Ready for LIFT-Off
Preparing to Transform Lives through Green Livelihoods
BOMA is working alongside IKEA Foundation, Smart Regional Consultants (SRC) and DanChurchAid (DCA) to launch the Livelihoods and Inclusion for Transformation (LIFT) program in Northern Kenya. LIFT will catalyze opportunities for 15,600 women, youth, and refugees facing extreme poverty in Northern Kenya.
LIFT focuses on women, youth, refugees, and displaced people, supporting them to launch and build 3,650 environmentally friendly businesses in Samburu and Turkana counties. LIFT is ultimately expected to benefit more than 93,000 people in Northern Kenya over two years.
People to be Impacted by LIFT
In the early months of 2023, BOMA worked alongside our partners to begin initial meetings with stakeholders like county government officials as well as peers including UNHCR Department of Refugee Affairs and County Directorates of Forestry services. Activities to target potential participants and better understand the community also took place.
Additionally, BOMA, SRC and DCA recruited key staff for LIFT during the first Quarter of 2023 including Program Director Edwin Siala, Refugee Livelihood Program Manager Chris Sunday, Training and Capacity Development Manager Simon Wangu, and Procurement and Logistics Officer Chrispus Mwadime at BOMA.
LIFT to Include Independent Evaluation by Innovations for Poverty Action
Throughout the three-year LIFT program, BOMA and IKEA Foundation will partner with researchers from Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). IPA is a global research and policy nonprofit that generates evidence from rigorous research and shares it with policymakers to improve the lives of people living in poverty.
The researchers will conduct an independent randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of BOMA’s climate-focused approach, Green REAP, for future expansion.
The evaluation conducted by IPA will assess how effectively Green REAP lifts participants out of poverty compared to BOMA’s standard REAP approach — while delivering additional environmental benefits. Additionally, the study will explore the cost effectiveness of Green REAP as well as whether the program improves the environmental knowledge, attitude, and practices of our participants.
IPA will study 105 groups or “clusters” in the Samburu, Marsabit, and Turkana regions of Northern Kenya. This will include 2,000 participants enrolled in LIFT.
To date, BOMA and our partners have worked with IPA to identify clusters and target potential LIFT participants. Furthermore, IPA has progressed to randomize treatment and control locations as well as randomly sampling participants for a baseline survey to take place in Quarter Two.