Inside Sonia

Analyzing the Impact of Funding for Youth Development

Is Kenya making progress in addressing the issues and needs of its young people? Is the funding provided by Government agencies and Development partners effectively addressing the problems in a systematic way that breaks the cycle of poverty? Should there be more done by all stakeholders to coordinate interventions at a high level to ensure greatest impact by every actor in their identified/preferred sector and region or operation? Is there a balance in the issues being addressed to ensure that youth are addressed at their point of need considering the social, psychological, cultural, biological, political and physical diversity?

There has been an increase in interest and financial support for youth development programmes by both state and non-state actors including international agencies as well as national and community level organizations. Yet in spite of the increasing interest and mainstreaming of youth programmes the problems affecting youth continue and the extent of poverty does not seem to be dissipating within this demographic. The National Youth Policy points out that this is attributable to the lack of a comprehensive policy to provide a blue print for youth development. 

Beyond this, it can be further attributed to the lack of a clear coordination mechanism for the myriad of actors in youth development, a poor macro-level monitoring and evaluation mechanism and the fact that youth is a transitional stage and hence issues affecting one generation may necessarily affect subsequent generations, as well as macro-level factors in governance and economic management.

Most citizens and organizations have focused on demanding accountability from Government with regard to the use of public resources. Yet, there is no systematic indication of how much has been ploughed in to youth development over the years to address these problems and by which actors.  For instance, there are numerous questions raised with regard to the number of new jobs created based on the Ministry’s Marshall Plan of 740,000 between 2009 and 2012; the number of new businesses established with from funding of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund; the demonstrable benefits to youth by the creation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs on key socio-political aspects in youth development – how much of the 2009/2010 budget for instance was allocated for youth development programmes; among others. 

Also important is to provide public information on any loans taken by to the Government towards youth development as well as other sources funding to youth development in Kenya on a large scale that compliment the efforts of Government.  In the first quarter of 2010, it is known that the United States Government has committed approximately US$45 million towards youth development programmes primarily around governance and economic empowerment. This is in addition to funds for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programmes that similarly target youth; the World Bank has committed approximately US$50 million dollars largely for economic livelihood initiatives. This is in addition to other ongoing programmes under the Community Driven Development initiatives in where for instance there is US$ 1 million earmarked for youth in Western Kenya.  There are several other actors including UN agencies, the Government of Japan and other non-state actors such as foundations, trusts and NGOs that support youth development efforts in Kenya.

Many young people do not take advantage of the financial and technical resources available for youth development sometimes for the simple reason that they are not aware of the vast and diverse resources available to address their needs.

But whose role is it to monitor the impact of the investments in youth development programming? There is no single source of information on funding for youth development programmes, the sectors they support or the impact of the funding or programmes.

How then can progress be measured on whether the various interventions that address the myriad of problems facing young people are indeed responsive and contribute towards overall poverty reduction among youth in Kenya?

With the National Youth Policy in place, do all youth development programmes make reference and address the issues therein? Who ensures that this happens? What are the measures of success with regard to the high areas of investment in recent years including the focus on creating new jobs through promotion of youth enterprise; increase support for youth friendly reproductive health services; increased civic education and participation in governance and social accountability; high cost of education, poor returns on investment in education and high drop out rates – have these reduced the rates of poverty among youth?

It is estimated that there are approximately 16, 500 community based youth groups in Kenya. There are thousands other youth organizations registered as trusts, foundations or non-governmental organizations that work across the country. Have the investors in youth development sufficiently reached young people across most parts of the country or are there areas that remain underserved? Who enforces coverage to ensure a balance in youth development programmes?

These are critical questions that funding agencies and the Government would do well to respond to and as a result be accountable to the youth of Kenya.