2.6 Country programme design, implementation and other crosscutting issues

UNDP also responded to the COVID-19 crisis through the Strengthening Public Accountability and Integrity Systems Project (SPAIS) project, set up before the pandemic in early 2020, focusing on the health sector to ensure continuity through the acquisition of personal protective equipment and health supplies, supporting virtual communications capacity.66 The project was initially set up with a broad mandate to support the Government to prevent corruption in public service delivery. This was adapted to the realities of the pandemic by focusing on preventing corruption in the procurement of essential medical supplies.67

The Amkeni project responded to the pandemic supporting the Government and CSOs to identify human rights abuses due to COVID-19 restrictions. The project aligned its work with the UNDP framework by ensuring CSO grantees applied up to 10 percent of their respective Amkeni grant resources towards human rights monitoring, documentation and responses during COVID-19. In addition, the project implemented UNDP COVID-19 response initiatives focused on safeguarding the human rights of vulnerable people, including those living with disabilities, women and girls.68 The Kenya Union of the Blind Secretariat and media partners, for example, facilitated a fact-finding mission on the impact of COVID-19 on visually impaired people in the Nairobi metropolitan area. The objective was to establish how the measures put in place to curb COVID-19 were affecting the accessibility of visually impaired people to basic supplies. The mission also identified visually impaired people to refer to the social protection programme run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development and on to COVID-19 relief programmes in Nairobi.69

Early in the pandemic, the UNDP SDG Accelerator and Innovation Lab, established in late 2019, pivoted to the needs of the pandemic with several Innovation Challenges. The largest, in collaboration with Konza Technopolis, focused on innovation in health systems, food systems and decent work. The Great COVID-19 Innovation Challenge saw more than 300 applications, with 15 successful applicants supported with mentoring and grants to bring their prototypes and ideas to market. The Lab also launched an early challenge to identify approaches to address the negative impacts of the pandemic for people with disabilities, with five winners supported through mentoring and grants. One innovation which stands out aimed to address negative and fake information around the pandemic through social media. This may prove highly relevant for the forthcoming 2022 elections, which are often characterized by a plethora of fake news. In addition, the Lab is building on these challenges by mapping innovation and available support within Kenya, to identify gaps for future support and collaboration.

Finding 18. Resource Mobilization. Around half of the resource requirements outlined in the CPD were mobilized. With the exception of GEF and GCF funds, all key programme areas have been significantly underfunded, with impacts on the achievement of results. The focus on government cost-sharing and private sector financing, outlined in the country office strategy, did not yield major contributions.

66 https://www.ke.undp.org/content/kenya/en/home/projects/strengthening-public-accountability-and-integrity-systems.html 67 Flawed tendering in 2020 was reported at the Central Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) negatively affecting the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. United Nations (2021) Common Country Analysis Report for Kenya Synthesised Draft P.19. 68 UNDP (2020) Amkeni Wa Kenya Annual Report. 69 Ibid.