Kenyan Government and Development Partners Meet to Chart the Agriculture Masterplan

Group photo during MOALD Breakfast

Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development gathered with donors and development partners at a breakfast meeting to deliberate on various pertinent agriculture issues. The aim of the meeting was to update the government’s Bottom-Up Economic Agenda (BETA) priorities and implementation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, to prioritise support required from development partners, and to agree on scheduling regular coordination and consultation discussions for joint accountability and tracking of progress.

Facilitated and supported by Policy LINK, the Safari Park Hotel meeting brought together about 60 participants. Key among them were the Agricultural and Rural Development Partners Group (ARDPG), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, and the President’s Economic Transformation Secretariat (PETS), all keen to discuss the government’s agricultural priorities and how development efforts could best align with these principles. Moderator Robert Ouma, Regional Director at Policy LINK, welcomed the beginning of a great collaboration among the partners, and reiterated that the discussions are designed to be open, honest, and engaging, with the aim to build understanding how to align and support the government’s agricultural masterplan.

Hon. Paul Rono, Principal Secretary of Agriculture during the discussion session answering questions.

In his opening remarks, Andrew McCown, chairperson of the Agriculture and Rural Development Partners Group (ARDPG) and representative of USAID, said “We have wanted to meet with the larger group. The ARDPG is made of bilateral and multilateral development partners working in Agriculture and Livestock sector. We pledge to support the government of Kenya at national and county levels with various strategies, policies, and investment priorities. We value inclusive growth in the agriculture sector, and transparency in governance and believe the country has potential. As development partners, we commitment to mobilise public and private investment to support the government’s priorities especially on digitization, nutrition outcomes, adaptation to climate change and gender inclusion.” 

The group noted challenges that could be jointly addressed, including lack of timely sector data, weakening of the agriculture extension services, and lack of articulation between the different sector strategies and plans. They discussed the  current state of public fertiliser distribution, public finance for agriculture, and the relationships between the various agricultural policy plans.

Vinay Vutukuru, Convener of the Agriculture and Livestock Sector working group, Development Partners Working Group, and representative from the World Bank, said “It is our privilege as the development partners group to [see] the government’s crops and livestock sectors are doing well. These can transform sectors such as food security, trade, and jobs in the economic transformation agenda. [There are] ome success stories on the data; the farmer registration is the database of 6.3 million farmers. The next step is to use this data to inform policy. The livestock sector working group is also another great initiative where both public and private sectors are opening in dialogue. We are all soldiers of agriculture and to have the resources going to the county government is important; we have had drought and floods and we are urging the government to release resources to the county. This is impacting the farmers and pastoralists and we need to work with speed,’’ he concluded.

Hon. Jonathan Mueke, Principal Secretary, Livestock Development, during the meeting.

Dr. Kiplimo Langat, of the caucus of all county executive committees of Agriculture in the Council of Governors, said in his remarks that the forum is a timely opportunity for the sector to agree on how to work. “Agriculture is a concurrent function between the county and the national government and it is important that we work together, and for the donor community to understand the working relationship. We should be speaking [with] one agenda. Intergovernmental forum was a good initiative to align the sector and would urge us to continue with this forum. A common working framework will also be important to all of us towards a transformed agriculture sector. The livestock registration is also coming up to strengthen the data.”

Hon. Jonathan Mueke, Principal Secretary, Livestock Development, said “This meeting will allow us to focus on our goals as a ministry and as a country. This is the BETA agenda: if we empower the people at the bottom, the people will come up. Agriculture transformation and inclusive growth and manufacturing is one of the five focus area in the President’s agenda. When we empower our farmers then they transform. The focus is on production in agriculture, with a value chain approach. Dairy and leather are among the nine value chains that go directly to support the livestock sector. We need to coordinate, realign, and redesign the projects we are working on as government and donors. We need to refocus our programs on economic empowerment.”

Hon. Paul Rono, Principal Secretary of Agriculture, welcomed the participants and on behalf Hon. Mithika Linturi, Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, presented on the government’s agriculture priorities. ‘‘My team is committed to ensure that the masterplan is detailed, with various investment plans for the government and development sector to work together in the implementation process. This plan will be speaking to the various agriculture policies. This is an opportunity for the ministry to ensure working with Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization, the research arm and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, the sector regulator; we will rely on the knowledge gain and implement. Can the structure follow the policy?”

Dominic Menjo, President’s Economics Team Secretariate (PETS) on Deliverables for the Bottom-Up Economic Agenda (BETA) presented on the government’s economic priorities, mentioning Agriculture Transformation and Inclusive Growth and Manufacturing as a key pillar in the BETA agenda. “We envision an Agriculture Masterplan for Kenya and your partnership is key in this process.”

The meeting concluded with both groups agreeing that this first interaction would lead to a regular exchange, with PS Rono agreeing to host quarterly meetings between the ARDPG and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, and ARD and MoA to identifying coordination teams or focal persons for this meeting. To drive tangible plans for each meeting’s agenda, PS Rono will propose a structure and participants, while development partners will reflect on asks to support masterplans and offer feedback to the Ministry and CoG​.

Sector-level coordination initiatives are to be clarified and re-invigorated with horizontal and vertical structures, including inter- and intra-ministerial, and cross-sector coordination with the private sector and NGOs, including discussions around the food systems framework.