How can we bridge the inequality gap? Lessons From Ford Foundation's New Strategy For Eastern Africa.

The Youth Café, upon invitation, had the opportunity to attend the Ford Foundation Strategy launch, held on 30th January 2020 at Radisson Blu Hotel, Nairobi-Kenya. The theme of the event was, bridging the inequality gap. This event saw convergence of several partners spanning from representatives of civil society and private sector, to government representatives, in order to discuss the widely growing inequality in the society, with a keen focus on the young people. Corruption was explicitly mentioned as a major reason for inequality. 

The Youth Café, as a youth-run organization, got invited to the forum owing to its pioneering role in youth-centered Participatory Budgeting work in sub-Saharan Africa, an innovative approach to addressing systemic intergenerational inequality, and an area of mutual interest with Ford Foundation. Through this body of work, The Youth Cafe offers county officials, and National Treasury officials its assistance in facilitating problem-solving (via community-centered design workshops to bring key stakeholders together and facilitate their collaboration, co-design strategy and activities). The Youth Café also wants to incentivize youth engagement (via citizen-led data collection and visualization of assets, budgets and projects (apps and maps), and via creating youth Participatory Budgeting within local and national governance).

The event saw a good representation of the youth-led civil societies. The theme clearly meant a lot for them.

The brief educative session of the Ford Foundation for Eastern Africa’s strategy launch included  remarks from the Chapter’s Program Officer, Margaret Mliwa, utilizing a Swahili proverb to pass her message: ‘Mtu hakatai wito, anakataa analoitiwa’. Loosely translated to mean “heed to the message and not the messenger/the call”. These were the proverbial remarks that essentially concluded, in a nutshell, the much anticipated strategy launch. 

After a deadlock experience of the Nairobi traffic, I arrived at the venue about ten minutes after the stipulated arrival time, 7:30 am, as a representative of The Youth Cafe. I walked straight to the reception desk to collect my batch. On my right, a couple of participants are waiting for the event’s kick-off while taking their breakfasts – I wasn’t much late. The event was yet to start, so I joined in the early networking session. I literally knew no one, or where to start. The faces were unfamiliar but friendly. Soon after, a colleague I had arranged to meet up with at the session arrived, Timothy Kiprono - a very proactive and a resourceful young man. Timothy runs a start-up Open Governance Institute (OGI). OGI advocates for  better delivery of public services. I picked up the conversation with him while sipping coffee. I now got a little bit comfortable and at ease. We interacted with a couple of government representatives, and representatives of private institutions and civil society at different tables, until the session kicked-off, a bit later than expected.

The event started with  formal opening remarks from the Foundation's Director in Eastern Africa, Maurice Makolo. Mr. Makolo commenced by asserting an inequality paradox that exists in the country. He talked about the gap of inequality that continues to widen daily with the increase in economic and population growth. “we live in a moment of inequality paradox, the world has grown, east Africa has grown, Kenya’s population has grown, economically we have grown, the paradox is, so has the gap between those who have and those who do not have, and between the old and the young”. The Director, in his assertions, believes existence of corruption in the society undermines democracy and promotes impunity. For social justice advocacy, to enhance accountability, and for a successful fight against corruption, there’s a need to form a broad coalition of actors, and to expanded civil societies, to bring the society to shared values. Independent and individual actors play a vital role in exposing corruption in the society. Mr. Makolo considers diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as critical to the success of any social justice. He implicitly stressed the role of the civil society in bridging the inequality by using all the resources within their means. 

The end of the Director’s remarks ushered in the next session: A moderated discussion with the panelists. The forum was moderated by Citizen TV news anchor, Yvonne Okwara. I found Yvonne’s moderation to be perfect. A very tight schedule and a good timing, with amazing experts from different sectors as panelists: Director of Public Prosecution, Kenya (DPP)-Noordin Hajji, Member of Kachieng County Assembly (MCA), Brian Osote, Editorial cartoonist, Gado and Siasa Place director, Nerima Wako.

Panelists’ take on Corruption and inequality, and young people

The DPP, Noordin Hajji, placed utmost concern on the collaboration of the arms of the government in tackling corruption. He underscored the necessity to adopt a different approach to prosecution. For a long time, the fight against corruption and prosecution has exclusively been deemed a mandate purely for ODPP. He stressed, however. that his office has always embraced public outreach approach, where they try to bring individuals, civil societies and the arms of government together.

Nerima Wako noted that the basis for inclusivity in the society should be focused on bringing youth on board when making substantial decisions that have ripple effect on their lives. She squashed the normative way of decision-making, in which, she argues that these decisions are made in ‘boardrooms’, and often, no concerned is raised on the representation of different groups in the decision-making process. She stressed on paying a keen concern on ‘who’s not here’ rather than ‘who is here’, in the decision-making process. Wako emphasized the inclusion of young people in political pronouncements. ‘Young people literally have nothing and everything to lose’ Nerima asserted, ‘youth are used to the idea of someone choosing their leaders for them’. Hon. Brian Osote on the other hand, placed primacy on civic education, security enhancement and embracing connectivity, so as to foster peaceful coexistence among tribes. With civic education, individuals get to know their rights and obligation.

Editorial cartoonist, -Gado- also highlighted the neglected role of young people in fighting corruption, as well as the pervasive inequality that exists particularly between the ages, with the youth being so much marginalized in the end. Gado reveals working with the young people at his Buni content producing company, in efforts to empower the youth.

This panel discussion has been successful at shedding at least a bit of light on the path toward mitigating corruption menace, and towards political inclusion of young people in the society. 

At the end of the session, I had a chance to ‘hijack’ and introduce myself to Margaret Mliwa, as representative of The Youth Café. She promised a scheduled meet up with the Director of The Youth Café, Willice Onyango, concerning Participatory Budgeting, and other areas of partnership. I also had the opportunity to meet Passy Amayo, who is a Programme Officer at Society for International Development (SID). SID is an international network of individuals and organizations founded to promote social justice and foster democratic participation in the development process. Passy is a very practical young lady with a good sense humor. I discussed with her our plans for the Leadership Center facility. She offered to be of help where she can.

The Youth Café organization works with young men and women in Kenya and around Africa to foster community resilience, propose innovative solutions, drive social progress, youth empowerment, and inspire political change. At the core of The Youth Café’s vision, is the belief that young people are a tremendous and essential asset worth investing in. 

On this particular day, as a member of a public outreach and fund mobilization team, I had one major side-mission: to connect with potential partners towards The Youth Cafe's new capital investment project, which aims to mobilize $2 million for a youth leadership and training facility in Kenya. The Leadership Center facility is envisioned to serve as a hub to inspire future leaders to advance social change through leadership and resilience training, certificate courses, research internships, and outreach programmes. To know more about capital campaign, contact Larissa Haas who's leading its stakeholder engagement.

Audience’s contribution:

The audience made the session very lively and interactive through various comments, compliments, concerns and questions. Mohammed Malim of Emerging Leaders Foundation, proposed an idea of multi-sectoral approach to bridging inequality gaps and corruption, such as taking collective responsibility of all stakeholders, actors and individuals in fighting corruption and bridging the inequality gap in the society.

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About the Author.

Martin Wang is an Associate Member of The Youth Café, and a Master’s degree student at Daystar University pursuing diplomacy, development, and security studies. With editorial support of our guest editor, Nedland Sigbjorn. 

Email: martinwang@theyouthcafe.com

Tel: +254705558688