Download CSPs in Kenya

CSPs in Kenya
By Phillys Karanja
Why are CSPs necessary?
Grave social and economic issues are affecting
the population and since the 1970’s increasing
levels of corruption have only intensified the
effects and decreased government’s institutional
capacity and legitimacy. Cross sector
partnerships are thus considered a suitable
approach not only to tackle these issues but also
as a means to increase trust in the public sector.
How have CSPs emerged?
The relationship between the government and
other Kenyan societal sectors in addressing the
needs of the population dates back to the
country’s colonial times when missionary
churches collaborated with the British colony to
provide the communities with education and
health services. After independence the issues
afflicting Kenya included not only lacking basic
needs but also a very weak government.
KENYA
GDP in mill
USD:
44,101
Population:
44,353,691
Doing Business
Index:
122
Corruption
Perception
Index:
27
As an initial approach, the new Kenyan
government instilled the spirit of civil society
collaboration “Harambee”, whereby the
population was encouraged to devise and
implement local projects for the development of
their communities. At this stage, the
government’s role was to support groups of
community members in the activities of
fundraising, monitoring and partial funding of
projects related particularly to infrastructure
development.
What do CSPs look like?
The most common forms of partnerships in
Kenya have traditionally been service contracts,
concessions and leases and have thus been the
basis for legislation regarding cross sector
collaborations. However, this has been
considered too restricting for other types of
collaborations, leading to an increasing number
of partnerships between private sector and civil
society. In order to improve participation of
state in tripartite partnerships, the government
is currently devising the creation of a PPP Centre
with the purpose of designing more
comprehensive guidelines, providing better
resources and adequate support for newer
partnership models. Particularly, bilateral
development agencies have shown interest in
these state efforts as they increase their reliance
on partnership models where they bring
together their government partners with private
sector actors, who can support improved
accountability. This pressure of bi- and
multilateral agencies has spurred the emergence
of PPPs for infrastructure development.
Partnerships have most commonly involved the
national government, with mainly the Ministry
of Finance acting as core partner, and large
private companies. However, most recently,
partnerships have been created between public
authorities at local levels and small enterprises
as well. These partnerships have also generally
focused
on
infrastructure
development
objectives. Moreover, partnerships that engage
civil society organisations have predominantly
been supported by bilateral development
agencies and international NGOs, established
primarily for the provision of basic services to
communities. These have focused on
strengthening collaboration between this sector
and the government by either providing financial
support to government programs or joint
development of projects. However, civil society
has also increased its collaborative work with
the private sector, especially in the agriculture
sector, whereby civil society organisations
assume the role of facilitators for on-the-ground
implementation activities.
What challenges to CSPs face?
Despite this development of the Kenyan
partnership approach, cross sector partnerships
still face barriers to collaborative endeavour.
Challenges range from persistent levels of
corruption
both
within
governmental
institutions as well as private sector cartels,
motivated by high levels of opportunistic
behaviour. This, in turn leads to low trust from
the communities in partnership projects, which
results in negative attitudes and little support
from the population. Moreover, power
asymmetries within partnership management
fail to create equity between the donor partner
and implementing partner, a partner
configuration which is frequently found across
partnerships. In this regard, however, some
policy making efforts have started to deal with
the issue of funding and have evaluated the
options of budget support vis-à-vis basket
funding in partnership agreements.
Cross Sector Partnership Case
Revitalization of Cotton Industry
A partnership between Equity Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Cotton Development Authority
(CODA), National Irrigation Board (NIB), Cotton Ginners and Bura Farmers Association has begun to
restore cotton production in Bura. In this partnership, Equity Bank provides credit for farm inputs
and facilitates payment to farmers while NIB is responsible for maintenance of canals that channel
water to farms in the Bura Irrigation scheme. The Farmers Association coordinates the farmers’
activities and CODA jointly with Ministry of Agriculture offer extension services to support farmers
in crop husbandry. The challenge of marketing of the cotton has been addressed by the
involvement of selected cotton ginners who have committed to buy the seed cotton from the
farmers at competitive prices. The initiative has motivated replication in other areas of the
country, evidencing the potential for the cotton industry development to help Kenyan farmers fight
poverty.
http://equitygroupfoundation.com/index.php/our-pillars/agribusiness