The first meeting of the Kenya Development Partnership Forum was held yesterday, 30 November 2009, at KICC. It was organized jointly by the Government of Kenya and the World Bank. This Forum is a successor to Kenya Consultative Group meetings and is intended to help the Government of Kenya and its development partners to reflect on the state of their partnership, assess its strengths and weaknesses, and determine a way forward that will serve the interests of all Kenyans, including especially the poor.

The Forum was opened by the Rt. Hon. Raila A. Odinga, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya, and hosted by Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. Development Partners were represented by the Ambassadors of Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, USA, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria and the Heads of IMF, African Development Bank, European Union, World Bank, the UN Agencies, CIDA,JICA, USAID, DFID.

The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs briefed the participants about the progress on Agenda 4 and other reform areas. Development Partners welcomed the publication of the recently released Draft Constitution. He emphasized the importance of key members of the Coalition Government resolving their differences on the contentious issues, including particularly the composition of executive power, to increase the likelihood that a new constitution will be passed. Development partners indicated their willingness to contribute to the financing of the Referendum.

Development Partners further welcomed the progress made in the broad range of reform agenda. Some development partners noted, however, that the Government is not always able to translate decisions into implementation, and urged the Government to ensure that this weakness does not occur on these important matters. Some Development Partners offered additional support for police reform, the interim electoral commission, among others.

Several development partners stated that the Government needs to take decisive steps to end the culture of impunity. They suggested that the Government need to take further action against officials involved in high-level corruption and those who instigated post-election violence (including through a local mechanism) as well as bolder measures to reform the judiciary and the Attorney General’s office. Several outstanding corruption cases were discussed in this context, with several development partners urging that these and related issues be addressed as soon as possible. The Government assured the Development Partners that appropriate actions have been and are being taken. The Minister for Internal Security noted that the Government was already acting on the interim report of the task force for police reform, including by having changed the police leadership.

Development Partners strongly supported the Government’s effort to restore the Mau forest complex, while recognizing the challenges that exist. They urged the Government not to lose sight of the big picture, i.e. the imperative to conserve the environment and complete the restoration of the Mau as planned. In this context, several development partners expressed a willingness to support Government efforts in this area.

Development Partners also pledged support to Kenya to help in adapting to climate change, inter alia by expanding reforestation and irrigation, making agriculture more drought resistant, utilizing water resources more efficiently, and developing green energy.

Development partners welcomed the Government’s response to the drought emergency, including efforts to help small-holders expand production through higher access to seeds and fertilizers, mechanization and expanded irrigation. They noted, however, that Kenya’s dependence on humanitarian assistance should not become a permanent phenomenon. Development Partners suggested that the Government may wish to examine its population policy, as the rapid increase in population will place increasing stress on available resources.

In this context, several development partners noted that it may not be most appropriate to aim for achieving national food security solely through expanding domestic maize production. Food security can be achieved by diversifying food production and assuring a reliable supply of import of food items at lower costs. Several development partners urged the Government to review its policy of supporting prices of maize for farmers, since this policy appears to reward only a few large-scale farmers at the expense of the many who are net buyers of maize. The Government and its development partners agreed to form a small working group to discuss long term food production and food security issues in greater depth.

Development Partners also repeated their previous recommendation that the Government need to work with other EAC countries to reduce barriers to regional trade in food, including maize and sugar. In addition, they recommended that the Government may seek to reduce Kenya’s over-dependence on maize and further develop its social protection policy, with scalable interventions that can help the poor to access food in any future emergencies.

Development Partners also enquired whether the forensic audit of the maize sector had been completed. In response, the Government stated that the report is to be received in the coming days and that its main findings would be shared with them.

Development Partners urged the Government to continue to focus on achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth. They acknowledged the Government’s generally good record on macroeconomic management and its importance to encouraging investment. Development partners encouraged the Government to do more to improve the business climate; to rehabilitate and upgrade essential economic infrastructure, in particular energy and road; to deepen regional integration and avoid protectionist tendencies; and to continue to invest in social protection to cushion those who do not benefit from growth.

The Government and the Development Partners agreed to work together to ensure that the government budget responds to emerging priorities and that aid is aligned with the budget. In particular, they agreed to develop better systems for determining the costs and benefits of proposed financial investments. Several development partners expressed a desire to know more clearly what the Government’s budgetary priorities are for the medium term and how aid could better align to it.

Development Partners also noted that more could be done to determine the distributional impacts of the Government’s policy (e.g. on maize), including identifying winners and losers. Several partners noted that they had lower disbursements under the coalition government than projected, because a fragmented ministerial structure has made reform more difficult. They urged the Government to accelerate reform to increase aid absorption.

Development Partners also agreed to work with the Government to review implications of the concentration of aid in certain sectors (e.g., food assistance, antiretroviral therapy, and selected parts of the political agenda) for good public financial management and medium-term planning; and also to enhance transparency and accountability under a coordinated strategy to revitalise public financial management, including especially procurement.

Finally, the Government and the Development Partners agreed to implement the measures articulated in the Harmonization, Alignment and Coordination (HAC) review, and to consider enhanced dialogue on budget and aid allocations through greater government involvement and leadership. The Minister for Finance said that his ministry would present its view of its upcoming budget in advance of the next meeting of this Forum, to provide a basis for more productive discussion.

The Development Partnership Forum will meet again in April or May 2010 to review progress and to determine what has been done well or less well, and what needs to be done differently.


PMPS