Kenya

In order to realize the ideals of the 2010 Constitution and the government of Kenya?s 2030 Vision, which aims to transform the country into a newly industrializing, middle income, globally competitive and prosperous country, it will be imperative for Kenya to expand equitable access to quality tertiary education in alignment with the economic and developmental needs of the country.

[Impact Evaluation, SIEF] Kenya is one of the best-educated low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and yet many primary school students read below grade level and seven out of ten students in third grade, for example, cannot read at a second grade level. In poor rural areas, teacher quality is particularly low and the problem is compounded by the fact that many children begin primary school unprepared and with minimal pre-reading skills. In rural parts of western Kenya for example, 84 percent of children under five years old live in homes that do not have a single children?s book.

[Impact Evaluation] This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Education and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention : evidence from a randomized evaluation in Western Kenya, conducted between 2003 and 2005 in Kenya. The study reports results from randomized evaluation comparing three school-based HIV or AIDS interventions in Kenya on the individual level.

Although Kenya's vision 2030 highlights investment in human development, public spending on health and education in Africa has not guaranteed results. Closing the gap between promises, spending, and results depend on what service providers know and what they do: provider behavior is key. The Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) aim to provide critical information to improve accountability for health and education results. The survey was implemented by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and Kimetrica with quality assurance and oversight from the World Bank.

[Impact Evaluation] Malaria is a serious public health problem in Kenya. Since pregnant women and children under five bear the brunt of mortality and morbidity, the vast majority of malaria interventions focus on these high-risk groups. Because of the growing awareness of linkages between health and educational outcomes, an ongoing study in Kenya evaluates the effectiveness of a malaria control intervention implemented alongside teacher training aimed at enhancing the quality of instruction.

In 2003 Kenya abolished user fees in all government primary schools. Analysis of household survey data shows this policy contributed to a shift in demand away from free schools, where net enrollment stagnated after 2003, toward fee-charging private schools, where both enrollment and fee levels grew rapidly after 2003. These shifts had mixed distributional consequences. Enrollment by poorer households increased, but segregation between socio-economic groups also increased.

Youth account for approximately 60 percent of the unemployed population in Sub-Saharan Africa. Seventy two percent of adolescents in the region live below the $2/day poverty line. Vocational education has been identified as a promising avenue for young adults to acquire and develop marketable skills for employment. The Technical and Vocational Vouchers Program (TVVP) was launched in an attempt to fill key knowledge gaps in Kenya.

This report summarizes the key themes and findings from three in-depth case studies of EET programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Each case study produced rich information on the programs? context, the landscape of programs in each country, and the qualitative insights from local EET stakeholders. This report synthesizes information from across the case studies to analyze the extent to which these countries? programs are meeting the needs of local entrepreneurs.