Actionaid Kenya a Case Study of an Ngo

Kenya – backgroundKenya lies in East Africa, between5ºN and 5ºS. It covers an area of582,644km2 and has a population ofover 30 million. Formerly a Britishcolony, Kenya achievedindependence in 1963, and itsfounding mission was to fightpoverty, ignorance and disease. Theinitial decade was full of promise.The economy flourished and percapita income rose, infrastructurewas built up and essential serviceswere increased across the country.Exports of tea and coffee, and anincrease in foreign tourism, providedvital foreign exchange.

Kenya todayUnfortunately the initial progresswas not sustained, and the lastdecade has been the worst sinceindependence. Population growthhas continued, whilst GDP hasdeclined. Industry and services arecollapsing, and illiteracy, disease andmalnutrition are still high. Lifeexpectancy has fallen from 59 yearsat independence to just 46 in 2001. In2003, Kenya was ranked 146 out of174 in the Human DevelopmentIndex. The number of people livingin absolute poverty (on less thanUS$1 per day) has risen from fewerthan 4 million in 1972 to over 15million today. Kenya is also thesecond most inequitable country inthe world, with the richest 10% ofpeople owning 47% of the country’snational income. With this financialinequity comes huge differences inpower and control over resources andservices. Gender inequity is also aproblem in Kenya, and even whenlaws have been changed in favour ofwomen, the practice still lags farbehind.

The reasons for this decline andinequality are complex and reach farbeyond Kenya itself.Mismanagement and corruption areto blame, but are only part of thepicture. Kenya, like manydeveloping countries, hasconsiderable debts and was forced toadopt structural adjustment policies.Public spending was cut and thecurrency (the Kenyan shilling, Kshs)was devalued in an attempt to make

more money available to pay backloans. At the same time, prices foragricultural exports (e.g. tea andcoffee) fell and biased internationaltrade rules made things even harderfor farmers. In recent years thetourist industry has suffered due toethnic violence, flooding and thethreat of terrorist attacks. All this hasmeant that Kenya has beenstruggling to pay an increasing debtusing a decreasing income, and poorpeople have suffered most.

In recent years there have been somepromising signs of improvement inKenya. Multi-party democracy wasintroduced in 1992, and a newgovernment was elected in 2003. Thepress has greater freedom and is nowable to report on issues which wereconsidered too politically sensitive afew years ago. The growth of nationaland local NGOs means that peoplehave more opportunities to makechanges in their lives and influencepolicies.

The ActionAid philosophy: arights-based approach todevelopmentActionAid is an international NGOworking to fight poverty in more than30 countries. Figure 3 shows therange of development work carriedout by NGOs, governments andmultilateral organisations. Over theyears ActionAid has evolved from aprimarily service deliveryorganisation to one concerned withthe promotion and defence of human

APRIL 2004

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Jane Davies

Geofile Online © Nelson Thornes 2004

ActionAid Kenya: a Case Study of an NGO

GeofileOnline

Figure 1: Kenya – development indicators

Year 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Population (millions) 17.00 20.51 24.34 28.02 31.29 Life expectancy at birth (years) 55.3 57.1 56.6 53.0 46.4 Gross primary school enrolment rate (%)* 111.6 98.1 93.0 84.2 78.0 Adult literacy rate (%) 57.8 65.2 72.1 78.1 83.3 Gross national income per capita (US$) 440 340 350 320 340

Source: African Development Bank Group* Gross primary school enrolment = number of children in primary school x 100

number of children in the country orregion who are of primary school age

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Increasing participation of poor and marginalised communities

Figure 3: Spectrum of development work

NGO – non-governmentalorganisation

INGO – international non-governmental organisation

BINGO - big international non-governmental organisation

CBO – community-basedorganisation

CSO – civil society organisation

rights. ActionAid do still providesome services, but only within long-term sustainable programmesworking for permanent change. Thisplaces ActionAid towards the right ofthe spectrum shown.

