Mission
of the United Nations in Kenya
The mission of the United
Nations System in Kenya is to support the Government in its efforts to create
and sustain an enabling environment for the promotion of human rights, good
governance and the improvement of the quality of life and the well-being of
the people of Kenya by reducing poverty, with a particular focus on the most
vulnerable groups and regions.
Highlights
of Collaborative UN Assistance
- Milestones
in UN Reform, Simplification and Harmonization and Inter Agency Coordination
– a new consensus emerged surrounding the MDGs. New guidelines were
adopted for the preparation of UNDAF with its results matrix establishing
a clear link between national goals and UN system agency goal.
- Response
to HIV/AIDS - Throughout
the year, the UNCT continued to be a key player within the framework of the
national multi-sectoral response to the HIV/AIDS as guided by the National
HIV/AIDS strategic plan.
- Gender
Mainstreaming and Empowerment of Women - The
key results in this domain included the production of a National Policy on
Gender and Development and a Sessional Paper defining an implementation strategy
of the new policy.
- Linkages
between UN instruments and National Planning Processes - The
UN’s work in Kenya, defined in the context of the UNDAF, continued to
constitute a common response to the country’s development challenges
as defined in the PRSP, the National Development Plan and other planning tools,
and within the framework of the MDGs and other commitments, goals and targets
of international conferences and conventions.
- Implementing
MDGs - A National
MDGs task force was created in 2002 to spearhead the MDGs campaign. This task
force comprised of GOK departments, UNDP, Donors, Civil Society and Private
Sector. In 2003 the task force spearheaded the consultation process that led
to the production of Kenya’s inaugural MDGs Report that was published
in July 2003
- Joint
UN advocacy and Public Information -
Several activities were organized by UNIC – the information arm of the
UN throughout the year in partnership with other agencies. The UN day was
commemorated in October with an award to an innovative practice towards achievement
of MDGs. The agencies were involved in the nomination of the awardee. The
event attracted publicity both in the local and international media.
- UN House
and Common services - In
2002 one of the areas where there were formal agreements on establishment
of common services was in the medical services (joint medical services). Arising
from this the UN system promulgated both a personnel and procurement policy
in 2003 that are firsts within the UN system. Under the Three C’s policy:
Confidentiality, Counselling and Care for staff members in Kenya suffering
from HIV/AIDS, a contract has been signed between UNON and a specialized one-stop
clinic for HIV/AIDS patients at one of the main hospitals in Nairobi. The
second policy called the Guaranteed Fair Employment Package for contractor’s
employees based on site at UN Complex in Nairobi seeks to ensure, through
inclusion of a number of standard contractual conditions for outsourced services,
that 400 personnel employed by UN contractors (cleaning, maintenance etc.)
at the UN Gigiri Complex
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The Resident Coordinator Biography