Kenya’s socioeconomic future post-Covid-19

Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations (UN) resident coordinator in Kenya. He leads and coordinates 27 UN agencies based in the country.

In this interview with Raphael Obonyo, Chatterjee answers questions and shares his vision and optimism for Kenya’s socio-economic future. These are excerpts.

How is the UN helping Kenya to contain the spread of Coronavirus and to deal with the secondary impact of the pandemic?

On the current COVID-19 pandemic, the UN family in Kenya, has deployed over 80 UN staff and volunteers to bolster the Government of Kenya’s capacity to respond. The UN has procured and supplied PPE kits, testing kits masks and range of medical supplies needed by health workers. From within the UN Development Assistance Framework to Kenya, the UN has redeployed US$ 45 million from its ongoing programmes to support Kenya’s COVID 19 response. Together with the Government of Kenya and our humanitarian partners, we have launched a Flash Appeal for US$ 267.5 million or KHS 28 Billion to meet the needs of 10 million of the most vulnerable people in Kenya.

We know that COVID-19 will not only stretch the current health and economic status but that the effects will continue to reverberate long after the virus is defeated.  We also know that recent outbreaks are caused by viruses jumping from animals to humans, mainly due to the destruction of wild habitats. Due to population growth, we are exploiting forests at a calamitous rate, eating away into the traditional buffer zones that once separated humans from animals, and from the pathogens that they carry.

Post-COVID-19, the world must wake up to the reality of a global health emergency originating from one country to the rest of the world. Investments in preparedness by one continent will have an enormous impact on the global capacity to manage any pandemic. And giving women access to reproductive care and family planning is one of the most important things we can do to reduce epidemic-ready conditions.  

We must look at how best to retool and repurpose the Kenyan industry to respond to local and global health needs where demand has outstripped supplies. I see huge opportunities for Kenya to bridge the supply chain gap. I was delighted to see the article in the Washington Post about an initiative in Kitui county. The county is churning out as many as 30,000 masks a day and selling them to private and public hospitals across the country, which are desperate for them. Kenya can lead the way in Africa and this, in turn, will generate jobs along the entire value chain.

The UN family in Kenya is working closely with the Government of Kenya to look at the socioeconomic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic as well as working with the Ministry of Industries to look nat how we can kick start initiatives of local production of health supplies not only for the current pandemic but who knows when the next pandemic strikes. 

In 2016, the United Nations (UN) appointed you a resident coordinator of its activities in Kenya. It has been about 4 years. What are some of your key accomplishments?

I lead one of the finest UN country teams, and a lot of what has been achieved has been a result of great teamwork. This video documentary gives readers an idea about how the UN is working in lockstep with the Government of Kenya, advance human development and progress in Kenya.

But let me summarize a few concrete areas of success;

1. Under the leadership of the Government of Kenya we launched the first cross border initiative between Kenya and Ethiopia in the Moyale region, to reduce conflict, advance peace and development and support better cross border trade and prevention of violent extremism and conflicts. This initiative has been assessed by the UN University in Japan as a global best practice. In addition to the Kenya-Ethiopia Cross border programme, we have now launched a similar initiative along the Kenya-Uganda border in the Karamoja region in 2019. The report says, “ Kenya’s multidimensional cross-border program simultaneously addresses violent extremism, human trafficking, economic development, local governance and inter-communal peace with mutually reinforcing objectives and means. Now offered as a global model of best practice, it reveals as much about the virtues of RC tenacity and outside-the-box problem-solving, as it does about the outmoded territorial tendencies behind internal obstacles the RC confronted along the way.”
2. The Government of Kenya and UN Kenya public-private partnerships platform has brought a range of companies, foundations and philanthropies, that are united to advance Kenya’s Big 4 development agenda. The aim of this platform which was launched during the UN General Assembly in 2017 by Kenya’s former foreign minister Amb Amina Mohamed has won global recognition of how the UN in Kenya is adapting novel approaches to leapfrog development. A study commissioned by the Development Coordination Office and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation with the aim is to identify, document, analyse and share best practices from United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) that are already making progress on new financing approaches and unlocking SDG financing. Kenya was featured in this study as a best practice.
3. In 2017 during the droughts, the UN in Kenya launched a flash appeal and raised over US $ 100 million to support the Government of Kenya’s efforts to mitigate the egregious effects of the drought. The UN continues to be in full support of the Government of Kenya in responding to the floods and locust invasion.
4. We have an ambitious mandate given to us by member states through the SDGs, the roadmap towards ending poverty and hunger everywhere; to combating inequalities within and among countries; to building peaceful and inclusive societies; to protecting human rights and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls; and to ensuring the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. Through the UN Development Assistance Framework which is a joint implementation framework between GoK and UN, we are working on the Big Four Agenda, we are accelerating initiatives that will give the country respectable scores by 2030 in key sectors including health, education, employment, agriculture, affordable housing, energy, infrastructure and the environment.
5. The UN Secretary-General Mr Antonio Guterres is leading a bold UN reform agenda to enable a more nimble UN that will respond efficiently to enable countries to achieve the SDGs, flip the orthodoxy and become truly fit for purpose. As a UN team, we have overcome teething challenges such as agency silos and straitjackets, and we are now working seamlessly to deliver for Kenyans. We are delivering as one and with a clear commitment of leaving no one behind. This is what the UN Secretary-General expects of all his UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country teams. The UN reforms that I am spearheading have given us better coherence in policy, partnerships and investments in the responses.

