The Yetu Initiative, a collaboration of the Aga Khan Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is empowering civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kenya to not only mobilize resources locally but also collaboratively address community challenges with their county level stakeholders.
Founded in 2014, the initiative has focused on strengthening the capacity of CSOs to fund raise and mobilize resources, to advance the principles of self-reliance and locally sustained development. Working with CSOs in addressing community challenges at the grass-roots level, Yetu Initiative has since supported 323 CSOs to raise over Kshs 270 million, for locally led development projects across 29 counties in Kenya.
(TOP: Former Makueni governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana, speaking during the Yetu Initiative Festival event where he challenged local communities not to shy away from pursuing their local solutions even as they challenge the government to deliver services at the local level).
Speaking during the ‘2023 Yetu Initiative lessons learned and capstone Festival‘ in Nairobi, former Makueni Governor Prof. Kivutha Kibwana, who was chief guest at the event, said community philanthropy was one of the most important socio-economic models in the country giving opportunities for correcting histories of inequity to dignity.
“It is twice as hard to achieve sustainability if there is no development led from the grassroots. We must discard this notion that it is only the government that can come up with solutions to local problems. We know and have seen through Yetu Initiative and the CSO community that the people themselve know and understand the problems plaguing them and can prescribe solutions that can transform our local communities, where they are”, he said.
Irene Gathinji, the project director said, Yetu Initiative has invested approximately $11 million in the past 9 years. Half of this was raised by local Kenyan CSOs and local development organizations (LDOs), to implement community initiatives and ultimately investing back in their communities.
“A multi-stakeholder approach involving citizens, government, and private sector participation is crucial in building sustainable locally led development models. In fostering trust as a crucial component of partnership between CSOs and communities, Yetu Initiative has enabled civil society to sit at the same table as communities and discuss challenges and concerns with tangible solutions”, she said.
With constant communication, feedback, and engagement, diverse groups including disadvantaged and marginalized communities can now be involved in program design and implementation, to ensure sustainability and accountability of those initiatives. Through this collaborative effort, Yetu Initiative has seen transformative changes in the communities such as the Isiolo Community Development Trust (ICDT) and the Makueni Development Trust (MADET) among others.
Yetu Initiative is currently working with over 250 CSOs to implement projects across the education, food security, climate resilience, energy, and water sectors. Others include women and youth empowerment, health, child protection and disability sectors.
Cynthia Odhiambo, Regional Technical Advisor, Civil Society Program at the Aga Khan Foundation, stated that the Yetu initiative supports CSOs and communities in understanding and identifying their challenges and intervention priorities while contributing their own solutions through boot-camps.
“We have observed that local communities can be self-reliant in driving and achieving locally led development. Accountability is therefore important for community philanthropy to succeed. Yetu Initiative’s success lies in its ability to put communities at the centre of development by bringing in their contribution, both in cash and in-kind and getting them constantly involved, through civil society engagements”, she explained.
Yetu Initiative has been working with CSOs to strengthen the ecosystem of community philanthropy through the development of cutting-edge philanthropy platforms, building on the body of evidence through research, capacity building and brokering CSO relations with the private sector and government. Since inception, over 10,000 CSOs have been registered as members of local development organizations.
The Yetu Initiative (Yetu) is focused on helping Kenyans harness the national spirit of giving to drive sustainable development. It works to enable meaningful partnerships between civil society, the private sector, government, and ordinary citizens, to create local solutions to problems affecting communities across the country. It partners with local civil society organizations (CSOs) to catalyse support for local development needs through local philanthropy. The Yetu Initiative takes its name from the Swahili word for “our” and commits partners to support local solutions for local priorities that can be sustained in the long term. Yetu Initiative works to increase linkages and trust between CSOs and like-minded Kenyan organizations, businesses, foundations, governance structures, and individual citizens. It focusses on building organizational sustainability by empowering CSOs to innovate around local fund-raising and community engagement with the goal to help build their assets, capacity, and credibility, thereby rooting them in the communities they serve.
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