its capacity and partnership in gathering, synthesizing, and dissemination gender data for policy influence and planning; designed a gender data dashboard (www.genderdata.org), served as a member of the Inter-Agency Gender Statistics Technical Committee, signed a collaborative MOU with the department of applied economics – Kenyatta University[1], a Steering Committee member of the Women Economic Empowerment Global hub (WEE Hub). The organization has in-depth experience in the formulation of policies at the county level having supported Nakuru and Kiambu county gender policies. The proposed project will build on previous interventions in the women count phase 1 with an expected outcome being enhanced, access and use of gender data and statistics for planning, advocacy, communication, and reporting at the county level.[QM1] [DM2] [DM3] To achieve this outcome, GROOTS Kenya proposes to carry out the below strategic actions.

Kakamega, Nakuru

SDG Program

Countrywide

Deliver for Good

GROOTS Kenya has been implementing this project since 2018. This project is a campaign that calls for partners to advocate for action on 5 thematic areas; GBV, SRHR, Economic Empowerment, Access to resources – land rights, Communication and use of data for advocacy. GROOTS Kenya’s Focus in previous implementation phases has focused on the first thematic workgroup on GBV. GROOTS Kenya will be mainly focusing on these three main objectives under each strategy:

Engage in campaigns, using evidence and knowledge-based advocacy materials and products, on communication platforms (e.g. print and electronic media including social media) that advance the common advocacy agenda of the Campaign, broader gender equality and the SDGs advocacy, and presenting the case of Kenya in regional platforms such as the African Union and others.
Increase opportunities for the participation of women, including youth and youth-led groups and those who represent more marginalized communities (e.g. people living with disabilities, grassroots and rural women), in leadership and governance platforms during the pre- and post-electioneering period.
Hold feedback sessions/ public education forums and conversations with gender equality CSOs, including those who represent more marginalized communities (youth and youth- led organizations, people living with disabilities, grassroots and rural women), on Kenya’s progress to mainstreaming gender equality across the SDGs.

1 2 Next »