Letter from The Centre (The Collaborative
Centre for Gender and Development) to the Head of DFID Kenya,
as part of DFID Kenya's consultation on its Country Assistance
Plan 2004-07
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to give
our input into the DFID Kenya Country Assistance Plan, 2004-07.
We have looked at the draft and have a few comments to make particularly
those regarding gender mainstreaming in the poverty reduction
programmes in Kenya. We hope the attached comments will inform
DFID's Kenya Country Plan 2004-07 in the promotion of sustainable
economic growth.
1. PART I: CONTEXT
A: Summary
A1. Under the key social indicators that
have negatively affected development in Kenya a fifth bullet should
be added to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on national development.
A3. The social-cultural factor of Kenyans
being industrious and positive change oriented should be factored
into this paragraph of abling factors to poverty reduction.
B: The challenge
B1. The issue of gender and poverty should
come out clearly as it is impractical to address poverty reduction
without taking into consideration gender perspective. This is
because gender is one of the factors contributing to widespread
poverty, with women constituting the largest single category of
those living below the national poverty line in Kenya.
B3. Again the issue of gender in education
should come out clear since completion rates differ between girls
and boys in addition to the regional variation.
B4. The issue of gender and HIV/AIDS is
completely silent though according to reality HIV/AIDS affects
men and women differently in relation to:
(i) infection due to their biology and social-cultural
roles;
(ii) as care takers for the infected and
affected resulting into reduction of the time they commit to productive
works; and
(iii) no acknowledgement or remuneration
for these care services in the national budget.
B5. What is the impact of lack of access
to safe water on women's time use in terms of reproductive and
productive work?
B7. This article addresses some of the issues
on gender and HIV/AIDS raised in B4 above.
B8. How has social exclusion of the majority
of Kenyan citizenry, in addition to the other factors mentioned
in this article, affected the decline in Kenya's economic performance?
B10. Agriculture remains one of the key
sectors contributing to the GDP and employs 60% of total employment.
The fact that women constitute the majority of those who provide
labour force in this sector should be stated. Secondly, what is
the impact of the fact that the majority of those women working
in the farms only have access and no ownership or control of the
land?
C: The Government's response
(i) Strengthening the poverty focus of the
ERS
Between articles C5 and C9 the failure of the
government to take gender into consideration in the planning and
programming for poverty reduction programmes as well as in actual
resource allocation should be considered as a risk in achieving
the ERS goals.
Similarly, gender inequality in Kenya should
be seen as one of the risks to poverty reduction in Kenya and
should therefore be one of the factors included, in the table
below article 12, as a high impact risk unless it is addressed.
PART II—UK
ASSISTANCE PLANS
E: UK development partnership
If gender is a key factor in poverty reduction,
as illustrated in the foregoing comments, then it would be important
for DFID to factor it in its key objectives in promoting sustainable
economic growth in Kenya. Thus, the need to allocate resources
to gender mainstreaming in its (DFID) poverty reduction programmes
in Kenya.
PART III—ANNUAL
PLAN
G: Monitoring the impact of DFID activities
The issue of gender mainstreaming and women's
empowerment should be captured under the Objective on "Promote
Sustainable Economic Growth that Benefits poor people" as
one of the annual change forecast and appropriate DFID supporting
activities identified in the relevant column.
NB: Annex 1 spells out the Millennium Development
Goals of which the issue of gender is a key concept. Thus, the
need for DFID to factor it in its programmes aimed at poverty
reduction in Kenya.
February 2004
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