ActionAid’s strategy, ‘FightingPoverty Together’, has four maingoals:

1. Giving a voice to all. Everyonehas the same basic rights to safewater, food, education, shelter,healthcare, information and a lifeof dignity, but poor people areoften disproportionately deniedthese rights. ActionAid works byfirstly giving people the goods,services, knowledge and abilitiesthey need to improve their lives.Once the basics are in place it isthen possible to build the skills,knowledge and organisationalsupport that people need if lastingimprovements are going tohappen.

2. Linking people and groups withsimilar goals. ActionAid formspartnerships with localorganisations because they knowwhat communities really need.These organisations are givenfinancial support and training.Linking together people andorganisations with common goalsallows shared learning andincreases the impact ofcampaigning.

3. Influencing the powerful throughnational and internationalcampaigning. Working in poorcommunities will not have muchimpact in the long-term unless the

conditions that keep people poorcan also be changed. ActionAiduses experience in poorcommunities to inform nationaland international campaigns andhas teams working on education,food and HIV/AIDS.

4. Equal rights for women.Throughout the world, women aremore likely to be poor than mendue to their lower status and lackof power. ActionAid works formen and women to have equalstatus and challenges practicesthat violate women’s rights. Somedevelopment work has actuallyincreased the workload of womenby expecting them to fit additionalincome generation work into theiralready busy working days.ActionAid works with women toensure developments make theirwork easier.

ActionAid in KenyaActionAid began operating in Kenyain 1972 and now works with over amillion poor and marginalised peoplein remote rural areas and urbanslums. In recent years ActionAid hasincreasingly worked through localpartner organisations. This has led toa reduction in directly employed staffbut an increase in the number ofpeople who benefit from the work.Campaigning has also become abigger part of ActionAid Kenya’swork in the last few years.The examples below show howActionAid’s work in Kenya fits inwith the four organisational goals.

Giving a voice to allPeace and conflict resolutioncommittee, Isiolo districtIsiolo district near Mount Kenya ishot, dry and extremely poor. Peopleare mainly pastoralists and severalethnic groups live in the area leadingto conflict over resources such asgrazing land and water. Livestockrustling, banditry and violence havebeen common for many years.

In 2000, ActionAid helped set up thePeace Committee to resolve thereasons behind the conflict. Womenwere the first to start talking becausethey often suffered from the violence(through direct attacks, attacks onfamily members, loss of familyincome) despite rarely being theperpetrators. Gradually more peoplein the community changed theirattitudes towards violence and wantedto stop it.

‘There was a problem in Isiolo so theelders and the local administrationcame together. There are manycommunities in this district: theBorana, the Somali, the Meru, theTukana. We decided that one way toprevent theft and murder was toimpose fines.’

Muktar Ungiti, Chairman

A scale of fines for various crimes wasagreed and put into place. Fines wereimposed on communities rather thanindividuals and so there was a strongsocial pressure to keep the peace. Overthe next few months people started tohand in guns and levels of violentcrime decreased.

Busia Community DevelopmentOrganisation (BUCODEV) The River Nzoia runs across theBundalangi plains near Lake Victoriaand the border with Uganda. Theriver has always been prone toflooding and in the 1980s a 32kmdyke was built to try and solve theproblem. However the dyke waspoorly constructed and so burst onseveral occasions. In 1997, during theEl Niño rains, many people were lefthomeless by floods. The governmentfinally agreed to act. World Bankfunding was obtained in 2000 torepair the dyke properly, butcorruption meant that little of themoney was actually spent on therepairs and, once again, the job waspoorly done. In November 2001floods once again made peoplehomeless and forced them to sleep on

April 2004 no.471 ActionAid Kenya: a Case Study of an NGO


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Figure 4: Some of the areas whereActionAid works in Kenya

ExpenditureIndicator 1997 2001

(£million) 4.6 8.2 Number of areas in which work is taking place 14 22 Number of NGO partners 13 39 Number of networks/coalitions 0 11 Number of campaigns 0 7 Number of staff 289 120 % of staff who are women 41 46

Figure 5: Changes in ActionAid Kenya between 1997 and 2001



the remains of the dyke. There wereover 400 cases of cholera and 19people died.

