The Launch of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Voluntary National Review Report 2024
By Melisa Mongina
Kenya’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Forum has released the 2024 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Voluntary National Review (VNR) Report, marking an important step towards achieving the SDGs. Poverty, one of the indicators in the implementation of SDGs has been listed among the various challenges affecting the country’s economy due to its rapid rise.
In his speech on Wednesday during the report overview of SDGs, Samuel Kimote cited poverty as one of the indicators that has affected and reduced the country’s performance in the implementation of SDGs, adding that they are focusing on its eradication as CSOs.
“When you look at goal number one, poverty, you can note that it is increasing. In 2015 we were at 38.6% but currently, we are at 39.8%. This shows that poverty is increasing and whatever we do as CSOs remains relevant. This year’s theme is reinforcing the agenda 2030 focusing mostly on eradicating poverty in Kenya,” said Kimote.
He further stated that their main focus as CSOs on goal number one was to ensure poverty ends in Kenya.
“The methodology that we followed to come up with this plan was highly consultative. Each CSO noted their contribution to ending poverty in Kenya,” added Kimote.
Kimote emphasizes that there should be clarifications from the government as to why poverty continues to rise despite the economic growth reported in the 2024 economic survey.
“The government has provided the data. The report has only documented the collective efforts of all involved. For example, goal number one states that poverty has increased. So the government will tell us why that is so, yet the 2024 economic survey states that the country is growing at 5.6%,” said Kimote.
The 2024 VNR report gives a balanced insight, detailing both the accomplishments and the obstacles encountered over the past four years. The report emphasizes the vital contribution of various stakeholders, particularly civil society organizations, in promoting sustainable development.
According to Benson Kimani from UNDP Kenya, the increase in poverty has raised a lot of concerns despite having 17 goals that are equal and undivided.
“I think despite us having 17 goals which are all important and undivided, we realized something that is of great importance to us stakeholders which is the increase in poverty. In 2014 Kenya made a deal to move from a low-income economy to a medium-income economy,” noted Kimani.
George Awala, Co-chair of the SDGs Kenya forum, states that a lot of people are now falling into poverty than before thus urging the civil society, government, UN agencies, academia, and private sector to have a deep look at the situation.
“More people are falling into poverty than previously. We need to ask ourselves what we can do as a civil society. What can the government do? What can the UN agencies do? What can the private sector do? and also what can academia do? And I think the value of having a platform where we all come together to discuss issues around SDGs is that richness that comes from all these different players being able to talk, dialogue, and ensure that everyone’s voice is heard,” noted Awala.
Festus Wangwe, Director of Planning in the State Department of MSME, noted that the progress among key indicators such as poverty is not performing well. Further, he added that for them to reach their Vision 2030 target, their efforts need to be redoubled.
“What is of concern is that the progress registered in all the SDGs indicators remains on a soft track, which means we are unlikely to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Unfortunately, the progress among key indicators such as poverty is not performing well. So it implies that we need to redouble our efforts if we have to make significant progress towards the achievement of these goals,” emphasized Wangwe.
The 2024 VNR report has offered a detailed account of Kenya’s progress since the last review in 2020.
