13 October 2005

Nairobi, Kenya: The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is supporting a new initiative by the Nairobi-based Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (KARA) to increase local knowledge of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and encourage public engagement in voluntary activities that contribute to the goals' achievement.

To help the alliance get its MDG message out, UNV has awarded KARA a grant of US $30,000 to coordinate awareness raising activities in Nairobi's slums. Kenya's capital and largest city has 60 percent of its residents living in the slums, a densely populated area of informal settlements that is bursting at the seams with people and despair.

“The most marginalized and socially excluded are to be found in the sprawling slums of Nairobi - they are considered the poorest of the poor,” said Stephen Mutoro, chief executive officer of KARA. “They lack clean drinking water, proper plumbing, access to health care facilities, and other public services such as schools and parks.”

Despite being based in the capital, Mr. Mutoro said, the alliance represents the plight of urban and rural slum dwellers throughout Kenya. Since its formation in 1999, KARA has emerged as a strong advocate for the necessary ingredients – such as good governance, sound environmental policies, responsible land use and zoning, full stakeholder participation – to help all residents including slum dwellers rise above poverty. He and other members of the alliance regularly meet with the City Council of Nairobi, various government ministries, civil society organizations and the private sector to raise awareness of conditions in the slums and mobilize financial resources.

The initiative with UNV, he said, will initially target community leaders to sensitize them on the MDGs and provide concrete examples of ways residents, as volunteers, can become active in their community’s development.

Community needs assessments will be conducted with 100 leaders from various organizations including women’s collectives, youth groups, and faith-based associations. Through these sessions, Mr. Mutoro said, a wealth of information on communities’ needs would be collected and then brought forward to the responsible ministries. “We are persuaded that the information to be passed through this initiative will reinvigorate morale - something that is currently missing within the slum community,” he said.

KARA is also seeking private sector partners to collaborate in the initiative. One company is donating high-mast floodlights to provide street lighting in a number of the slums, while other businesses have offered other forms of assistance.

The UNV-KARA initiative directly corresponds to the Government of Kenya’s ongoing efforts in sensitizing the population on the MDGs, as well as responding to the situation faced by Nairobi’s slum dwellers. Mr. Mutoro said the government has committed nearly US$ 7 million to carry out slum upgrading in the coming year.

The chief of UNV’s Africa section, Ms. Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, said UNV support to KARA is an excellent example of partnership for the MDGs. “This multifaceted approach of engaging the community as volunteers, the private sector and the government demonstrates a strong willingness and commitment to help the slum community overcome poverty’s grasp,” she said. “The project will go a long way towards raising awareness on the MDGs among slum dwellers—the most marginal and vulnerable strata of society—where poverty is acute and visible.”