A new dawn for south western counties in Kenya

On 13th to 15th April 2016 Members of county assembly from the south western Kenya (Homabay, Kisii, Siaya, Kisumu and Migori counties) together with county clerks, young people and civil societies met at tourist hotel in Homabay County for the launch of the south western Kenya inter-county sexual reproductive health and rights MCA champion network held by an organization known as Network for Adolescents and Youths of Africa (NAYA-KENYA).

The members of county assembly were aware that the current generation of young people is the largest ever and recognized that adolescents and youths in all counties are a major resource for development and key agents of social change, economic development and technological innovations. Moreover, they stressed out that young people are at the center of realizing county, national, regional, and global development goals including vision 2030, agenda 2063 and the Global Sustainable Development goals
 

During the discussion, the MCAs noted with a lot of concern that young people from Homabay, Kisumu, Kisii, Siaya and Migori counties post poor reproductive health indicators in the country. They admitted that policy makers and leaders have a role to play in reversing these serious health challenges facing young people. Although they acknowledged the national and county government’s commitment to improving the sexual and reproductive health and rights situation of young people in Kenya and in the south western counties, they were convinced that lasting solutions to the recurrent and emerging youth challenges can only be found if both governments involve young people.

As a result all the members of county assembly from south western Kenya voluntarily agreed to do the following:

1. 
   Meaningfully involve young people in policy and governance processes to the full extent of the Kenyan law and to the best of their abilities.
2. 
   Advocate for increased percentage of health care facilities providing comprehensive adolescents and youth friendly services including family planning as per the national adolescents and youth friendly services guideline 2016.
3. 
   Advocate for increased budgetary allocation to sexual reproductive health and rights of young people and provide oversight to ensure effective and efficient utilization of public resources.
4. 
   Link, learn and share the best practices on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights evidence based on programing and advocacy.
5. 
   Improve the policy and legal environment of sexual reproductive health and rights by contributing to the development, dissemination, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of county and national laws and policies.
6. 
   Advocate for increased investment in data revolution, research and strategy development to inform high impact and low cost interventions.
7. 
   Improve effective public private partnerships and contribute to friendly working environment for civil society organizations and other non-state actors.

Clearly this is a new dawn for the south western counties and I am optimistic that if there is good political will and commitment from all the players involved then we will see these counties rise to the occasion and other counties can learn from them.