On the 2nd of March, the Strathmore Business School (SBS) held the 4th virtual graduation ceremony, celebrating the accomplishments of 40 cooperative leaders graduating with a certificate in the Global Communities Public Policy Making Processes (PPMP). PPMP is an initiative designed and delivered by Global Communities’ USAID-funded CLEAR Program in collaboration with the SBS.
The capacity-building program was created to support County Executive Committee Members (CECM), Chief Officers, County Cooperative Commissioners as well as County Cooperative Directors and Officers to increase their abilities to work with cooperative stakeholders to set the policy agendas for their counties. This cohort’s participants represent county governments of Mandera, Uasin Gishu, Siaya, Kisumu and Kisii. Trainees of the past 3 cohorts were drawn from county governments of Narok, Kiambu, Nandi, Homa Bay, Nyeri. Mombasa, Kilifi, Taita Taveta, Makueni, Kericho, Bomet, Tana River, Vihiga, Nakuru and Bungoma and the Council of Governor (CoG).
The 40 hours training aims to enhance participant’s capacity in the areas of policy and legislative design, formulation, implementation and monitoring and evaluation; negotiation and advocacy upskilling as well as stakeholder mapping and engagement and agenda setting in the context of gender mainstreaming and cooperative development.
The keynote speaker, CEC Member for Member for Cooperatives and Enterprise Development-Uasin Gishu County, Ester Mutai, noted: “ Good understanding of public policy is essential for the governance and management of the various sectors of the economy including the cooperative sector. PPMP is a game changer in how policy formulation and implementation is undertaken in Kenya”
The USAID/ CLEAR Program’s Chief of Party, Kristin Wilcox Feldman emphasized that the cooperative policy and legislation drafted will set the tone for the Kenyan cooperative movement’s growth for the next generation of cooperators and must represent the best interests of Kenyan cooperators. “As cooperators, at all levels we have an obligation to support the movement to ‘build back better’ while also engaging in future back strategies where we purposefully think about growth opportunities in the sector. The Global Communities’ PPMP is not only an executive certificate program for policy stakeholders, it’s a forum for participants to discuss and debate how Kenyan cooperative policy should respond to the movement’s needs, how it will rise to focus on market readiness in a highly competitive environment and how to think critically about inclusivity and youth engagement in a rapidly changing economy. Kenya is in a pivotal moment in terms of cooperative policy, at the national and county levels, and we are working hard to support expanded county engagement.”
The PPMP was developed after the USAID/CLEAR program conducted a baseline in 33 Kenyan counties. They survey sought critical information to better understand the status and levels of policy formulation skills, understanding and appreciation of the county officer role in creating an enabling business environment for cooperatives to thrive. The findings of the survey revealed a significant gap in stakeholder engagement, policy development, and drafting skills. Global Communities therefore went ahead to develop a Policy Legislation Affairs (PLA) strategy that would provide for a wholistic approach. This approach included the formulation and competitive bidding for a public policy making process training institution to partner with to conduct this training.
After this executive training course, Global Communities will be engaging with each of the participating counties to support the drafting and public commentary period of cooperative policies in order to achieve a more inclusive policy reflective of cooperative imperatives.
To date, 196 cooperative leaders have successfully trained and graduated with a certificated in PPMP.
For further information, please contact USAID/CLEAR’s Communications and PR Specialist, Stephine Ogutu through hellosteveogutu@gmail.com.
Email
