Kenyan Node

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Kenyan Node

• Katindi Sivi Njonjo

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About IEA

• Budget Information Programme
• Focuses on analysing the national budget
• Regulation programme
• Focuses on the legal framework governing economic
  activity
• Trade Information Programme
• Focuses on regional and international trade
  relations
• Futures Programme
• Focuses on Utilization of futures methodologies
  for research and policy analysis

• What is it?
• Think tank
• Doing policy analysis and research
• It is non partisanno political or any party
  affiliation
• It is a membership organization

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Kenyan NodeGoals for 2011
Future Effect of Kenyas Youth Bulge
Mazingira scenarios
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Research into Kenyas Youth Bulge

• Documented the state of youth in Kenya
• Compiling a research compendium with the
  following papers
• Demographics
• Health
• Education
• Political participation
• Family
• Un/employment
• ICT and international Migration
• Crime
• Vigilantism
• Entertainment
• Sports
• Conducting countrywide scenarios conversations

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Main Message 1 Future Effects of Kenyas Youth
Bulge

• Kenyas population is increasing by 1M annually
• Though women are giving birth later, to fewer
  children and spacing them more
• Demographic structure is changing and has various
  implications of Kenyas political, economic and
  social stability
• Phenomenon will create a youth bulge in 10 years

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Future Implications

• Economic Implications
• Demographics trends will trigger low economic
  performance av. 3.6 due to high dependency
• Exacerbate unemployment beyond the current 25
  rate
• High cost of living and especially high food
  prices is causing major disillusionment and will
  be an eventual trigger of violence

• Political implications
• Demographic trends are likely to exacerbate youth
  violence (through gangs, vigilante groupings and
  militia groupings)

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Main Message 2 Future Effects of Kenyas
Reproductive Health

• Dangerous trends due to risky sexual behavior
  hence
• High teenage pregnancies (1 out of 4 children
  born in Kenya are unplanned for) thus
  contributing to high pop
• Rising HIV and STI infection rates and risk
  having high mortality rates of Kenyas workforce
  in the future

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Achievements

1. Presented youth facts to over 1000
   multi-stakeholders
2. Influenced some UN agencies programming. They are
   revising their interventions (poured a lot of
   money in rural areas whereas in some cases, the
   need is in urban areas or slums)
3. Young people are tokenized and manipulated. This
   work is passing the message that this is not
   sustainable leading to prioritization of youth
   issues religious leaders, donors and policy
   makers (especially in preparation to next years
   elections)
4. Influenced the prime ministers youth round table
   and employment summit
5. Popularizing issues of demographics and
   reproductive health for political stability

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Dissemination Strategy

1. Using social media to popularize the work among
   the youth mainly facebook and twitter
2. Using dramaturgy to encourage creativity in
   scenarios building among youth
3. Recording all conversations and will be producing
   a documentary of the stories

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Possible youth scenarios in Kenya

• Held 9 scenarios workshops in Kenyas provinces
  (about 200 young people)
• Main driving forces
• All teams chose governance (public participation,
  constitutionalism, political leadership)
• 5 chose technology,
• 2 chose unemployment, 2 chose access to relevant
  and quality education
• 1 chose globalization
• 1 chose the cost of living
• 1 chose the land tenure system.
• To hold a consolidation workshop and agree on
  overall scenarios stories

?
Technology
?
?
Governance
?
?
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Policy Proposals

• Strategy
• Adequate Investment in Reproductive Health i.e.
  reduce the unmet need for family planning
• Improve education of the girl child which has a
  direct co-relation with early marriages, child
  and maternal mortality rates etc
• Adequate and Relevant Education to prepare youth
  for meaningful employment
• Urbanization policies

• Policies should be geared towards achieving a
  favorable age structure
• i.e. A large proportion of the population
  comprised of working-age adults, with smaller
  proportions and slower growth of dependent
  populations children and older adults

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Environmental scenarios

• Could not get funding because of donor focus on
  reform programmes
• Implementing the new constitution
• TJRC
• Electoral reforms
• ILRI conducting a big environmental study
• Oxford contacts trying to link me up with the
  scenarios phase of the project
• I may need to synergize with the if there is room.

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Asante Sana!