Kenya: Investment for family planning improving, more needed to meet commitments

Collins Baswony Advance

Kenya is making progress towards ensuring access to family planning services, an analysis by Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) has shown. The budget analysis conducted by Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) examined the national budget and the budgets of 11 counties. The county budget information analysed include those of Bungoma, West Pokot, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia, Nandi, Nakuru, Laikipia, Nyandarua, Meru, Nairobi, …

Nutrition in Western Kenya – tackling mother and child malnutrition

Howard Akimala Foster

The European Union will invest €1.63 million for projects about maternal and child nutrition in Western Kenya, over the next three years in Homa Bay County. Speaking during the commissioning of two projects in September, European Union representative Titus Katembu noted that malnutrition is a major public health concern in Kenya. He pointed out that the country is currently experiencing a rise …

Family Planning in East Africa: partnering to increase funding

Imali Ngusale Youth Empowerment

In late august, we were delighted to welcome to Mombasa some of our closest partners in family planning advocacy. The purpose of the invitation was to bring our collaborators around the table to discuss how we can better improve access to funding for family planning in East Africa. With the economic context always evolving, and donor organisations and governments regularly …

family planning youth champions

Kenya: creating the next generation of family planning youth champions

Collins Baswony Youth Empowerment

Following a recent four-day training workshop for family planning youth champions conducted by DSW, 26 youth from eight counties in Kenya are now better equipped to advocate for more and better funds for family planning from the public sector. The training workshop covered topic areas critical for family planning advocacy, including understanding family planning concepts, the budget-making process, the public participation framework, …

It’s time to introduce sexuality education in Kenyan schools

Collins Baswony Youth Empowerment

By Dr. George Kamau The Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development is currently in the process of reviewing the Kenya school curriculum. This is a great opportunity to create a cultural and religiously sensitive age appropriate sexuality education curriculum for Kenyan learners at Primary and Secondary school levels. In the recent past, several studies have been published showing that Kenyan youth …

#16Days: Activism Against Gender Based Violence – despatch from Kenya

Halima Abba Ali Youth Empowerment

“From peace in the home to peace in the world: Make education safe for all”  2015 marks the 24th year of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence Campaign, initiated in 1991. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence began on the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25 and ended on the International …

Y2Y: East African youth need education, employment and health!

Eoghan Walsh Youth Empowerment

East Africa’s population is young. 64 per cent of the population – an estimated 251 million people are below age 25. Life is not always easy for them. We asked Kennedy Mambo Chande, Y2Y (Youth to Youth) Coordinator at DSW, to tell us about the challenges and opportunities of the East African youth generation.

International Youth Day 2015 – Girls, girls girls!

Eoghan Walsh Youth Empowerment

International Youth Day 2015 has as its theme youth civic engagement. As the UN rightly recognizes, involving young people in the decisions taken by governments and politicians is vital if national and international commitments are to be met and we are able to achieve sustainable human development. However, most of the time the opportunities for young people to engage politically, …

Financing for Development – a review of FFD3 in Addis

Peter Ngure Youth Empowerment

Convening for the Financing for Development conference, in the middle of July leaders from all over the world were meeting here in Addis Ababa. There were many hot topics on the agenda; was about tax, illicit flow of money, gender and health financing, whether female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriages are a global problem, and whether goal 17 needs …

DSW’s Y2Y initiative – The plan for 2015

Kennedy Chande Youth Empowerment

My name is Kennedy Mambo Chande, International Project Coordinator (IPC) with DSW, supporting Programme management and in charge of the overall coordination of the Youth to Youth (Y2Y) initiative. I work with DSW Kenya and I am very passionate about the work that we do in youth and community development.

IYD 2014 – Improving sexual and reproductive health and rights for young adolescents in Kenya

Renate Baehr Youth Empowerment

It’s not easy to be a young person living in Kenya today. Compared with adults, adolescents are at higher risk of illness and even death from pregnancy related complications, HIV infection, or other sexually transmitted infections. In addition, unintended pregnancy is often the main cause for girls leaving formal education, the consequences of which can take a toll on their …

International Youth Day 2014 – Helping young people talk about their sexual health

George Kamau Youth Empowerment

As part of our celebrations of International Youth Day this year – which takes place today, August 12th – DSW‘s Country Director for Kenya, George Kamau, talks about the importance of sexual and reproductive health for young men and women, and what DSW is doing to support them across Kenya. What is the age when sexuality is getting a big …

“Fit for Life” Success Stories shared at the EU Headquarters and in Berlin

Kennedy Chande Youth Empowerment

  Kennedy, the Coordinator of the Fit for Life (FFL) Action, visited the EU headquarters in Brussels between the 31st and 2nd of April and Berlin on the 3rd of April to present successes and lessons learnt from the FFL project. It was two great occasions presenting the 3 year achievements at the EU Infopoint in Brussels and at the German Bundestag which …

#IWD2014: Celebrating Women Working in Development – Jessie, DSW Kenya

Eoghan Walsh Youth Empowerment

Yesterday we celebrated International Women’s Day. Supporting and empowering women and girls are fundamental to the work of DSW, something which new strive to achieve every day. To celebrate this, and the continuing contribution that women have made to DSW’s work, we have given over the blog every day this week to members of DSW to talk about the importance …