National Stakeholder Workshop in Kenya

The Kenya National Stakeholder workshop was held on 16-17 November 2015 at the BOMA Inn Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the various parties in the project and linking the three project components, the agenda of the workshop also included the grants award ceremony as well as the validation of the country implementation report. Participants comprised of members of the NTCC, the grantees, the partners as well as some of the MSMEs in the four SAG projects in Kenya. Development partners and EU were also represented in this meeting.

The country implementation report was also validated in the workshop and the NTCC would ensure its final submission by the end of 2015.

Other key issues discussed during the workshop include:

• The urgency with which grantees need to identify their key stakeholders (especially MSMEs).
• Clarification of the roles and responsibilities of the grantees, their partners as well as the MSMEs and their specific roles and the development of an effective engagement mechanism in the country.
• How to formulate an appropriate M&E mechanism for SAG projects in Kenya.
• The need for networking and enhancing the project’s visibility as per SAG Networking Facility component.
• How to approach the challenge of limited financial resources by the SMEs in implementing the green business development practices and patterns.

On the way forward, it was agreed that grantees and MSMEs would work closely in implementing SAG projects. Project implementers would embrace a positive attitude towards learning and make optimal use of available opportunities for growth. The stakeholders would improve the communication between funding agents, grantees and project implementers for better outputs. The MSMEs in Kenya were also introduced to SCP tools that could be used in greening the business.