Kenya National Social Protection Policy 2023 defines social protection as “The set of policies, programmes, interventions and legislative measures aimed at cushioning all Kenyans against poverty, vulnerability, exclusion, risks, contingencies, and shocks throughout their life cycles, and promoting the realization of economic and social rights.” The national and county government including various stakeholders has been implementing various interventions aimed at alleviating the marginalized and vulnerable populations from diverse forms of risks.
In September 2024, the USAID team engaged various stakeholders involved in social protection across all the ten USAID HERO focus counties. The main purpose of the activity was to map social protection initiative within the USAID HERO supported counties. During this period, USAID HERO seized the opportunity to introduce the social inclusion and financial protection pillar to the stakeholders. During the county entry and engagement meetings, the project team met main actors from the national and county governments officials who have been involved in the design, delivery, and evaluation of the social protection initiatives.
The team took advantage of the meetings to implement two of its priority activities from their workplan:
- Identification and documentation of available social protection initiatives; and
- Identification and documentation of available and operational BWCs
The findings from the assessments shall be used to prepare targeted capacity strengthening support to the participating counties to help them improved coverage of poor and vulnerable groups in social protection schemes and linked to the single registry.
