A five-year research, development, and resilience program, undertaken in close collaboration with Isiolo and Marsabit County governments, to address persistent malnutrition in locally led, sustainable ways. CRS has engaged communities, the county governments of Isiolo and Marsabit, formal and informal institutions, peer agencies, civil society and the private sector in collaborative research, and pilot programs to strengthen the evidence based on more innovative and impactful approaches. The program is now transitioning from research to the implementation phase. Nawiri will now use the research and learning outcomes to co-design and support the implementation of County government and local actor-led approaches to reduce acute malnutrition and sustainably address its systemic drivers and underlying causes.

USAID Nawiri in the media

1. Launch of the Marsabit County gender and social protection policies
2. Launch of the e-CIMES platform in Isiolo County
3. Longitudinal study by the County Government of Isiolo and USAID Nawiri
4. Data validation workshop by the County Government of Isiolo and USAID Nawiri
5. Launch the Adapted Nutrition-Friendly Graduation Model-Cash Transfers and Business Grants by the County Government of Isiolo and USAID Nawiri
6. Breast milk the best for babies, benefits society.

From 2015 through 2021, CRS was a partner in a consortium led by Millennium Water Alliance on the Kenya RAPID program, funded by USAID and Swiss Development Corporation. CRS applied a facilitative approach to raise the accountability and ownership of Turkana and Isiolo Counties for delivering clean water and sanitation services to their citizens. CRS facilitated the passage and implementation of the Water and Sanitation Policy, bill, rules and regulations for Isiolo and Turkana. Additionally, the project enabled new private sector partners to engage in WASH services delivery and financial assistance in the two counties. In 2021, CRS is expanding its WASH portfolio in northern and western Kenya, focusing on technologies such as multiple-use water systems, pre-paid meters, solar powered water abstraction, remote borehole monitoring, and integrated water resource management.

Additional five-year funding has been awarded during for this project to ensure a responsive and accountable governance framework is in place and operational at county government level. This will ensure sustainable provision of water and pasture, that replicable and scalable business models for sustainable WASH and livestock service delivery have been developed and operationalized, and communities have increased access to sustainable WASH services and improved rangeland management. 

During this year, CRS has been awarded jointly with partners, the USAID WK WASH project to be implemented over five years. CRS’s scope is in WASH financing, private sector engagement and governance, specifically to accelerate professionalization and regulation of rural water services for sustainable provision of clean and safe drinking water; increase uptake of alternative financing options for improved and expanded services; and enhancing private sector engagement for improved services. 

CRS commitment to supporting local leadership was central to our Making Well-informed Efforts to Nurture Disadvantaged Orphans and Vulnerable Children (MWENDO OVC) program, on which CRS worked through 42 local implementing partners. MWENDO ran from 2017 through 2021 and was PEPFAR’s largest OVC project worldwide. MWENDO’s overall objective was to improve the welfare and protection of children affected by HIV in Kenya. Implemented in 18 of Kenya’s 47 counties, it reached more than 640,000 people with life-saving services. Through MWENDO, CRS also strengthened key components of the child protection and justice systems within the county governments, including workforce, service delivery, referrals and coordination mechanisms, accountability, and budgeting. Following MWENDO’s closure, CRS continues to provide capacity building support, and technical assistance to the local partners now leading OVC service delivery.

The Changing the Way we Care (CTWWC) team in Kenya is part of a global initiative to transition vulnerable children out of residential care and into family and community-based care. In Kenya, CRS has worked closely with the Department of Children Services and National Council of Children’s Services to advance a national care reform strategy, which now has the full support of the government. CTWWC also works in demonstration counties, including Kilifi, Kisumu, Nyamira and Siaya, where local partners deliver safe, nurturing family care for children who are currently in residential care and those at risk of separation.

In 2020, CTWWC added the ‘Inclusive Family Strengthening’ (IFS) component to directly address community- and household-level drivers of family separation. With the IFS component, CTWWC adds a more intensive focus on household and community-level family strengthening initiatives, including a special focus on including children with disabilities, promoting positive parenting techniques, and activities focused on strengthening households economically.

CTWWC in the media

Why family set-up is the best place for any child

The Strengthening Capacity of Religious Women in Early Childhood Development — SCORE ECD project — is building the capacity of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK) and its congregations to expand the provision of quality early childhood development services. CRS is working with congregations in ECD, organizational sustainability, networking, and learning and enhancing a culture of care and support for children aged two years and below so that they attain age-appropriate developmental milestones through nurturing care. 

Phase III of the SCORE ECD project has been approved and will be implemented over three years. This multi country program is implemented in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Ghana. In Kenya, the project will support the sustainability and leadership of National Associations and Congregations of Catholic Sisters (NACCS) in Kenya, to deliver high-quality iMBC/ECD and health services with an overall goal of ensuring that children 0-3 years old in the target areas live in nurturing environments.

As with our development programs, our humanitarian response is strengthened by leveraging our existing relationships with key stakeholders in government and civil society. 

CRS has worked as a partner on the Core Group Polio Project (CGPP), supporting community-based polio surveillance efforts in targeted communities in Nairobi and Marsabit. As such, CRS maintains close ties with the Ministry of Health, and the disease surveillance unit. When the first COVID-19 cases were detected in Kenya, we leveraged our CGPP to the most acutely felt needs of the Ministry of Health, providing training and support on infection prevention and control measures in Nairobi and Kisumu. We first applied our own resources, followed by the Coronavirus IPC Activity, funded by the ELMA Relief Foundation.