Kenya.

More than half of Kenya's population are children. Despite the progress that has been made, high levels of inequality exist which prevents millions of children from surviving and reaching their full potential.

One in four children under the age of five are stunted, with highest rates of stunting in rural and remote areas. Neonatal mortality rates remain high, resulting in children dying within their first month of life.

Children, especially those living in rural and remote areas, struggle to access quality education, and many do not receive any early education, which is critical for their development.

Girls are facing sexual violence, with one in three girls experiencing sexual violence before their 18th birthday.

Kenya is also experiencing a youth bulge, with 78% of the population below the age of 35. These young people struggle to secure sustainable employment, and many remain unemployed.

Kenya also hosts almost 500,000 refugees from neighbouring countries in the region. More than half of these refugees are children.

And much of the country experiences extreme climatic conditions like drought, which has devastating effects on the environment and livelihoods of some of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in Kenya.

Save the Children has been providing support to children in Kenya through our development and humanitarian programmes since 1950. We work with communities, local partners, and the government to design and deliver programmes to meet the needs of the most deprived children. We also advocate for greater investment of public and private resources for children.

We operate programmes in:

Health and Nutrition: We work with the government and partners to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and child malnutrition by scaling up high-impact interventions,  advocating for improved health systems and working on social norms and behavior change.

Food Security & Livelihoods: We work with partners to strengthen resilience and sustainable livelihoods, which includes delivering cash transfers and providing life skills training to young people. We also offer financial services through savings groups and train women and youth on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and production.

Child Protection: We strengthen formal and informal child protection mechanisms to keep children safe from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. We work with parents and caregivers to help them care for their children without violence and we ensure that vulnerable children received the support and protection services they need.

Child rights governance: our interventions in Kenya, have focused broadly on budget advocacy, international treaty reporting, influencing policies and legislation and supporting the participation of children and young persons in governance matters.

Education: We help young children access early education (both pre-primary and primary), which allows them to develop literacy and numeracy skills through play. We also help out of school children in Dadaab refugee camp access primary education through the Alternative Basic Education centres. We also work with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education to advocate for education reforms, including reforms for education in emergencies.

Adolescents & Youth: We work with adolescents and youth to ensure they realise their rights by giving them a voice and a platform to engage with their leaders.

Humanitarian response: We ensure communities are prepared for disasters, and support emergency relief efforts through the provision of supplies and on-the-ground support.

Kenya & Madagascar 2022-2024 Country Strategic Plan

We believe in a world where every child grows up healthy, safe and educated - playing, learning and looking forward to a future filled with joy and hope. But right now, Covid-19, conflict and the climate crisis are undoing decades of progress for children and their rights.

Globally,children are facing injustice. 1 billion children don’t have basic healthcare. 1 billion children live in deep poverty. 450 million children are not learning. 400 million children grow up in conflict.

Our 2022-24 Strategy is about disrupting the negative trend and challenging the status quo to accelerate and amplify impact with children. It is about repairing the broken and unequal systems that are hurting children today and building new solutions to last a lifetime.

Our Focus

The three-year goal plan directly contributes to Save the Children’s global strategy and builds onto the organization’s 2030 ambition of ensuring children survive, learn and are protected and majorly focuses on health and nutrition, education, technical skills for youth and adolescents and the humanitarian situation. It highlights four strategic goals that it will be focusing on in the next three years. These include:

• Access to safe and quality education
• Children under five thrive
• Improved well-being for youth and adolescents
• Strengthened child-sensitive, shock-responsive social protection systems for vulnerable communities

Our 2022-2024 Kenya & Madagascar Strategy is in line with our global strategy:

Read Our 2022-2024 Global Strategy