Nyeri county has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with USAID to deepen their partnership.
Governor Mutahi Kahiga said the partnership will strengthen the county's capacity in coordination and collaboration in development.
The areas will include improving productivity in agriculture, promoting economic growth and job creation and enhancing good governance and basic infrastructure.
Others are promoting sustainable use of natural resources, improving financial sustainability and resilience, providing accessible and quality healthcare services and scaling up institutional development, transformation and innovation.
The MoU was signed on Monday by the governor and USAID mission director Mark Meassick.
Kahiga said for the county to achieve its development objectives, it must have reliable sources of resources to enable it deliver services effectively.
“This calls for entering into mutually agreed partnerships with like-minded organisations so as to achieve sustainable and inclusive development,” he said.
“A successful sustainable development agenda requires inclusive partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society, built upon a shared vision and shared goals that place people and the environment at the centre,” he added.
He said the county has had development challenges such as inadequate health services due to limited resources and food and nutrition insecurity due to climate change.
Others are unemployment for the youth and rapid urbanisation, posing challenges in services delivery, with 25 per cent of the population living in urban areas.
The county has a population of 759,164 persons out of whom 30 per cent are youth.
The economy of the county, he said, depends on agriculture where 85 per cent of the population is engaged.
However, he said, the average age of the county farmer is 60 years and efforts are needed to attract the youth into agribusiness.
“In the past, USAID has supported the county through other partners to develop capacity to plan, budget, finance, and implement solutions to local development challenges,” he said.
USAID has, through the Health department, supported the county on HIV-Aids programmes through the implementing partners such as APHIAplus Kamili.
The support included training, support supervision, laboratory support and human resource for health, among others.
Other support to the Health department was on capacity building on programme-based budgeting through an implementing partner namely health policy plus.
“With a shared vision, the partnership will increase our knowledge, expertise, and resources available to make better the livelihoods of the people of Nyeri,” he said.
Meassick, on his part, said the MoU is to signal to the nation that USAID is committed to building the capacity of the Nyeri government to manage resources directly.
He added that it is no longer going to be a relationship between donor and recipient but one between partners who bring important things to the table.
The mission director said the county invests and acquires part of its own resources in the same ways that the US does, saying the partnership will help complement each other better and bring better services to the people.
He further said USAID will provide subsidies that will promote diversity to ensure women, youth and different ethnic groups come together and benefit from the resources and the process of development to better their own lives.
“We will also subsidise efforts to generate inclusion of those groups in policy making and implementation, so that the benefits of the programmes and the services are available to all.”
USAID, he said, had done its best to support Nyeri to fight Covid-19 by giving ventilators and training for health workers to better manage the pandemic.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
