What Kenya Vision 2030 can teach us about championing change
I love Kenya. It’s a great country. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty we can do better. We are a developing nation, after all. And getting to where we want to be in a reasonable timeframe is going to take a structured approach and a coordination of our efforts. That’s why Kenya Vision 2030 was launched in 2008. To help Kenya become a middle-income nation, with high quality of life for all.
It’s a huge, wide-ranging vision, one that’s going to completely transform virtually every aspect of economic, social and political life in Kenya. As a diversity and inclusion advocate and a goodwill ambassador for the Kenyatta Trust, I’m especially excited by the prospect of widespread societal change in Kenya.
Transforming lives for women and vulnerable people
There are initiatives for empowering women and young people, improving protections for vulnerable groups, and creating more opportunities for those with disabilities. At the Kenyatta Trust, we believe in transforming lives through education, so I’m delighted that there’s also plenty of exciting plans to increase funding for schools across Kenya, and to make teaching and learning easier to access for everyone.
As there’s so much to do, Kenya Vision 2030 has been split into individual five-year segments. The current segment comes to an end this year. So it seems like a good time to assess how far the vision has come since its inception, what it’s achieved and how far it still has to go.
Kenya Vision 2030 is about building a just and cohesive society, creating new opportunities and improving quality of life for all Kenyans. Especially vulnerable groups. In the most recent financial year for which records are available (2019/2020), over £3 million was given to groups supporting women and orphaned children, as well as poor and disadvantaged adults. With this money, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans will be able to escape poverty, retrain in new professions, start their own businesses or become self-sustainable.
Supporting Kenya’s vision through the Kenyatta Trust
At the Kenyatta Trust, we’re doing our bit to support Kenya Vision 2030 with projects like the Inuka Economic Empowerment Programme. Our focus here is on inspiring students, promoting self-sustainability, and creating supportive home environments.
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Our ‘County to County’ exchange programme meanwhile, is helping to foster unity and tolerance amongst Kenyans, by sending students to live with and learn from other Kenyatta Trust families from different communities.
I love that so much movement is happening. But we can always go further. For a start, we as a nation need to raise more funds and make sure that they reach a greater number of people in remote rural areas. Big decisions can be made quicker. Money needs to get to the right people sooner.
Championing change through diversity and digital transformation
How do we do that? First, we need to improve our technological and institutional frameworks so we can spread our resources out faster and further. Secondly, we need to ensure that there’s a greater level of diversity across the top people involved with Kenya Vision 2030.
For instance, we need to make more progress in ending female genital mutilation and domestic violence, and empowering women in general – both key aims of Kenya Vision 2030. We have to make sure that more women are in the top leadership positions regarding those initiatives. Diversity delivers results. That’s the headline I hope we and the rest of the world take away from Kenya Vision 2030.
Especially as there’s another larger, continental development project currently underway that could build on the learnings from Kenya’s vision.
Agenda 2063 is the African Union’s 50-year plan for transforming Africa into a new global powerhouse. It shares many goals with Kenya Vision 2030 – like ending violence and discrimination against women, and celebrating diversity.
By prioritising digital transformation and promoting the traditionally disadvantaged, Kenya Vision 2030 can turn Kenya into the trailblazer, the champion of change that Africa needs.