I. Briefing Note on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), World Summit on Sustainable Development ( WSSD) and united Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF)

I.I Background

In September 2000, all the 191 Member States of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration (GA Resolution A/54/2000) which outlines peace, security and development concerns and the subsequent UN Secretary-General's Report entitled "Road Map Towards the Implementation of the UN Millennium Declaration" (GA Resolution A/56/326), a co-operative path has been charted to meet the challenges of future development co-operation. In His Excellency President Moi the then President of Kenya, was among the world leaders who attended the Millennium Summit. The Millennium Declaration, among other things, mainstreamed a set of inter-connected and mutually reinforcing goals into the global agenda. During this meeting, agreement was reached among the OECD, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on key elements of a framework of this global agenda in the context of goals, targets and indicators referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Through the Millennium Summit, the General Assembly gave the Secretary-General and the UN system the important mandate to support national governments in the implementation of the Declaration. Accordingly, the entire United Nations family of Member States, international organizations, funds, agencies, programmes, the private sector and civil society must join together to meet the commitments that are embodied in the Millennium Declaration.

Recognizing that the Kenya Government made its commitment to the Millennium Declaration through the personal participation in the Summit by the Head of State, the Government is expected to play its full role in putting into practice the goals set in the Declaration. The MDGs will build on and contribute to other on-going national frameworks, initiatives and processes such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP); the UN's Common County Assessment (CCA); the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and the World Bank's CAP. These various frameworks, therefore, will be used as tools for interim monitoring of progress towards the MDGs.

MDG reports will be an important tool for awareness raising, advocacy, alliance building, and the renewal of political commitment at the country level, as well as to build national capacity for monitoring and reporting on goals and targets. At the global level, the Secretary-General will be expected to report annually to the General Assembly on progress towards the MDGs and by so doing, ensure that these issues remain at the forefront of national and global agendas. The MDGs comprise ambitious global targets set for 2015 and are as follows:

o Halving extreme poverty and hunger
o Achieving universal primary education
o Promoting gender equality
o Reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds
o Reducing maternal mortality by three quarters
o Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB
o Ensuring environmental sustainability
o Developing a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief

During the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, the Kenya Government re-affirmed its commitment to mobilizing national efforts towards the achievement of the MDGs by 2015. The head of the Kenya delegation, the then Minister for Finance and Planning Hon. Chris Obure identified the need for resources as critical to make rapid progress towards that objective.

1.2. Reporting on Millennium Development Goals

Countries are now required to monitor and report on the MDGs and this exercise is already underway with a number of countries such as Tanzania, Cambodia, Cameroon, etc having produced pilot MDG reports. By the end of 2002, a number of other countries are expected to prepare country reports and by 2004, every developing country will be expected to have produced at least one such report in time for the UN Secretary-General's global comprehensive MDGs progress report to the General Assembly in 2005. These reports will support a dynamic campaign to help keep poverty issues front and centre of the national and global development agenda. Such reports are needed to keep the eyes of the world fixed on the MDGs. At the country level, the MDG report will help in engaging political leaders and top decision-makers, as well as mobilizing civil society, communities, the general public and the media. It will help provide a systematic and identifiable follow-up to the global conferences and world summits of the 1990s.

The MDG Report is a basic policy paper, which includes the basic developmental goals that the country is streaming towards achieving up till 2015. The report will be expected to include the kind of "change" needed to be achieved in the country within the overall framework of the MDGs. The various sets of MD Goals are to act as basic guidelines and indicators of "direction" as well as "magnitude" of the desired change. The MDG report will serve as an effective advocacy tool for raising awareness, building alliances as well as ensuring continuous governmental and societal commitment towards achievement of the declared Millennium Development Goals on the national arenas. The MDG report will capitalize on existing reports and will build on their findings and relevant achievements.

MDG report will also serve as the basic "benchmarks" for preparation of national executive developmental plans. In a clearly identified and measurable fashion, the report will provide decision makers and planners with numerically clear "starting points" representing the present socioeconomic developmental status and "end points" representing the status desired to be achieved by 2015. Most importantly, the report will provide planners and decision makers with goals that are agreed upon by all stakeholders. Amid the rapidly evolving socioeconomic situation in Kenya nothing can be more useful than a well established and recognized developmental goals to which the country can dedicate itself to ensure commitment and continuity of all developmental efforts.