1. Throughout the country, there are signposts of progress: maternal and child mortality are down, devolution is bringing development to what were once considered remote areas and school enrolment rates are rising.

1. We have also increased our engagement with the Silicon Valley in the USA to harness big data, technology and innovation which is crucial given the enormity of the challenges of Agenda 2030. Such partnerships include for example the co-creation of an SDG innovation lab between the Government of Kenya, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley, Rockefeller Foundation and the UN. The Lab will kick off with support for the delivery of Kenya’s Big Four agenda. In a tweet in September 2019, the US Ambassador to the UN for Management Reforms, HE Cherith Norman Chalet, said, “As the #SDGs Summit closes, I'm energized by innovative Resident Coordinators and programs like the SDG partnership which brings together host country @Kenya, @UN partners, US gov't @USAmbKenya and US private sector/foundations/academia. Crux of real UN #development reform”.

In the last four years, we have seen real progress in ensuring that those living on the frontiers of development have better chances to feed themselves, care for the sick, empower more youth and women and promote models of development rather than dependence.  

As a result, we have seen various development partners expressing their confidence in our way, not just in words but through significant resources support, we have put in place programmes that will impact those at the bottom of the pyramid.   

 You have famously said that youth are Kenya’s greatest asset, asking the country to ensure that young people are at the centre of the development narrative. Kenya, like the rest of Africa, is experiencing a huge bulge with over 70 per cent of its population being less than 30 years. How can Kenya reap a demographic dividend?

Today, youth form two-thirds of Kenya’s population, many of them unemployed. There are eight dependents for every ten working Kenyans, meaning that the average worker will very often have little left to save or invest for growth.

Fortunately, Kenya and other African countries only need to learn from others who have benefitted from the demographic dividend.  In the Asian Tigers, millions of people were lifted out of poverty by lowering the dependency ratio.  Families were able to make savings which translated into an investment that boosted economic growth in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The demographic dividend can be realized through a number of steps. First, improvements in health and nutrition status, especially of girls, women and children, will contribute to a decrease in the number of children born to each family, as survival improves.

Reductions infertility coupled with child and maternal mortality declines is all associated with greater power for women to make decisions about how many children they want and how to raise them. As women cease spending their most productive years having and raising children they can then enter the workforce and contribute to economic production.

The second step is investment in the education of youth. Appropriate education and skills will enable youth to participate in the economy and provide needed labour for its growth. In addition, studies have shown that girls’ education particularly secondary level, and empowerment will delay early marriage and slow adolescent fertility. Cultural, social and economic barriers that hinder empowerment of girls and women should be addressed.

If women are given the right tools and community support, they can not only become financially independent but be the engines that fuel Kenya’s future growth.

The third step is to have an economic environment where educated youth can find well-paid, decent jobs. Economic policies must target job creation in areas that have the potential for longer-term returns, including technical and vocational education, agriculture and technology.

