SDGPP in Kenya

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

These 17 Goals build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.

The SDGs work in the spirit of partnership and pragmatism to make the right choices now to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations. They provide clear guidelines and targets for all countries to adopt in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They tackle the root causes of poverty and unite us together to make a positive change for both people and planet.

Progress:

• Strong economic growth;
• Reduced overall poverty levels.

Challenges:

• Increasing inequality.

SDG priorities:

• Creating opportunities for accelerating sustainable livelihood growth in rural, semi-arid and arid areas;
• Empowering the poor and vulnerable with skills, knowledge and opportunities to respond to market needs;
• Establishing private sector partnerships and advocating for pro-poor investments and businesses.

Progress:

• Strong economic growth;
• Reduced overall poverty levels.

Challenges:

• Marginal drop in proportion of underweight children below 5 years;
• Majority of people in the country are still below the recommended dietary level;
• Severe food shortages due to recurrent climate-related natural disasters;
• Loss of high potential agricultural land due to rapid urbanization and expansion of infrastructure;
• Poor infrastructure in rural areas continues to affect market access for both producers and buyers of agricultural produce;
• Rapid population increase coupled with decrease in food production continues to affect food security in the country.

SDG priorities:

• Increasing agricultural productivity and improving food security;
• Developing aquaculture to encourage investments along the value chain thus making fish farming a viable commercial venture.

Progress:

• Introduction of maternity services in all health facilities;
• Increased coverage and scope of immunization of children;
• Moderate reduction in child mortality;
• Halt and reversal of spread in HIV / AIDS and Tuberculosis.

Challenges:

• Slow progress on maternal health;
• Shortfall in staff and skills capacity;
• Low health seeking behaviour and inadequate child care practices among care-givers;
• Inadequate financial resources;
• Poor access to health services including geographical and cost of services, inadequate referral systems;
• High occurrence of adolescent pregnancies;
• High poverty levels in most households that has exacerbated the nutritional status of mothers and children, and hence poor child health outcomes;
• Low awareness of HIV status among those infected;
• Low access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services.

SDG priorities:

• Developing guidelines for an Integrated Health Management System;
• Expansion of immunization coverage and package;
• Distribution of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) for malaria prevention and improved Antenatal Care (ANC);
• Capacity development of medical staff;
• Investing in infrastructure;
• Running behavioural change programs for general population and Most at Risk Population (MARPs) to promote safe sex by using condoms and reducing multiple sexual partners;
• Developing and implementing National Malaria Strategy;
• Improving TB diagnosis and surveillance through the adoption of new diagnostic technologies;
• Involving communities in TB control through engagement of CSOs in advocacy, communication and social mobilization;
• Developing electronic data collection system to improve data quality, financial management and program management. 

Progress:

• Almost 100% universal primary education;
• Steady progress in literacy among both young women and men.

Challenges:

• Challenges in secondary education rates;
• Inadequate number and inequitable distribution of teachers, which results in high pupils/teacher ratio in some schools;
• Inadequate physical facilities have severely overstretched learning facilities thereby posing serious risks on the active participation of pupils in school activities;
• Gender, socio-economic and regional disparities negatively impact on access, retention and participation of pupils.

SDG priorities:

• Distributing teachers in a more appropriate and effective way;
• Improving poorly equipped facilities;
• Improving quality of education;
• Improving Early Childhood Development;
• Addressing disruptions from climate change and conflict.

Progress:

• Stronger female political representation;
• Strong female ratio in primary education.

Challenges:

• Most women can only access traditional jobs/roles;
• Women have limited access to factors of production and market;

• Women remain particularly vulnerable to recurrent natural disasters.

SDG priorities:

• Enhancing women's skills to access better jobs;
• Fighting against harmful traditional practices (FGM);
• Eliminating gender-based violence.

Progress:

• Improved water access and sanitation.

Challenges:

• Poor water sanitation/sewerage accessibility due to low coverage ratio of the sewerage system as a result of rapid increase of urban population.

SDG priorities:

• Rehabilitating, expanding and developing Water and Sanitation/Sewerage Infrastructure.

Progress: 

• Forthcoming

Challenges:

• Over-reliance on traditional biomass energy (only 20% of households are connected to the national electricity grid).

