The new project will advance Kenya’s co-op sector, which currently counts 14,000+ co-ops and more than 15 million co-op members.
Kenyan cooperative leaders and stakeholders, along with NCBA CLUSA staff and other partners, came together in Kenya last month to officially launch NCBA CLUSA’s new USAID Cooperative Development Program (CDP) project – Cooperative Ecosystem and Social Inclusion (CESI). This CDP-funded project will be implemented by NCBA CLUSA in Kenya, Madagascar, Guatemala, and Peru from October 2023 to September 2028.
The launch event was attended by Daniel Marube, Executive Director of the Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK), Patrick Kilemi, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of MSMEs and Cooperatives, and David Rogers, USAID Kenya’s Deputy Director of the Office for Economic Growth and Integration. Rogers emphasized the value of the cooperative model and its role in achieving development goals.
CDP/CESI builds on NCBA CLUSA’s previous CDP project, Creating an Environment for Cooperative Expansion (CECE). Lydia Omamo, NCBA CLUSA’s Country Representative in Kenya, explained CDP/CESI’s three key objectives: to further strengthen co-ops’ capacity, advance cooperative enabling environments, and spur the application of CDP learnings and tools within the development community. The project aims to strengthen the core co-op ecosystem actors and advance the inclusion of women and youth across all four countries.
Under the previous CDP project, women’s participation in cooperatives grew significantly in Kenya, reaching 23.3 percent within project partner cooperatives. Women in membership and leadership roles increased by 23.9 percent and 33.75 percent, respectively, during project implementation. NCBA CLUSA helped Kenyan co-ops facilitate amendments to cooperative by-laws to promote women’s participation in membership and leadership.
CDP/CESI aims to continue this progress while also promoting youth involvement in cooperatives. With CDP/CESI support, an innovative financial inclusion product called CASA DADA will be expanded to increase the number of women it benefits through recruitment and training. CDP/CECE also successfully created new regulations to support services for cooperatives, contributing to an enabling environment for the growth of Kenyan cooperatives.
Another CDP/CECE success was the development of the Cooperative Business School in Peru, Guatemala, and the U.S. Under CDP/CESI, NCBA CLUSA will expand this initiative to Kenya to serve the needs of Kenyan co-op stakeholders, focusing on governance and digitalization.
Daniel Marube, CEO at CAK, recognized NCBA CLUSA’s support under CDP/CECE in passing the Cooperative Policy and developing the Cooperative Bill. Patrick Kilemi, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of MSMEs and Cooperatives, emphasized the pivotal role cooperatives play in Kenya’s National Development Strategy. CDP/CESI will continue to support the passing of the Cooperative Bill and, once passed, will support the Ministry of MSMEs and Cooperatives as well as CAK to draft accompanying regulations, establish Federations, and restructure CAK to accommodate the new law.
Dr. Sifa Chiyoge, Regional Director for the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in Africa, said ICA Africa is eager to work with NCBA CLUSA to support Kenyan and Malagasy co-op stakeholders, mainly via peer learning between similar organizations in both countries and other countries in the region. NCBA CLUSA recently launched CDP/CESI in Madagascar.
Mr. Marube hopes millions more Kenyans join co-ops so they can improve their livelihoods. With the launch of the new CDP project, NCBA CLUSA reaffirms its commitment to supporting the Kenyan co-op sector so that it can continue to grow beyond the 14,000+ co-ops and more than 15 million members it currently serves.
