Planning and Formulation of the Rural Development Program in Western Kenya – Improving Rural Livelihoods and Productivity

The Finnish bilateral development cooperation with Kenya is based on supporting Kenya's national development strategy Vision 2030 and its five-year Medium Term Plans. The strategy is based on three pillars – economic, social and political – and its aim is to transform Kenya into a modern, globally competitive, middle income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by the year 2030. The Finnish Development Policy programme for 2007 stressed the need to promote economically, socially and ecologically sustainable development.

The Governments of Kenya and Finland decided to initiate a rural development programme in Western Kenya. A concept note for the Programme was prepared by the representatives for the Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030, Kenya (MoPND) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland (MFA).

The Government of Finland already financed several programmes in the Western Kenya. The previous support, which started late 70's, concentrated mainly on three sectors: primary health care; water and sanitation; and livestock/production. The MFA launched an evaluation of these projects in order to analyze the impact they have created as well as the lessons learned during the years. The results of this evaluation informed the preparation of the new integrated development programme.

The assignment was carried out in two parts. A planning phase included identification and design of the Programme based on a field visit and on the Concept Note prepared jointly by the MoPND and MFA. The first phase led to a draft programme plan. The second part of the assignment was the detailed formulation and preparation phase of the programme document of the Programme for the period 2010-2014.