Blog post
Kenya Stakeholder Workshop of the Governing SDG Interactions project
On the 28th of November 2023, the partners implementing the WUR-lead Governing SDG Interactions Project in Kenya, that is the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), African Centre for Technology studies (ACTS) and the International Livestock research Institute (ILRI), organized a one-day workshop in Nairobi. The workshop was planned purposefully as an initial stride to introduce the governing SDG interactions project to diverse stakeholders in Kenya, to understand the stakeholder expectations from the project as well as identify pressing needs of the stakeholders that the project can contribute to and finally co-design the key research and impact pathways moving forward.
In attendance were representatives from the national government including the state department of planning, representatives from the county government. There was huge representation from the private sector and civil society organisations including SNV-Netherlands Development Cooperation, Action Aid, and SDG Kenya Forum just to mention a few, not forgetting a small-scale dairy farmer from Kiambu county. Of importance to the workshop was to not only understand how the different organisations represented conceptualize and incorporate the SDGs in their day-to-day activities and development plans but also how their work of influence or are influenced by other organizations. The discussions revolved around how the project could be of benefit to the respective organisations. It was interesting to learn that even the stakeholders acknowledge the importance of disentangling interactions between the SDGs but are yet to fully actualize this in practice.
From the discussions with the stakeholders, it was clear that in as much as the agenda 2030 is highly popularized, not everyone uses these terms. In fact, jargons won’t work for the communities at the grassroots. Therefore, it was emphasized that translating the SDG language to report at the grassroot level is of essence especially for the PhD researchers who will be interacting with different stakeholders at both the national and county levels. Interestingly, majority of the stakeholders were intrigued about the global-local perspectives incorporated in the project and emphasized the need to not only include the national policy actors but also local level actors, including small-scale farmers to be part of the process of validating the findings. Besides these responses, the discussions also yielded important insights including firstly, how stakeholders, in their own capacity could contribute to addressing Sustainable Development Goals interactions. Secondly, the deliberate efforts that ought to be made to promote coordination and understanding between the public and private sectors. Thirdly, the need to identify the barriers that impede the stakeholder’s efforts to realize alignment and pursue shared objectives. Finally, the possibility to create reliable systems that not only brings stakeholders together but also provide an avenue through which progress can be tracked in the respective decision-making spaces.
To conclude, the stakeholders in attendance appreciated the fact that the Governing SDG interactions project is timely, especially now that SDG interactions is encouraged in policy spaces. The stakeholders expressed their confidence in the project as it promises to provide sound scientific evidence that could inform policy making decisions in the future. The workshop was successful and was made possible through the support and strong presence and contribution of the SDG Kenya Forum who played a crucial role in providing insights on how the different units within the government and those in the private sector have positioned themselves to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. In fact, the SDG Kenya Forum have established a knowledge hub to provide a snapshot of how well the state and non-state organisations are represented in the process. Moreover, it is through this initiative that the varied expertise of the various stakeholders is captured for the betterment of SDG implementation.