Day: May 25, 2023

The Yetu Initiative, a collaboration of the Aga Khan Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is empowering civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kenya to not only mobilize resources locally but also collaboratively address community challenges with their county level stakeholders.

Working with CSOs in addressing community challenges at the grass-roots level, Yetu Initiative has since supported 323 CSOs to raise over Sh270 million, for locally led development projects across 29 counties in Kenya.

Speaking during the 2023 Yetu Initiative lessons learned and capstone Festival in Nairobi, Former Makueni Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana, who was chief guest at the event, said community philanthropy was one of the most important socio-economic models in the country giving opportunities for correcting histories of inequity to dignity.

‘It is twice as hard to achieve sustainability if there is no development led from the grassroots. We must discard this notion that it is only the government that can come up with solutions to local problems. We know and have seen through Yetu Initiative and the CSO community that the people themselves know and understand the problems plaguing them and can prescribe solutions that can transform our local communities, where they are,’ he said.

The Project Director Irene Gathinji said Yetu Initiative has invested approximately USD 11 million in the past nine years, half of which was raised by local Kenyan CSOs and local development organizations (LDOs), to implement community initiatives and ultimately investing back in their communities.

‘A multi-stakeholder approach involving citizens, government, and private sector participation is crucial in building sustainable locally led development models. In fostering trust as a crucial component of partnership between CSOs and communities, Yetu Initiative has enabled civil society to sit at the same table as communities and discuss challenges and concerns with tangible solutions,’ she said.

With constant communication, feedback, and engagement, diverse groups including disadvantaged and marginalized communities can now be involved in programme design and implementation, to ensure sustainability and accountability of those initiatives.

Yetu Initiative is currently working with over 250 CSOs to implement projects across the education, food security, climate resilience, energy, and water sectors. Others include women and youth empowerment, health, child protection and disability sectors.

Regional Technical Advisor, Civil Society Program at the Aga Khan Foundation Cynthia Odhiambo stated that the Yetu initiative supports CSOs and communities in understanding and identifying their challenges and intervention priorities while contributing their own solutions through boot-camps.

‘We have observed that local communities can be self-reliant in driving and achieving locally led development. Accountability is therefore important for community philanthropy to succeed. Yetu Initiative’s success lies in its ability to put communities at the centre of development by bringing in their contribution, both in cash and in-kind and getting them constantly involved, through civil society engagements,’ she explained.

Yetu Initiative has been working with CSOs to strengthen the ecosystem of community philanthropy through the development of cutting-edge philanthropy platforms, building on the body of evidence through research, capacity building and brokering CSO relations with the private sector and government. Since inception, over 10,000 CSOs have been registered as members of local development organizations.

Source: Kenya News Agency

A 24-year-old lady, Diane who went missing in Bafoussam 1 recently was found dead in a Well, CNA learned. Her decomposing corpse was removed by rescue soldiers alerted on Wednesday, May 24, 2023.

It was the pungent smell that led to the discovery.

“I saw a woman and her son looking in the Well as if they lost something. When I asked, they said a pungent smell was emanating from it. That is how we went knocking at the owner’s door at about 10:00 pm Tuesday to inform her there was a corpse on her Well,” a local said.

“We have been searching for her to no avail. I was at home on Tuesday, May 23 with a disturbing feeling, when news reached me that my sister’s corpse has been found in a Well near GBHS “Ndiadam”. Explained Diane’s elder sister.

It is not clear if it was an accident, a suicide or a murder case.

A local reported Diane had a squabble with her husband over infidelity which ended up at a Gendarmerie brigade as the deceased was now living with another man.

“I told Diane’s mother to intervene and tell her daughter to return to her husband’s house but she refused. Now see where that has landed her. I am shocked. I never expected the flight over Diane will result in this. If someone is to be blamed for her death, it is the mother.” Explained the local.

An investigation has been opened to know exactly what killed Diane.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The population of Maga, a locality in the Far North region of Cameroon, have had an experience that many, especially the affected persons, may never forget.

The appearance of four elephants in town on Wednesday, May 24, startled residents, leaving many in panic. A woman lost her life following the invasion, with several others losing property in damages.

Reports from the Far North indicate that the elephants drifted from the path they were following and went toward the inhabited area.

“The group of four elephants were in their natural migration towards the Waza National Park,” the Ministry of Forestry said. The statement added that the officials concerned had engaged in an operation to guide the elephants to the park.

“This operation unfortunately aroused the curiosity of the population, who unconscious about the dangers, obstructed the corridor” the forestry officials indicated.

Efforts were intensified, the personnel noted, adding that “with the assistance of defence and security forces, the elephants were guided back to the corridor leading to the Waza National Park”.

No other incident was recorded apart from the death of the woman, whose name CNA got as Bintou.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

A mechanism to facilitate the Indian Ocean Commission’s (IOC) initiative of pooled procurement is expected to be completed by the end of the year and come into effect in 2024, said a Seychelles government official.

The permanent liaison officer for the IOC in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ralph Agrippine, told SNA that the initiative will help its member countries “have better bargaining power with suppliers once it comes into place.”

Seychelles’ foreign minister, Sylvestre Radegonde who attended the 37th Council of Ministers which took place in Madagascar, brought the idea forward during an IOC meeting and encouraged Mauritius and other members to join.

Among the decisions taken at the meeting was the adoption of a new Strategic Development Plan (SDP) for the next five years, support for the continuation of IOC actions toward the full operationalisation and consolidation of the regional maritime safety architecture and the invitation to the General Secretariat to pursue the reflection on a regional grouped procurement mechanism.

Pooled procurement combines several countries into a single unit to make purchases and this helps in reducing prices of goods and providing countries with collective bargaining power to navigate access to better quality products.

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, which relies heavily on imported goods, has to pay higher prices for its imports as its market share is quite small.

“We are also looking into the possibility of including other African countries close to the IOC,” said Agrippine.

The plan to import items as a group will not “include all goods, but will cater for essentials,” he added.

Agrippine said, “One thing that would have to be done is to establish a procurement agency which will be tasked with determining what needs to be imported in the region.”

He explained that the IOC was looking at the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States’ (OECS) as an example as it already has such a mechanism in place.

Once in place, some countries will be able to buy some goods in bulk and at other times they may receive assistance in order to buy the items that they are the only ones using.

However, Agrippine revealed that such a mechanism already existed when importing medicines and health related items.

The IOC already launched the Regional Programme for Food Security and Nutrition, supported by the FAO in Seychelles, in March 2019. Through this platform, member states are able to do business and trade of agricultural products between themselves.

The Indian Ocean Commission is an intergovernmental organisation linking Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion, and Seychelles.

Source: Seychelles News Agency