In East Africa, development challenges have become increasingly constraining thereby substantively increasing the region’s susceptibility to shocks, with the most recent being the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alleviating these threats therefore and achieving timely and sustainable progress across the region, will require investment buy-ins by all regional players.
These should be founded on a strategy underpinning better integration, cooperation as well as collaboration among East African institutions and relevant partners.
In Kenya, Regional Development Authorities were established with the specific mandate of spurring regional socioeconomic development through the sustainable use of natural resources. These regional bodies were further mandated to plan, develop, implement and coordinate integrated basin-based programmes and projects.
Kenya’s criterion for establishing and delineating the regional development bodies was founded on the basis of river basins and large water bodies.
Regional Development Authorities were therefore not established on a political basis nor do they comprise political or administrative boundaries.
The delineation was purely based on the river/water body and the area of influence the water bodies covered, thereby covering more than one administrative boundary.
For instance, the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority covers over 19 counties through which the Tana and Athi rivers transect.
Some of these projects, which include power generation and irrigation schemes, have had a direct impact on local communities as far as opening up the areas for infrastructure development and supporting services as well as creating job opportunities.
Regional planning plays the role of interpreting national goals into actionable and realisable projects. The distinguishing factor between planning at the regional and local levels is that at the regional level there is more emphasis on projects aimed at the national public good rather than for the specific good of one locality.
At the regional level much emphasis is also placed on equitable development of the entire region, ensuring balanced development throughout the region, especially in terms of infrastructure development.
Regional Development Authorities, therefore, are critical due to their strategic position of analysing the issues of regional imbalance and spatial distribution of resources within the wider region.
Regional imbalances can be addressed by regional bodies by ensuring equitable distribution of resources within their areas of jurisdiction. This means that programmes implemented not only target to benefit one particular county but rather the entire river basin.
It goes without saying therefore that based on the river continuum, activities implemented along a section of a river in one county will have an impact on all the other counties within that river basin.
Such activities can comprise the construction of dams, development of large-scale irrigation schemes, or apportionment of water for industrial development.
As such, it is imperative that an integrated basin-based development approach is adopted to ensure that all factors across all counties within a river basin are analysed for equitable and sustainable development.
In these unprecedented times, resilience spurred by regional development bodies will foster the capability of systems and institutions to adjust to and recover from shocks and pressures.
This will ultimately reduce chronic vulnerability and subsequently facilitate inclusive growth at all levels.
Managing director, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (Tarda)
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