USAID CLEAR Program in Kenya Launches a Series of Cooperative Management Education Videos

The Cooperative Leadership Engagement Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) program recently developed a series of training and educational videos to capture the curriculums and materials developed over the life of the program. Cooperatives, SMEs, and others can benefit from these videos to learn about the basics of cooperative management, view a refresher after an in-depth training…

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Building the Resilience of Kenya’s Cooperative Sector through Capacity Building of Policymakers and Implementers

By Olga Oyier & Maureen Gitau, USAID/CLEAR Program Kenya’s devolved system of governance has provided the country with an opportunity to implement grassroots-led development programs but also revealed technical gaps at the county government level, particularly in the area of public policy formulation and implementation. More specifically, the cooperatives policy and legislative reform process to…

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How Policy Innovations Can Strengthen Cooperative Businesses in Kenya

By Maureen Gitau, USAID/CLEAR Program Registration of cooperative businesses is a challenging issue for policymakers and stakeholders in the cooperative sector. Under Schedule Four of the Kenyan Constitution, cooperative development is a fully devolved function, meaning oversight for cooperatives was transferred from the national government to county governments, including the transfer of powers and funding.…

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Ending the “Triple Threat” of Early Pregnancies, New HIV Infections and Sexual Violence among Adolescent Girls & Young Women

By Betty Adera A single act of sexual violence against women and girls can result in HIV infections and other sexually transmitted diseases, resulting in shame, fear and trauma. However, for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), sexual violence can also result in early pregnancy and childbearing, which carries its own stigma. Globally, girls between…

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Addressing Housing Challenges through Cooperatives

By Ashley Holst One of the global victims of rising inequality and climate change is access to decent housing. Housing costs are increasing, while the supply is waning. In many countries, including Kenya, where the Cooperative Leadership, Engagement, Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) program is being implemented, land affordability and title challenges, extremely high interest rates,…

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Lessons from Kenya on Empowering Women in Housing Cooperatives

A Kenyan woman smiles while holding Kenya's flag in front of her.

By Fredrick Nyagah and Tindi Sitati According to data from the International Cooperative Research Group, women represent only 30 percent of cooperative membership in Kenya. This under-representation extends to the leadership level and to the number of staff employed by cooperatives as well. At the same time, as the number of cooperatives increases nationwide, women’s…

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Together for our African Girls and Young Women

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the concept of gender equality remains abstract and farfetched. In this day and age, there are still girls and young women who lack access to primary and secondary school due to social, cultural, religious or political reasons; who are not yet reached with comprehensive information on their sexual and reproductive health; who…

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Vision 4 Housing: A Kenya Case Study

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Cooperative Development Program – Cooperative Leadership, Engagement, Advocacy & Research (CLEAR) Vision 4 Housing Cooperative got off to a rocky start. Originally set up as a community-based organization (CBO) in Kenya, its members became overextended managing multiple projects. One of those was a promising cyber café that offered digital…

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Chipukizi Voice of Drama: A Kenya Case Study

Chipukizi VOD members perform at the 2019 Hands on the Future Kenya skills show.

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Cooperative Development Program – Cooperative Leadership, Engagement, Advocacy & Research (CLEAR) Youth employment is not a laughing matter – unless you are a member of Chipukizi Voice of Drama. What began as a small club has since grown into a business led by young people who helped pioneer the…

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World AIDS Day: Centering Adolescent Girls in the Journey towards HIV Epidemic Control

By: Betty Adera, Senior Technical Advisor HIV/AIDS and Health, Global Communities, Nairobi, Kenya  The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is “End Inequalities” and it is especially timely as the world continues grappling with COVID-19. Adolescent girls bear the greatest brunt of COVID-19-related inequalities. UNAIDS estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa, four in five new…

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USAID CLEAR Program in Kenya Launches Two New Cooperative Videos

By Ashley Holst, Technical Specialist, Cooperatives & Inclusive Business at Global Communities The USAID Cooperative Leadership, Engagement, Advocacy and Research program (CLEAR) has launched two new animated educational videos! One of CLEAR’s primary goals is to raise awareness about the worker and housing cooperative models so more people can understand their inclusion-oriented benefits. Global Communities…

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The Pioneer E-Executive Public Policy Making Process Training Virtual Graduation Ceremony

At the Strathmore Business School (SBS) in Nairobi, 55 trainees successfully graduated with a certificate in Public Policy Making Process (PPMP). The first of its kind program was designed and delivered by Global Communities’ USAID-funded CLEAR Program in collaboration with Strathmore University Business School. The training, which ended on September 14, was officially opened by…

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COVID-19 Response in Kenya

Articles on our COVID-19 Response in Kenya: Kenyan Cooperatives Demonstrate Resilience & Concern for the Community to Mitigate the Effects of Covid-19 The Kenyan Cooperative Sector Tackles COVID-19 Head-On Shifting Responsibilities of Household & Family: The Gendered Pandemic in Kenya Read more about our global capacity in preventing, mitigating and responding to outbreaks of infectious…

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Kenyan Cooperatives Demonstrate Resilience & Concern for the Community to Mitigate the Effects of Covid-19

Ashley Holst, Global Communities Technical Specialist Cooperatives & Inclusive Businesses Read original blog post on Medium.comAs we celebrate International Day of the Cooperative this year, we recognize that over the last several months cooperatives have demonstrated their resilience and their dedication to bettering the world. The cooperative sector in Kenya jumped into action to help…

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The Kenyan Cooperative Sector Tackles COVID-19 Head-On

This article was first published at AgriLinks. Kenya saw its first case of COVID-19 on March 13, and the Ministry of Health fears that if mitigation efforts are not implemented and followed, cases could skyrocket to as many as 10,000 by the end of April. The government has acted quickly to close schools and impose…

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