ACHIEVING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN KENYA

1. ACHIEVING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN KENYA AN OVERVIEW OF THE MDG PROCESS IN KENYA Mr. George Anyango Ministry of Planning & National Development November 2005

2. Why the MDGs World leaders including Kenya adopted the MDGs in 2000 to address the challenges of poverty, disease, illiteracy and environmental degradation

3. MDGs are now recognized world over as a Vehicle to address poverty, due to their potential in providing: • Compatibility with country development frameworks; • Universal benchmarks/indicators for measuring progress against acceptable standards of well being; and • Coordinating focus for governments, donors, private sector and civil society development frameworks for increased coherence in policy, funding and implementation of development initiatives

4. Progress towards achieving the MDGs • Significant progress has been made towards achieving the MDGs between 1990 and 2003, but Sub-Saharan Africa is fairing poorly. • See the comparison below:

5. Country Comparisons

6. Country Comparisons (cont.) • It is clear that most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are off track on MDG achievement • Kenya still lags behind some countries in the same region, especially on poverty and HIV prevalence

7. What is needed for MDG to be achieved • Faster economic growth. Kenya’s economic growth rate is 4.3%, still low to enable MDGs achievement (7%+) • Governance: A lot has been done but more required on: accountability, creating a business environment friendly to investors and allocating more public resources to MDGs • Build capacity to carry out basic functions of government (e.g education, health, water, roads and energy).

8. In Short: • We need to align our development strategies with the MDGs, starting with the Economic Recovery Strategy and the MTEF budget; • Maintain high and sustained growth; • Strengthen pro-poor and gender sensitive approaches

9. Already, there is a close linkage between the ERS and MDGs

10. Work Done on MDGs in Kenya • Progress Report for Kenya launched in July 2003, indicating a fairly weak policy environment for achieving the goals; • May 2004 the Needs Assessment Study launched and followed by stakeholders consultations to identify interventions for the needs assessment studies; • Sector specific needs assessment reports finalised by end of 2004 and early 2005.

11. The Needs Assessment Study The objective of the study was to put the country on an MDG- based long term planning and connect to budget process by: • Identifying interventions and investments needed to meet MDGs by 2015 • Identifying the resources required to support a scale-up of interventions through to 2015; • Outline a financing strategy to achieve MDGs; • Developing a well-researched long term plan as a basis for realigning ERS towards meeting MDGs; and • Provide a framework for M&E and policy dialogue

12. Outputs from the Assessments • A Comprehensive Kenya MDG Needs Assessment Report was published in August 2005; • Using information from the Needs Assessment Report and inputs from stakeholders, an MDG Status Report, 2005 was also published in August 2005; • The Status Report notes the significant change in policy environment and increased financial resources towards the achievement of the MDGs • The two reports were disseminated during the recent MDG+5 Summit in New York

13. Participation at the MDG+5 Summit • Kenya actively participated in MDG+5 Summit through: • The participation of H.E. the President, who also gave a statement; • A Kenyan Exhibition at the UN – to disseminate materials and information on the MDG work in Kenya; • A meeting of the seven MDG pilot countries: Kenya was the only country in Africa to have produced the Needs Assessment Report.

14. Participation at the MDG+5 Summit (Cont.) • A Kenyan specific side event that was hosted by H.E. the President and attended by representatives from development partners. The purpose was to share the challenges that country faces towards meeting the MDGs • In short, Kenya made a strong presence at the Summit.

15. Outcome of the MDG+5 Summit • The world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Millennium Declaration; • They reiterated their determination to ensure timely and full realization of the goals; and • The need for member states to adopt and implement by 2006, comprehensive national development strategies to meet the MDGs;

16. Challenges • Taking the process to the sub-national level; • Capacity development at all levels and in all sectors; • Alignment of national and sector plans, strategies, and implementation frameworks to the MDGs • Securing adequate resources for meeting the MDGs – improving aid uptake, filling resource gaps, mobilizing all stakeholders etc.

17. THANK YOU