The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kenya is offering ongoing support in preparation of the 2017 Kenyan general elections. 12 UN Volunteers are on location serving with monitoring counterparts, contributing to UNDP’s support of the electoral process.

Good governance is essential to public service delivery By decentralizing decision making and assuring local participation, the Devolution Project, managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, UN Women, and Kenyan national and county government offices, promotes collaboration between local communities and national public service providers.

On 26 August 2016, during a side event preceeding TICAD VI, Richard Dictus, the Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and Ambassador Dr. Kipyego Cheluget, Assistant Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) towards establishing the COMESA Youth Volunteer Scheme (COMESA-YVS). The MOU signing was a culmination of extensive discussions between the two organizations led by the UNV Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa based in Nairobi.

Africa needs a people-led development pathway that puts the role of youth at the core of the continental development agenda. Thus concluded the colorful side event jointly convened by the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and the Africa Union Commission (AUC) on 26 August 2016 to head off the sixth Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD VI) held for the first time in Africa, in Nairobi from 27 to 28 August 2016. 

Nairobi, Kenya: The transition from the year 2015 to the year 2016 marked a remarkable moment in environmental governance for sustainable development globally. The world gained a set of universally agreed development goals, a financing for development agreement, and even more critical for the global environment, the Paris climate change agreement that finally promised to cap global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.

Makueni County, Kenya: Catherine Ngave, a national UN Volunteer in Kenya: I started volunteering at a young age in our community. We would volunteer to clean the market places and also fetch water for the elderly women in the village. I never knew it would lead to national volunteerism.

Nairobi, Kenya:  It has been a long, tiring and dusty journey across north eastern Kenya on a mission to witness first-hand the effects of the drought that has left millions on the brink of starvation. With me on this trip is UNICEF Sweden Goodwill Ambassador Liza Marklund and Swedish photographer Martin von Krogh. Together we have travelled from Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, to Liboi near the Kenya-Somalia border and their journey ends in Wajir, a drought stricken district in northern Kenya. But for me this journey is far from over.