Kenya

In 2024, UN Women in Kenya successfully promoted gender-responsive climate action while building resilience and improving livelihoods for women, girls, and communities, thereby contributing to SDGs 1, 5 and 13. 621 women from 42 groups generated an income exceeding USD 143,733 in 2024 through Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices. This was achieved through public awareness campaigns on the importance of adopting CSA technologies, greater acceptance and support for women�s participation in agricultural and climate resilience and training carried out by agricultural extension agents. In addition, 27 Village Savings and Loans Association groups accessed USD 7,335 in loans in 2024, up from USD 6,122 in 2023. This enabled the women to invest in climate-resilient agricultural practices and enhancing their economic stability and resilience against climate shocks. It facilitated the adoption of new technologies and diversification of income sources, leading to improved livelihoods and greater agency for women within their communities. This has resulted in increased income for women, and reduced household poverty and gender-based violence, which in turn has contributed to increased school attendance for girls and fewer early marriages. UN Women achieved these results through the �Kenya Economic Empowerment of Women through Climate-Smart Agriculture (WEE-CSA) in Arid and Semi-Arid Central Areas� project, carried out jointly with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, three Civil Society Organizations (Hand in Hand East Africa, Anglican Development Services Eastern and Village Enterprise), and the county governments in Laikipia, Kitui and West Pokot counties. UN Women empowered farmers through training, resources, and support for CSA practices, and fostered gender transformation through media campaigns, leadership and entrepreneurship training, market access facilitation, and promotion of gender-responsive policies. The project was announced by OECD-DAC as a global, best practice project.

Kenya has over the past years achieved notable improved access to social and protection services, especially access to justice by survivors of SGBV, contributing to SDG 5 and UNSDCF Outcome 1.2[1]. The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (2022), whose findings were launched in 2023, presented a positive trend on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, with fewer women and girls experiencing violence in 2022 compared with 2014. Prevalence of physical violence went down from 20% to 16%, sexual violence prevalence from 7.6% to 6.42% while Female Genital Mutilation from 21% to 15%. The State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice Report (SOJAR) 2023 showed an increased number of resolved cases, from 6,043[2] (2021) to 10,291 (2023)[3]. This was a result of the robust GBV strategy, adopted by the Judiciary to provide timely and quality justice services to survivors. The number of women and girls who accessed essential services increased from 1,181 (2019) to 8,894 (2023) according to the national GBV helpline, the Health Assistance Kenya data. The Judiciary under the leadership of the Chief Justice adopted and rolled out measures to fast-track prosecution of GBV cases and improve outcomes of justice for survivors. These include the establishment of 12 specialized SGBV courts in GBV hotspot counties[4], a convicted Sexual Offenders Electronic Register, a SGBV Strategy and a Child Justice Strategy (attached). In addition, the GBV legal and policy framework was also improved through the revision of the Sexual Offences Act (2006), National GBV Policy (2014,)[5] and 13 county specific GBV policies and laws[6]. These achievements are all in line with the Government's 12 commitments on GBV prevention & response, under the Generation Equality Forum GBV Action Coalition[7].UN Women provided technical and financial support to the International Association of Women Judges Kenya Chapter and the Office of the Chief Justice to develop the two Strategies, create the convicted Sexual Offenders Electronic Register, support establishment and operationalization of the SGBV courts and train justice actors. UN Women collaborated with UNICEF, UNFPA and UNAIDS to achieve these results. UN Women also supported CSOs and WROs (GBV helpline HAK 1195, IAWJ, CREAW, GVRC, Wangu Kanja Foundation, Action Aid, World Vision and ADSOCK) to enhance access to essential services. Finally, UN Women worked with State Department for Gender and Affirmative Action, World Vision, Action Aid, ADSOCK and CREAW to develop S/GBV laws and policies. While the downward GBV prevalence trend is encouraging and the measures adopted by the Judiciary commendable, many gaps persist including low government financing for GBV programmes[8], the scale of interventions remains small compared to needs, prevention programmes are confined to a few counties and overall accountability for implementation of GEF commitments remains weak. These gaps informed the UN Joint Programme on GBV, which UN Women leads.