Ruto hails UN support for Big Four agenda

NAIROBI, KENYA: Deputy President William Ruto has hailed the United Nations for its support to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda.

The DP said this when he met with the United Nations Country Team, who are in Kenya to discuss implementation plans for the UN Development Assistant Framework (UNDAF 2018-2022) which was launched in June 2018.

“The Government appreciates the UN for ensuring that the current UNDAF has identified those sectors in which we can invest strategically for future generations particularly Kenya’s youth, who are key to the Big Four agenda,” said Ruto.

The UNDAF 2018-2022 is a result of the intensive consultations with participation from different national stakeholders including line ministries, county governments, private sector and civil society.

Over 100 institutions were involved in the drafting and review led by the Treasury, Ministry of Devolution and ASAL, and the UN.

The UNDAF 2018-22 is designed to support the government to deliver on the new Mid-term Plan III, the Big 4 Agenda and Vision 2030.

Over the next five years, the UNDAF 2018 – 2022 will act as a blueprint for the UN’s support in Kenya that will see 21 specialised UN agencies including the World Bank and IMF based in country contribute Sh190 billion towards Kenya’s development agenda, providing comparative advantage to national development.

Emphasising on the importance of devolution as a mechanism for ensuring shared prosperity in Kenya emboldened by the UN’s full support; Ruto noted that, the demonstrated solid partnership between the UN and various arms of government in the development of the UNDAF 2018-22 sets a good model for future collaboration between development partners, and national and county governments that will ensure that no Kenyan is left behind.

UN Resident Coordinator Mr Siddharth Chatterjee said that the UNDAF is a commitment by the UN in Kenya not only to replace fragmentation with cohesion but also to support the Government in its pledge to move those at the periphery of development to the centre.

“We are determined that in our time, we must lay the foundations on which the hard work of the youth will be rewarded with the chance to lift themselves out of poverty. That is what reaping the demographic dividend is about,” said Mr. Chatterjee.

At the core of the implementation strategy of the UNDAF 2018-22 is the Delivering as One which focuses, on a deliberate move to entrench coherence in messaging and impact of all UN agencies in the country to leverage and optimise available resources for effectiveness.

In the Framework’s budget, 59 per cent is expected to support human capital development programmes. These are programmes within which two of the President’s Big Four, Housing and Universal Health Care, fall.

The other two, Food Security and Manufacturing, fall within the economic pillar of UNDAF and will take up 27 per cent of the budget. The remaining 15 per cent will go to transformative governance, which is a key enabler of the national priorities.