Donor: Tetra Tech International Development, funded by UKAid, Department for International Development (DfID)
Duration: 5 years, initially from March 2020 to March 2021
Reinvent program aims to reduce insecurity and violent extremism in selected regions of Kenya managed by Tetra Tech International Development and funded by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) formerly, UKAid Department for International Development (DfID). The program aims to enhance Kenya’s capacity and capability to address inter-communal conflict, weak community-police relations, violence against women and girls (VAWG), violent extremism and election-related violence. The project builds on the experience of the Jamii Thabiti Programme (2014-19). Tetra Tech in the REINVENT Program through Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development (CCGD) has partnered with National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) and State Department for Gender (SDfG) among other Government (GOK) agencies to work in eighteen counties.
Scope of work/counties
The program is being implemented in 18 counties; Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo, Tana River, Lamu, Laikipia, West Pokot, Samburu, Turkana, Bungoma, Kisumu, Baringo, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi. The program aims to ensure that Kenyan residents (rights holders) benefit from services that address violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Goals and Objectives:
1) Advocacy on the current status of enactment of policies and implementation of legislation on Violence Against Women and Girls and/ GBV for accountability of duty bearers
2)Strengthen National and County coordination mechanisms for GBV mitigation
3) Support framework for Safe Houses / Shelters as a response to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
4) Advocacy for budgetary allocation towards prevention and response of GBV.
1) The Maputo Protocol Scorecard was adopted by NGEC as the commission’s product. NGEC is now taking the lead position and following up with SDfG, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a well as the Attorney General’s office for adoption and country reporting regulations
2)The support to GBV GSWG ensured that:
i)SDfG effectively responded to GBV during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as coordinating the memberships and influencing policy issues in various platforms including TV interviews
ii) GBV Committee had an impact on the synergy of initiatives towards policy advocacy to influence debates and conversations on key issues during the pandemic.
iii)CCGD facilitation of Virtual meetings for COVID 19 for SDfG to coordinate responses to GBV emergencies during the pandemic allowed for improved mechanisms of collecting information on SGBV in respective counties and sharing it at a central point in real-time for effective response through the coordination
iv) Support to SDfG in the rollout of the IGF assisted the GSWG to synergize interventions in the counties to have a greater impact.
3)Documentation and Publications:
With funding from the REINVENT program, CCGD has made technical input as well as supported NGEC and SDfG to finalize on documents for publication. i) State Law Office taking up of the “Romeo” clause suggestion in the Sexual Offences Act following the support to NGEC in holding the submissions gathering meeting for Age of Consent for Sex and development of the publication.
ii) CCGD has developed organization-specific Gender Markers for REINVENT for tracking gender mainstreaming across their thematic workstreams
iii) Contributions to Localization of the 2nd Kenya National Action Plan (KNAP) for county use
iv)Development of Gender Factsheets for socializing agents
These publications include;
i) Age of Consent for sex, Sexual Offences Act
ii) Maputo protocol scorecard, (pending adoption/finalization at SDfG, MFA, AGs)
iii) Guidelines for Equality and Inclusion Technical Working Group
iv) Model Safe House/ Shelters Guidelines (pending finalization at NGEC)
v) Expanding Women’s Territory in Leadership and Nurturing the Nation
The Gender Sector Working Groups (GSWG) under the Ministry of Public Service and Gender (MPSG) is made up of four committees, namely:
1) Women in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution;
2) Gender-Based Violence; Women in Economic
3) Empowerment and Financial Inclusion;
4) Women in Leadership and Decision-Making. The Women in Leadership and Decision-Making committee is charged with bringing together its actors for the effective and coordinated delivery of development results. It is a task force that consults on the current women’s position, including leadership in appointive and elective positions, policy review/implementation, and support to women’s leadership at all levels and creates an opportunity for a more holistic engagement in matters related to Women in Leadership.
The task force is co-chaired by of African Women Studies Centre (AWSC) where Prof. Wanjiku Kabira is the Director and Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA) Chaired by Hon. Gathoni Wamuchomba (MP-Kiambu County) as appointees of the Ministry. Among the initiatives of the committee is tracking accountability to gender equality including the progress of women’s participation in leadership and decision making. The committee in 2020 developed a booklet: Expanding Women’s Territory and Nurturing the Nation.