1.3. Principles underlying the MDGs

1.3.1 National ownership: the process and product for monitoring   progress towards the MDGs is expected to be nationally-driven, with steps taken to define how the MDGs apply to the country-situation and how their achievement needs to be addressed through national development strategies, policies and programmes.

1.3.2 Capacity development: to enable the full exercise of national ownership, a great deal of capacity will need to be built. Beyond assistance for the use of specific tools to monitor progress towards the MDGs, investment in capacity building for monitoring as well as the use of data for informed policy-making and programming will be a priority. Support for the development of a stronger national statistical system as well as a common database, involving close collaboration with the national statistical office, will serve reporting purposes for a wide range of areas. Better statistics and databases at the national level will also improve the quality of reporting.

1.4. MDGs and Links with other national Planning Tools and Frameworks

The MDGs report will obviously relate to other country-level reports, although the different reports have distinct purposes, timing and content. It should, however, as a matter of principle, draw from existing reports and inform the other national reports, whether prepared by government, UN agencies (collectively or individually) and other partners. For example, depending on agreements reached between the government and partners, as well as the sequencing of work, it is possible that the MDGR could precede other reports and, therefore, provide an indispensable basis for their preparation.

The use of nationally-owned poverty reduction strategies reflected in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), together with development partner planning frameworks such as the UN's Common Country Assessment (CCA), the World Banks CAS, etc., that emphasize a consultative process is encouraged. It is also possible that in-between the preparation of the MDG report, the Annual Progress Report on the PRSP can be used as a tool for interim monitoring of progress towards the MDGs. This implies that the PRSP takes the MDGs into consideration and that the preparation of the PRSP Annual Report will actively involve other partners.

1.5. Launch of the MDG Campaign in Kenya

The MDG campaign has been initiated in Kenya to raise awareness about the importance of the different dimensions of development included in the 8 goals; 18 targets and the over 40 different indicators that constitute the MDGs. This is expected lead to the preparation of the first MDG Report for Kenya possibly towards the end of the year to demonstrate progress towards the MDGs. To this end, guidelines on MDG reporting were shared with all the Permanent Secretaries by UNDP which also pledged UN system support to strengthening national capacity to track progress on MDGs.

As a result of this, a small National MDG Task comprising Treasury, the UN system, donors, NGOs, CSOs and the private sector has been created to spearhead the process by among other things, mobilising a national level response by proposing options to strengthen co-ordination among different stakeholders to help achieve the MDGs, as well as prioritizing the necessary development interventions and assistance required. It will also advise on the linkages between the MDGs and other national planning tools (GOK and partners).

1. 6. Sequence of Activities leading to First National MDG Report for Kenya, Nov. 2002

1.6.1 CEA Action Forum on MDGs, 16-20 June 2002: This meeting jointly organized by UNDP Cameroon and UNDP Ethiopia had the objective of strengthening the resolve and commitment of Central and Eastern African Countries - and their stakeholder partners including, Donors, Civil Society, the Private Sector and UN Agencies, - on the importance of early action toward achieving the MDGs and preparing resultant progress reports. The Kenyan delegation to the meeting, led by the then Planning Minister Mr. Adhu Awiti took the opportunity to present a country MDGs strategic plan linked to the overall planning frameworks. A draft MDGs mapping report for Kenya was also shared at the meeting. Following the meeting, a set of activities were initiated and these are:

1 10-11 July 2002: A CSOs workshop on assessing progress towards the attainment of the MDGs in Kenya and the role of CSOs in leading the campaign particularly to the local level.

2 A media briefing on the MDGs during the media launch of the 2002 Global Human Development Report

3 21 August 2002: A follow-up CSOs workshop to design a short and medium term campaign on analysis, monitoring and reporting on the MDGs; following this meeting, agreement was reached to place each of the 8 goals under the existing relevant networks.

4 16-17 September: Technical Seminar on MDGs- the objective of this seminar organized by the Ministry of Finance and Planning and bringing together key government departments, including all the PRSP sector convenors, the UN, NGOs and the private sector was to understand the significance of MDGs, their links to the national planning frameworks, review the progress on the national monitoring campaign and agree on a country-level reporting format, including the role of the various national stakeholders. Following this meeting an action plan was formulated with the following key elements:

• The PRSP Secretariat will take primary responsibility for leading the processing of monitoring and reporting on MDGs including the process to finalise and produce Kenya's first MDGs report, expected by mid November 2002;

• The PRSP Secretariat will be supported by a six-person team to assist in the drafting process leading up to the production of the final report. This team will consist of the PRSP Secretariat, UN, private sector, donor, CSOs and one representative from the Ministry of Health. The PRSP Secretariat will convene the first meeting of this team as soon as possible.

