NATIONAL COMMISSION ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT The Impact of Development Cooperation in Reaching MDGs

1. Development Cooperation Forum Helsinki, Finland June 3rd-4th.2010 NATIONAL COMMISSION ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT TheImpact of DevelopmentCooperation in ReachingMDGs Presented by: REGINA G.MWATHA (Ph.D) CHAIRPERSON, NATIONAL COMMISSION ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT KENYA

2. Commitments at International and Regional levels • Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) • The Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the advancement of women (NFLS) • The Beijing Platform of Action • The MDGs • AU Protocol- signed and not ratified • EAC Treaty

3. Commitments at the National level • National Gender Policy (2000) • Sessional Paper No 2 of 2006 on Gender equality and development • Sexual Offences Act, 2006 • National Vision 2030 goals • National Medium Term Plans • 30% Presidential directive on public sector that all employment and promotion must be women

4. Ongoing and recently ongoing commitments • Kenya External Resources Policies- Almost complete • Proposed new constitution- being debated

5. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • To initiate the implementation of the 2005 Paris Declaration on ‘Aid Effectiveness’, the Government of Kenya (GoK) has set up a four tier hierarchy aid coordination structure for donors to better harmonize, align, and coordinate their activities. • the Aid Effectiveness Group (AEG) at technical level, discussing specifically the technical support from aid.

6. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • Donor Coordination Group involving the donor community for harmonising themselves • The high-level Development Partnership Forum convened by the Prime Minister that discusses additional issues including political that may affect implementation of programmes • The National Executive and Social Council chaired by the President discuss policy at the highest level in the country

7. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • 1998, the establishment of the Gender Donor Round Table (GDRT). Designed as a platform for discussion on the implications of the Paris Declaration for gender equality and to coordinate activities among players, GDRT fostered strategic engagement in a process of donor harmonization, alignment and coordination (HAC) and awareness-raising among members on gender equality issues in Kenya • The development of the Kenya Joint Assistance Strategy (KJAS) 2008-2012 provided the framework for donor support to national development planning, and gave impetus to several initiatives to address gender equality.

8. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • The framework for expansion has been the Kenya Vision 2030 and the Medium Term Plan (MTP), which has focused on rapid growth with macroeconomic stability, rehabilitation and expansion of infrastructure, investment in human capital, strengthening institutions of governance and revitalizing productive sectors.

9. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • In line with the 2002- 2007 Economic Recovery for Wealth and Employment Creation (ERWEC) the Vision 2030 and the MTP was designed by taking full cognizance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). • Aid Effectiveness Group (AEG) meets once every month while the Development Partnership Forum meets four times a year

10. Provision of Structures Which Enable Dialogue • 2005 the GOK created the Public Finance Management Reform coordinating Unit (PFMR) to serve as a secretariat or focal point to coordinate reforms. PFMR constituted by government and development partners

11. Ongoing and Recently Ongoing Commitments • After the Post election violence of 2008 • The Truth Justice and Reconciliation commission -2009 • National Cohesion and Reconciliation cohesion -2009 • Independent Interim Electoral Commission- 2008

12. Areas Where Aid Helped • Aid has focused largely on: • Gender-based violence issues; • Governance, human Rights and justice systems • Education and health, • HIV and AIDS just to mention a few key areas

13. Areas That Need ore of focus on Aid Commitment to support resources (capital human resources) for national gender machineries to capacitate them deliver on their mandate A purposeful direction in programmatic gender mainstreaming in all government sectors And partnered at all times with the national gender machinery at the national level

14. Areas That Need More of Focus on Aid • More focus needed in the actual implementation of international and regional conventions and protocols as well as national laws that address gender and women rights issues more seriously • More focus needed in measuring implementation of international and regional conventions and protocols as well as laws that address gender and women rights issues more seriously

15. Areas That Need More of Focus on Aid • Support processes in the enactment of Laws and policies supporting gender equality and reviewing of laws and policies which are gender blind

16. Areas That Need More of Focus on Aid • Most resources are focused on infrastructure programmes which is good, but more needs to be done to support micro-finance and small enterprises for women and poor men accessing markets, on value addition, handling taxation, and connecting with local authorities • Micro-finance has been very successful in Kenya. This will directly impact on the MDGs of reducing poverty and hunger

17. Tracking the impact of development assistance on gender equality and women's empowerment • The impact of development assistance need to be tracked using nationally agreed monitoring indicators developed by the local government and the development partners as well as civil society and the media. • More aid could flow in the arena of establishing baselines, which help measure up to date especially on poverty issues etc. This will enable monitoring take off from a known avenue.

18. Tracking the impact of development assistance on gender equality and women's empowerment • Strengthen subsequent institutions on a single chain of service provision. • Gender Responsive Budgeting which is not getting a lot of attention from development partners is critical for the response and preventions of GBV; in ensuring equality on the all the other MDGs and for Kenya the Pillars of the Vision 2030

19. Although GRB is tedious and takes long to get results, studies in developing countries and in Africa show that high Gender Budget Support recipients have performed better, often significantly so, in the four MDGs covering primary enrolment, gender parity in education, child mortality, and access to water, and also in terms of improvements in the Human Development Index, in the period 2002-2007. This finding applied across all ODA recipients, across ACP countries only, and (with the exception of child mortality) across Africa (Jonathan Beynon and AndraDusu 2010)

20. Challenges • Need to increase use of existing financial and procurement systems to cut the cost of aid delivery as indicated in Paris Declaration • Need to increase the programmes especially to government parastatals and national gender machinery through the basket funding rather than Appropriation in Aid ( A in A) because it is difficult to monitor by the respective national government

21. Challenges • At the national level programming and consequent financial disbursements could try and adjust to the national financial budget year

22. THANKYOU