BOMA and Partner Organizations Host a Poverty Graduation Learning Event and Policymakers Workshop in Nairobi-April 21, 2016

Posted on 04.25.16 by The BOMA Project

On April 21st, the BOMA Project, jointly with the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Kenya Vision 2030, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the UK-aid Kenya, hosted a conference and policymakers’ workshop discussing the global evidence of impact of Poverty Graduation approach, implementation experience and policy lessons for government adoption of this approach in Kenya and the drylands of Africa. In this invite-only policy forum, high-level government officials from Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan and researchers, multilateral and bilateral funders and NGO leaders joined in to learn about the latest research and studies on Poverty Graduation, experience implementing such programs in the dry lands of Africa and challenges and opportunities of integrating the Poverty Graduation approach as a part of the national social protection agenda in Kenya and beyond.

This was the first of such event on the continent bringing together all relevant government ministries, agencies in Kenya, government delegations from the neighboring countries, big multilateral and bilateral donors like the World Bank, World Food Program (WPF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and UK-aid, as well as academics, researchers, implementers and interested NGOs in one place to discuss the need for scaling up and government adoption of Poverty Graduation programs in the specific context of extreme poverty in the Arid and Semi-arid Lands of Africa.

Speakers at the event included, Professor Wainaina Gituro, Ag Director General of Kenya Vision 2030, Liz Drake, Section Head, Team Leader and Senior Adviser, DFID Kenya, Kathleen Colson, Founder and CEO, the BOMA Project, Dr. Sayed Hashemi, Senior Advisor, CGAP, Mr. Nathaniel Goldberg, Program Director, Social Protection Program, IPA, Dr. Jeremy Shapiro, President, Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, Rachel Proefke, Senior Research Associate, BRAC USA, Winnie Mwasiaji, National Coordinator of Social Protection Secretariat, Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Services of Kenya, Suleiman Asman, Country Director, Innovations for Poverty Action, Ahmed ‘Kura” Omar, Co-founder and Director of Field Operations/REAP for the BOMA Project and Tadeo Muriuki, Country Director, Village Enterprise Fund.

Policymakers and government officials engaged in intense discussion and by presenting evidence of impact and sharing best practices, speakers at this event highlighted the role of Poverty Gradation Programs in tackling extreme poverty, food security and achieving gender equality and resilience building in the face of climate change in the drylands of Africa.

Click the links below to see the individual presentations:

Presentation by the Liz Drake of UK-aid Kenya

Presentation by Dr. Sayed Hashemi of CGAP

Presentation by, Mr. Nathaniel Goldberg of IPA and Dr. Jeremy Shapiro of the Busara Center

Presentation by Kathleen Colson Presentation-BOMA Project

Presentation by  Kura Omar of the BOMA Project