• During the next coming weeks, a series of follow-up activities will be undertaken including synthesis of the work already done with the help of a consultant; the execution of a simple costing exercise; the sharing of a draft report with relevant departments; briefing of Permanent Secretaries on MDGs and key elements of the report; the holding of a national validation workshop; and finalization and publication of final report, all by mid November 2002. This will call for a great deal of commitment on the part of all those charged with spearheading the process;

• A longer term tracking of progress and reporting as well a structured national campaign on MDGs will be contexualized within the overall M&E framework for the PRSP in particular as well as the poverty monitoring in general.

5. 24th March 2003; a one day civil society workshop to draw up work plans for this years on the campaign strategy on analysis, monitoring and reporting on the MDGs. The work plans are expected to take the campaign out of Nairobi and into the regions using the already established networks.

2. NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA DEVELOPMENT (NEPAD)

The Government of Kenya is committed to the principles of the NEPAD and has already appointed a focal point within the Ministry of Finance and Planning to focus specifically on NEPAD. As a result of high-level lobbying, Kenya is beginning to play a bigger role in the NEPAD in the sub-region in promoting its principles. There is also a possibility that Kenya's role might even be bigger, perhaps at the highest level not excluding the steering committee. The location of NEPAD in the Economic Planning Division in the Ministry of Finance and Planning demonstrates its commitment to integrate the Government's priorities into NEPAD, particularly in linking NEPAD to the national planning process (PRSP) as well as with other global commitments such as the MDGs which are getting integrated in the same way.

3. World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)

Kenya did participate in the World Summit on Sustainable Development meeting in Johannesburg and this followed a preparatory process in which UNDP played a key role, particularly in supporting GOK's participation in the preparatory committees, preparing the assessment report as well as the position paper. Following the J'burg conference, a meeting was held on Friday 20 September between UNDP and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to map out follow-up action, which was agreed as follows:

1. appointment of a focal point along the lines of NEPAD to take primary responsibility for coordinating follow-up action on all World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)-related activities

2. high-level briefing of selected Permanent Secretaries and donors on the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, focusing particularly those relevant to the action plan, and who might be approached to provide resources in support of follow-up activities and initiatives;

3. hold a stock-taking/consensus workshop around the key elements of follow-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development and detailing out a plan of action with clear proposals on responsibilities. UNDP will be supporting this initiative;

4. FORMULATING A NEW UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE FRAMEWORK (UNDAF) FOR KENYA (2004-2008)

An UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Prioritization Workshop convened by the Kenya Country Team was held between 10-13 September in Mombasa to discuss and agree on programme priorities for the new UNDAF for the period 2004-08. The workshop, which was attended by the Representatives of the various UN organizations, their senior programme officers, regional Executive Committee focal points, the World Bank, and selected GOK representatives, was facilitated by a team of five Resource Persons from the Development Group Office (DGO) in New York and the UN Staff College in Turin. Altogether, nearly sixty participants attended this workshop.

The outcome of the workshop was agreement by the Kenya Country Team that there will be four areas of cooperation and 3 explicit cross-cutting issues as the programmatic foundation of the new UNDAF. A dozen outcomes were also formulated and agreed. Strategies and lines of action were addressed to limited extent, and it was agreed that this would be finalised drawing inter alia on pre-existing Theme Group work. The four areas of co-operation agreed are the following:

1. Promote and contribute to good governance and realization of rights.
2. Contribute to the reduction of incidence and mitigation of the social economic impact of HIV/AIDS pandemic, Malaria & TB.
3. Contribute to the Strengthening of National and local systems for emergency preparedness, prevention, response and mitigation.
4. Contribute to sustainable livelihoods and Environment

Participants were satisfied with this substantive outcome, and discussed the need for discipline to meet the challenge of the work to be completed under tight deadlines. There was a very important discussion of the need to now involve more deeply the Government, major donors, and civil society as appropriate. A draft UNDAF (2004-2008) is ready and is in the process of typesetting and publishing and will be launched soon