At this point the people decided thatthey had to act and formedBUCODEV. Initially theyconcentrated on filling in the gaps inthe dyke and making temporaryrepairs. ActionAid Kenya supportedBUCODEV in raising awareness ofthe problem and lobbying thegovernment for action. Eventually thegovernment and World Bankinspected the dyke and it was agreedthat the repair work had not beendone properly. BUCODEV forced thegovernment to release approximately£127,000 to get the work doneproperly.

Linking people and groupswith similar goalsBasic rights campaignAlthough Kenya signed up to theUN Declaration of Human Rightsand recognised political and religiousrights in its Constitution there wasno mention of social or economicrights. In 1996, Kenya started aConstitutional Review process andActionAid has contributed as shownin the flow chart in Figure 6.

At the moment the review is in thefinal stages and the Constitutionshould be agreed by the end of theyear. The combined impact of theorganisations in the alliance has beenfar greater than 12 individualcampaigns could ever have been.

Sugar campaign for change(SUCAM)Sugar cane is essential to Kenya’seconomy, but the people producing itare mostly small farmers, who areoften exploited by the sugar industry.Kenya makes about £24 million ayear revenue from sugar, but farmersare owed more than £16 million indelayed payments. Sugar companieshave always tried to exclude farmersfrom their decision-makingprocesses, and farmers suggest thatthe companies want to keep thempoor in order to stop them becomingindependent.

ActionAid realised that farmerswould have greater bargaining powerif they worked together, and sohelped to set up SUCAM. This NGOinformed farmers of their rights andencouraged them to work together.SUCAM successfully lobbied the

government, and in 2002 a newSugar Bill was adopted; the first lawto regulate the sugar industry. ThisBill states that 7 out of the 14members of the Sugar Board must beelected farmer representatives, andfarmers now have to be paid within30 days of their crop being collected.SUCAM and ActionAid are nowworking to ensure that the billbecomes reality, and are continuingto lobby the Kenyan government torecognise the rights and interests offarmers.

Influencing the powerfulthrough national andinternational campaignsElimu Yetu Coalition (educationfor all, EYC)In 1998, ActionAid chose educationas one of its long-term campaigningissues. The international Elimucampaign was formed with the aim ofensuring a quality primary educationfor every child. Elimu supportednational coalitions and representedtheir views to various internationalbodies such as the World Bank andUNESCO. In 1999, the Elimu Yetucoalition was set up in Kenya withsupport from the global campaign. Itaimed to influence national policy toensure that every child in Kenya hadaccess to high quality primaryeducation. Input to theConstitutional Review process(described earlier) ensured thateducation was recognised as a basichuman right, and provision wasrecognised as the responsibility ofthe state.

At the World Education Forum inDakar in 2000, Kenya was one of 164countries that committed toproviding education for all by 2015.EYC and ActionAid supported theKenyan government in theparticipatory development of a planfor ensuring this. A victory wasgained in 2002 when primary schoolfees were abolished and EYC hasworked to ensure that schools are freein practice as well as in policy. Thisshould start to reverse the decline inprimary school enrolment shown inFigure 1.

Figure 6: Constitution Review process

Figure 7: SUCAM farmer

© Thierry Geneen/Panos Pictures/ActionAid

Government actions Joint actions ActionAid actions

1996Constitutions Review starded andReview Commission set up

Lawyers drew up a draft Charter ofBasic Rights

Lawyers produced final Charter ofBasic Rights

The Draft charter was discussedin parliament

Final Charter of Basic Rightsreceived wide acclaim fromReview Commission The alliance including ActionAid

was invited to Constitutiondrafting workshops

Draft constitution was producedincluding all points in the Charterof Basic Rights