Investments in health, education and economic policies must then be underpinned by good governance, the exercise of public authority which entails adherence to the rule of law and enhancement of human rights applied universally.

By ensuring healthy, educated, productive populations, we have a chance at all of making the Kenyan dream of a prosperous middle to the high-income country a reality in our lifetime. We must remember that this is only a window of opportunity, which shuts in an average period of 30 years.  If Kenya’s does not act, the demographic dividend risks becoming a demographic disaster, since large numbers of unemployed, frustrated and unemployable youth fall prey to the blandishments and falsehoods spread by extremists and fanatic groups.

Nairobi is at the brink characterized by poor economy, transport, slums among others.  What should Kenya do to ensure successful urban transformation?

 Urbanization becomes a problem only where urban planning is poor. The challenge for Kenya is that towns are grappling with issues of poverty, environmental degradation, stretched social services and insecurity. So for most towns, a painful picture is that of slums and high population density.

We need innovative thinking to be able to build green cities and towns that support positive economic, social, and environmental links. We need to reduce vulnerabilities for the poor in towns.   That is why our current UNDAF has a focus on Population, Urbanization and Housing, with various UN agencies having programmes to support the government to address challenges such as the capacity to generate quality population data, to develop urban development plans, sustainable housing policies, social physical infrastructure that improve access to quality, affordable and adequate housing focusing on informal settlements and slum upgrading.  Our work in this area is led by UN-Habitat, the agency tasked with assisting national programmes relating to human settlements through the provision of capital and technical assistance.

Unmanaged rapid urbanization can be a problem in very many ways.  We are now seeing how urbanization is leading to human interference with the ecosystems.  We are exploiting forests at a calamitous rate, eating away into the traditional buffer zones that once separated humans from animals, and from the pathogens that they carry.  Increasing urbanisation means higher population density, enabling the diseases to spread more rapidly and extensively, as evidenced by the exponential spread of COVID-19.

Without appropriate planning, design, and investment in the development of sustainable cities, a growing number of people will continue to face unprecedented negative impacts, not only of climate change but also of reduced economic growth, quality of life, and increased social instability.

Kenya has suffered terror attacks. What is the United Nations doing to help fight radicalization and terrorism in Kenya?

 A recent landmark study by the UNDP titled Journey to Extremism in Africa concluded that poverty, unemployment, and underemployment are major sources of frustration identified by those who joined violent extremist groups.

 With a high unemployment rate, it is no surprise that frustrated youth fall prey to the blandishments and falsehoods spread by extremist groups.  On the other hand, long-held notions of neglect keep some areas of the country harbouring the bitterness that is fodder for recruitment into extremist groups.

The UN has had a particular interest in the situation of youth in hard to reach areas such as the arid and semi-arid lands, who are increasingly disgruntled by dim prospects of good jobs. We are investing in education and small business opportunities for the youth, even as we work with the Government and private sector on other programmes such as health.

For instance, we have had remarkable progress in counties in the northeastern frontier, where we are actively engaged with local leaders such as the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC).

Such initiatives formed some of the discussions during the July 2019 conference on preventing and countering violent extremism, which we hosted together with the Government.  Our support is driven by the understanding that economic issues represent only one aspect that drives youth to embrace terrorism, and that together we must also recommit to addressing the political, security and ideological drivers that propel terrorism across the continent. 

You once said that attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC), or Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)3 on health, is a substantive human rights agenda. How is the UN committed to Kenya’s vision to achieve Universal Health Coverage?

In Kenya, illness can mean financial ruin. Every year, nearly one million Kenyans are pushed below the poverty line and remain poor as a result of healthcare expenses. Ill health is a substantial burden not only on Kenyan families but also on the country’s economic growth.

Approximately four out of every five Kenyans have no access to medical insurance, so the cruel reality is that most are just an accident or illness away from destitution.  To its credit, the Kenyan government is taking steps towards reducing these inequalities. Payments for primary and maternal health services in public facilities have been abolished, resulting in increased utilization and improved outcomes, particularly among the poorest.  