SDG priorities:

• Developing a diversified portfolio of power generation assets that is expected to shift over time from high dependency on increasingly unpredictable hydro-power and fuel price sensitive thermal options to greener, cheaper, more dependable and sustainable sources.

Progress:

• Strong economic growth.

Challenges:

• Women and youth are mostly employed by informal sectors;
• Youth unemployment.

SDG priorities:

• Promoting entrepreneurship and acquisition of vocational skills, targeting women, youth and marginalized groups;
• Focusing on value-chain development approaches;
• Capitalizing on recent discoveries in oil, gas, and mineral resources to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth and ensure environmental preservation, job creation and local development;

• Facilitating private sector development driven by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Progress:

• Significant advancement in ICT.

Challenges:

• Electronic waste (e-waste) management-disposal of obsolete equipment’s, gadgets and parts, etc. is posing a major threat to the environment;
• Issues of privacy, e-security, cyber-crime, intellectual property rights and associated security issues/ threats;

• High regional communication costs.

SDG priorities:

• Developing Human Resource capacity in ICT;
• Translating ICT into programs that add value to the education system, the agricultural sector, the health sector, governance, leadership and ultimately achieve the overall goal of driving economic growth.

Progress: 

• Forthcoming

Challenges:

• Increasing inequality.

SDG priorities:

• Addressing regional disparities.

Progress: 

• Forthcoming

Challenges:

• Rapid growth of urban population living in slums;
• Gaps in the enactment, implementation, and coordination of Disaster Risk Management policies and in national early response capacities.

SDG priorities:

• Undertaking slum upgrading projects in urban areas, with the involvement of private sector, civil society and faith based organizations;
• Capacity building of institutions, communities and vulnerable people, particularly women, to increase their resilience and reduce the risks and impacts of disasters and shocks, including from climate change;
• Establishing and operationalizing coordination mechanisms and systems for mitigation and preparedness, early warning and timely response to disasters.

SDG Priorities:

• Forthcoming

Progress:

• Reduction in forest loss and degradation.

Challenges:

• Over-reliance on traditional biomass energy;
• Rapid increase of urban population.

SDG priorities:

• Formulating national climate change strategy;
• Controlling the import, use and consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances;
• Building capacity in climate change mitigation and adaptation to increase the resilience of the communities and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change;
• Securing access to Climate Finance.

Challenges:

• Weak environmental governance;
• Water scarcity and pollution from industry.

SDG priorities:

• Developing and implementing natural resource management policy;
• Strengthening environmental governance;
• Fostering biodiversity protection.

Progress:

• Reduction in forest loss and degradation;
• Restoration of 123,179.9 ha of degraded areas through protection of natural regeneration and deployment of a workforce of 2,500 armed forest rangers to protect the natural forests through regular patrols;
• Establishment of Kenya Forest Service. 

Challenges:

• Deforestation and desertification;
• Biodiversity loss;
• Encroachment on wildlife habitats;
• Land degradation. 

SDG priorities:

• Developing and implementing natural resource management policy;
• Strengthening environmental governance;
• Fostering biodiversity protection;
• Combating illegal wildlife trade and running anti-poaching campaigns. 

Progress:

• Increased and equitable access to services by citizens;
• Increased level of confidence in delivery of public services;
• Improved ability of County Governments to establish performance management systems and accountability mechanisms in the utilization of public resources and improve on public service delivery;
• Increased oversight role by constitutional commissions and independent bodies by providing policy guidance and informing the citizenry of the status of implementation of devolved governance system;
• Vibrant civil society to engage citizens in development.

Challenges:

• Corruption;
• Localized conflicts due to lack of effective regulatory and legislative frameworks for extractive industries;
• Increased competition for natural resources, access to water and grazing pastures between pastoralists, refuges and host communities.

SDG priorities:

• Implementing inclusive and equitable frameworks for natural resource management, including extractives;
• Improving access to justice through establishment of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms with non-state actors.

Progress:

• Steady increase in exports.

Challenges:

• Reduction of the development expenditure due to budget constraints;
• Delays in development partners commitments.

SDG priorities:

• Fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration with private sector, civil society, philanthropy, etc.