This is a three year capacity building project that is implemented by RECONCILE with funding support from Cordaid. The project aims to enhance the capacity of key pastoral civil society organizations in Kenya to be more effective in national policy process that promote poverty reduction, democratic and good governance and conflict management.

• Internal governance and management
• Policy engagement capacity

The project builds capacity in two critical areas:Although the main aim of the project is policy engagement capacity, internal governance and management capacity is important for organization to be able to perform its mandate and achieve its set objectives. The internal capacity will add a lot of value in the organizations’ policy engagement capacity.

The project goal

The overall goal of this project is more accountable governance, reduced poverty, increased economic development and sustainable management of natural resources to secure the livelihoods of pastoralist communities in Kenya

Purpose

The purpose of the project is to promote the informed and effective participation of pastoralists and their institutions in planning and implementation of policies and practices of governance, economic development and natural resource management.

Objectives

1. To improve the institutional capacity of pastoralist CSOs in Kenya in terms of governance and management;
2. To improve pastoralist CSOs’ understanding of policies and policy processes that have a bearing on the livelihoods of pastoralists; and
3. To improve the capacity of pastoralist CSOs to network and influence policies and policy processes in favour of secure pastoral livelihoods

Where and why it is being implemented

This project is being implemented in nine districts in Kenya, which are divided into three region; North Western (Turkana, Baringo and West Pokot), Eastern (Isiolo, Laikipia and Samburu) and Southern (Narok, Transamara and Kajiado). In each district, we work with three pastoralist’s civil society organizations. These regions and districts are a representation of all pastoralists facets in Kenya.

RECONCILE intends to continue working in this areas while building on the key lessons learnt from the implementation of the regional Programme on the Reinforcement of Pastoral Civil Societies in East Africa. The key lesson learnt was that the benefits of a regional advocacy initiative can only be realized by pastoralists if there are local and national levels strong and effective pastoral civil society groups. This is because it is at the local level that the impact of policies (and policy failures) is felt, at the household and community levels. Strong pastoral civil society organizations at these levels can integrate regional and national policy advocacy with action at the community level to influence the conduct of government officials and other development actors and to inform regional and global level policy advocacy. This is what this project seeks to achieve by working with pastoral civil society to build local organizational and managerial capacity, address the knowledge gap about pastoralism as a land use and livelihood system within development policy circles and enhance the capacity of pastoralists to mobilize themselves for effective policy influence.

What strategy?

The project is being implemented using Internal Governance and Learning Group (IGLG) strategy. IGLG is a peer learning process, where small groups of CSOs sharing similar objectives, carrying out similar activities, and facing similar challenges come together and through a facilitated but largely self-regulating process, they collectively identify their internal and external challenges, design appropriate responses and work together to address the challenges. The groups develop the tools they need to help them evaluate their performance, and identify the priority capacity areas they need to strengthen in order to address their weaknesses and improve their own internal capacities. Where necessary, experts are engaged to help members of the group address specific challenges. The small groups are referred to as the Learning Group (LG) and were constituted at the district level in this project.

Key activities that have been carried out

Inventory: An inventory to map out all pastoral Civil Society in the project area was done early 2009 to identify their strengths and weaknesses, their area of operation, thematic areas of work and decide on appropriate ones to work with. During the exercise, 30 organizations were identified and are participating in the project activities. To read more about the inventory

Stakeholders’ consultation and planning workshop: This workshop was held in Nakuru in August 2009. The purpose of the workshop was to share and validate the findings of the inventory that had been done and also plan for subsequent project activity. This was the first meeting that brought together all the selected project partners. See report for more.

Participants attending the stakeholders and planning workshop

Training of Trainers (ToTs): A ToT was given to representatives of the 30 organizations who will help to facilitate the IGLG exercise within their organizations and the learning group. This training was done in March 2010 at RECONCILE offices in Nakuru. Read more here.....

Participatory study/Organizational Self Assessment: This was done at different times by all participating organizations within May, June and July 2010. The participatory study is the first step of IGLG and is done at the organizational level to identify governance and management capacities, capacity needs as well as its achievements and challenges. This helps to identify the current state of the organization.

Peer Review meetings in each district: This is a LG meeting in which outcomes of the self assessments were shared and critically analyzed by the LG members. This helps member to realize their failures and successes and design an internal change process for their organizations.

Newsletter publication: The first issues of the Pastoral Civil Society newsletter will be available for dissemination at the beginning of September 2010. To receive a copy of this newsletter and the subsequent ones, send an email to Margaret Menecha This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Second planning workshop: A planning workshop was organized for all the participating organizations in October 2010. The workshop was held at RECONCILE’s conference hall in Nakuru. This workshop was a follow up to the IGLG process which had taken plan both at the Organizations’ level and the Peer Group levels early this year. The workshop also gave us an opportunity to revisit capacity building strategies and ascertain where we are in the process. Read more.....

Upcoming activities

1. Pastoralist Civil Society newsletter issues
2. Policy booklets publication and dissemination
3. Regional conference on pastoralism and policy in Eastern Africa.