Our vision for Kenya is that no family will be forced by poverty to miss out on seeking medical services.  We wish to see increased investment in preventive care and primary health. Diverting cash away from the 60% of the health budget that currently goes to curative care will pay dividends. Better primary care reduces ill-health and catches disease at an earlier stage when treatment is cheaper and more effective. It also frees up resources to expand insurance coverage for the poor.

This is why our SDG Partnership Platform is coordinating public and private responses in support of the public health window of the Big Four Agenda.  We want to see innovative approaches helping us to get basic health care to more families. For instance, mobile money can perform faster, more transparent and targeted health payments through health e-vouchers. Technology can process claims and enable healthcare consumers and providers to interact more efficiently while offering more customized products to people of all incomes.

Efficient storage and sharing of patient data could reduce the cost of care by, for instance, tracing false claims, preventing repeat tests, or avoiding misdiagnosis.

One such case in point is the strong PPP established in 2015 by six private sector companies (Philips, Merck Sharp & Dohme-MSD, GlaxoSmithKline-GSK, Safaricom, Kenya Health Care Federation and Huawei) to improve maternal health in historically marginalized counties. This initiative – targeting Mandera, Marsabit, Migori, Isiolo, Lamu and Wajir and spearheaded by the Government of Kenya and the UN – has yielded positive health outcomes. Similar approaches can be adopted for the health system at both national and county levels.

Kenya, like many countries in the world is facing a critical time on a number of fronts: The climate emergency, rising inequality as well as peace and security challenges. Do you have the formula to address them?

 Apart from our work on violent extremism alluded to earlier, we are taking a regional approach in responding to the drivers of peace and security. As the UN, we believe that inclusive, sustainable development in the Horn of Africa is a goal unto itself and also a leading tool to prevent conflict. Climate change impacts can only worsen existing conflicts, where for instance, community conflicts are driven by disputes over pasture and water sources.

Our cross border programmes with Ethiopia and Uganda, therefore, seek to achieve peace, prosperity and socio-economic transformation for the conflict-ridden border areas.  We are focusing especially on empowering the young people and women in peace and development efforts but also supporting them through livelihood projects.

Cross-border trade could have a positive ripple effect. It is poised to generate tremendous revenue for both countries, reduce risks of conflict and facilitate the prevention of violent extremism efforts.

What are you doing to support counties in arid areas? 

 People living in arid areas are the perfect example of the target of the SDGs of reaching the furthest first.  These areas are a priority in most programmes being implemented by our Agencies.  Through what is known as the Turkana Area Based Programme, we are implementing a multi-agency programme with the county government that is a model of what can be achieved when resources are directed at programmes with the biggest multiplier effect.

Working with stakeholders in arid areas such as the Frontier Counties Development Council, we are focusing on those needs that are prioritized by the citizens in the arid areas.  For instance, early this year we had a high-level mission in the area to discuss opportunities for expanding access to water in the counties in support of Kenya’s big four agenda and the realization of vision 2030.  Already UNEP and UNESCO are to mapping water resources in the ASAL counties as a first step.

We have also had remarkable success bringing to the areas they need to increase budgetary allocation for important health issues such as maternal mortality.  From a ground-breaking baseline study that established that 98% of maternal deaths in Kenya occurred in only 15 counties, we advocated for a programme targeted at six highest-burden counties.  This advocacy led to a signed commitment by Governors from the mostly arid counties to commit to ending the scourge of maternal mortality in their counties and to support them with targeted interventions. This campaign was supported by development partners and private companies, with initial results showing a drop in maternal mortality rates in a number of the affected counties.

Do you have a message for Kenyan youth?

 That two-thirds of Kenya’s population is under the age of 30 can be a challenge or a great opportunity depending on the actions governments and the youths take. Never has there been such weighty responsibility on the shoulders of young people. It is up to them to make sure that influence is channelled correctly and directed towards issues that will make the greatest impact on their future.

For instance, agriculture in Kenya is the sector with the greatest potential for catalysing economic growth and employment for young people. The youth must be more enthusiastic about this sector and advocate relentlessly so that farming shifts rapidly from its present status as occupation of last resort and low productivity to one of technical dynamism and recognized the opportunity.

I believe the youth must rise and drive the agenda, not wait for instruction or direction from others.  So all young Kenyans, male and female, must ask themselves what their agenda is and what they are doing to shape that agenda.