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Nairobi – President Uhuru Kenyatta said today that a whole-of-government approach taken by his administration has improved service delivery, especially project completion, absorption of project funding, and accountability for project results by the implementing agencies.
The president said the approach has also enabled the government to better respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Over the past two years, there has been a steady improvement in project completion, absorption of project funding and accountability for project results by implementing agencies.
“This whole-of-government approach has also been instrumental in coordinating my administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to play a critical role in the recovery effort,” the president said.
President Kenyatta spoke Tuesday at State House, Nairobi, when he presided over the official opening of the 2020 Virtual African Delivery Exchange Conference co-hosted by Kenya, the African Development Bank and the Tony Blair Institute.
The whole-of-government approach is based on Executive Order Number One issued in January 2019 which established a 4-tier development committee whose apex is the National Development Implementation Cabinet Committee, whose apex is the Cabinet.
The higher committee receives technical support from the Technical Committee for the Implementation of National Development, made up of the Principal Secretaries, who are the main operational officials of the Government.
The third level is the Regional Development Implementation Coordination Committee and the fourth level comprises the 47 County Development Implementation Coordination Committees.
“Both the third and fourth levels introduce the active participation of national government administration officials at the grassroots level in realizing development results,” said President Kenyatta.
Noting that significant results were obtained within the initial framework of the President’s Execution Unit (PDU) since its inception in 2015, the Head of State informed the conference that the search to achieve the Big 4 Agenda within the deadlines Established required a change of approach.
“The scale and boldness of this new ambition within a limited timeline required a change in tact, or a modification of the current delivery philosophy that recognized the changed landscape of stakeholders,” said the president.
He said the broad scope of the Big 4 Agenda highlighted the need to increase the government’s presence at the grassroots, as well as work closely with delegated units and elected leaders to leverage the full scope of administrative infrastructure. .
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President Kenyatta underscored the importance of the conference, calling it a unique platform to discuss the basic components of the African Renaissance.
“It is an opportunity for us to consolidate our thinking around those aspects of leadership that are so critical to delivering results and driving momentum toward the realization of Vision 2063 for Africa,” said the president.
Home Office Secretary Fred Matiang’i, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and AfDB President Dr Akinwumi Adesina also spoke at the opening ceremony moderated by the House Chief of Staff Representatives, Nzioka Waita.
Dr. Matiang’i said that the whole-of-government approach had helped speed up the implementation of public projects by reducing the bureaucracy associated with the government.
For his part, Dr. Adesina congratulated the President on the Government’s “people-centered” approach to service delivery and assured him that AfDB will continue to collaborate with Kenya in the implementation of high-impact development projects.
Blair applauded President Kenyatta for establishing the PDU and progressively embracing the all-government approach to service delivery, saying that Kenya had established a model worth emulating by other African countries.