Comments were fed back to theReview Commission

ActionAid formed an alliance of 12organisations with similar goals

Workshops were held to gatherthe views of normal people

ActionAid formed an alliance of 12organisations with similar goals

These views were publicised inthe media

The alliance held public meetingsto get ordinary people’scomments on the draft

Kenya Coalition on Access toEssential Medicine (KCAEM)More than 2 million Kenyans areliving with HIV/AIDS and this ishaving a devastating effect on theeconomy and social structures. Thedisease cannot be cured, but it can betreated to allow people to live alonger, healthier life. Unfortunatelyfew people in sub-Saharan Africa haveaccess to the antiretroviral medicinesneeded. The prices set by the bigpharmaceutical companies are toohigh, and trade rules restrict theproduction of cheaper copies(generics). ActionAid Kenya plays aprominent role in ActionAid’sinternational HIV/AIDS campaignand has promoted the treatmentneeds of poor people to variousaudiences in Europe and the US.Recently there have been relativesuccesses at lobbying the WorldTrade Organisation to reduce patentprotection on antiretroviral drugs,although a lot of work remains to bedone.

KCAEM was made up of 20organisations in Kenya, includingActionAid. They campaigned forpeople’s right to medicine, and weresuccessful in getting the average priceof antiretroviral drugs reduced fromabout £650 to £56 a month. In May2002 the coalition managed to defeatpressure from the pharmaceuticalindustry, and new legislation wasintroduced to enable the governmentto make and buy generic drugs. Thislegislation would not have beenpossible without the support of theinternational campaigning network.

Equal rights for womenThakara Women Water UsersAssociation (TWWUA)Women traditionally played aminimal role in developmentactivities in Thakara, partly becausethey were not allowed to sit inmeetings with men. Women wereexpected to do most of the householdchores and would walk up to 15km aday to collect water.

Consultation with the Thakaracommunity revealed that access toclean water was their main problemand ActionAid Kenya identified alocal river as a potential source ofpiped water. After several discussionsit was agreed to put women in chargeof the project to reflect theirtraditional role. Women were trainedin management techniques,

protection of the water supply,maintenance techniques and recordkeeping. This improved theirconfidence, self-esteem and power inthe community. Eleven separate kioskmanagement committees were set upand 14,000 households now have easyaccess to clean water. Profits from thekiosks have been used to runeducation courses.

‘I never dreamed that I could beinvolved in a project that wouldimpact my life in such a way.’

Stella Kobia

Lelaitich Mara women’s savingsgroupIn 1988, a group of women inChepkebit village decided to buildtanks to collect rainwater so that theywould not have to drink dirty waterfrom the river. They got an initialgrant and used the money they madefrom selling the rainwater to buildmore tanks. The women soon realisedthat they could work together to solveother problems too, and so they set upa savings group. Women who wouldnot normally be considered for bankloans were able to borrow smallamounts of money to set upbusinesses, improve homes or payschool fees.

In the late 1990s, ActionAid helpedthe group with its most ambitiousproject yet. The group used a smallloan to set up a business selling dieseland paraffin. A young single mother,Alice Koibasot, is employed to runthe station, which earns about £170 aday. The profit is used to provideeven bigger loans to members. Menhave been amazed that women areable to run a business so efficiently,and their respect for women hasgrown.

Why did these projectswork?There are underlying themes behindthese, and other ActionAid projects,that have ensured their success:

• Empowering people to take actionfor themselves

• Focus on long-term change ratherthan delivering services

• Working with communities andCBOs to identify real needs

• Building on existing networks andinstitutions

• Using community based work toinform campaigns

• Linking groups to strengthencampaigning work.



1. (a) Describe the trends in life expectancy and gross national incomeper capita between 1981 and 2001.(b) Suggest reasons for these changes.

2. Explain, with examples, ActionAid’s approach to delivering servicessuch as education and water. What is the reasoning behind this approach?

3. ActionAid aims to work with the most marginalised and vulnerablepeople and enable them to stand up for their rights. Give evidence fromthis article which supports this claim.

4. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each of the ways ofworking shown in Figure 3. Do you agree with ActionAid’s approach? Give reasons for your answer.

F o c u s Q u e s t i o n s

Figure 8: Alice at the pumps

© Anne Fisher/ActionAid

Documents

Actionaid Kenya a Case Study of an Ngo