I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog lately as I’ve been immersed in the work of ActionAid Kenya these past 10 days which has been an amazing learning journey for me. At a personal level it was fantastic to be back in Africa as I hadn’t been in those parts since I left Johannesburg in 2006. Anyway I’m now laying over in Dubai Airport on my way back to Sydney as I scribble this post.
ActionAid Kenya is preparing for its next country strategy which comes into effect in 2011 and as a part of this process a team of ActionAiders was assembled to review their progress over the last five years, assess future opportunities and make recommendations on the direction of the programme. I was lucky enough to be selected as the Team Leader for this review and I had the absolute privilege of working with Seema Joshi, our Child Sponsorship Coordinator in the Asia Region, Judy Kamyani from the ActionAid Uganda Board, Olutayo Olujide, our Regional HR/OD Coordinator for West and Central Africa and Jo Walker from the ActionAid International Campaigns Team.
Then there is our team in Kenya that is superbly led by Jean Kamau who is 5 hours behind me on her first trip to Australia. Its when you work closely with such a talented and committed group of people you get a true sense of the drive behind this ambitious and bold organisation that I am so proud to be a part of.
So what did we find out about Kenya? Everyone, and I mean everyone, in Kenya is talking about the recently promulgated Constitution. This is a far reaching instrument that devolves the political authority in the country to county level and importantly from ActionAid’s perspective it contains a bill of rights which importantly grants women equal citizenship in the country for the first time. As a friend of mine in Kenya recently said, “Kenya you have a green light”!
