Ø The Uzalendo Project Baseline Survey on the locally available devolved funds in Nairobi and Nyanza Provinces.
The survey was geared towards mapping out the available local devolved funds and the institutions responsible for the management of the above resources. The survey comprised of an analysis of both primary and secondary data. The baseline survey took place from 18th to 22nd May 2009 in Kisumu and 25th to 29th May 2009 in Nairobi.
The outcomes of the survey represents a major disconnect between young people and locally devolved funds. This has been reinforced by the continued civic apathy by the young people and hence a dire need to reverse the trend. A majority of the interviewed youth were not conversant with the processes and institutions responsible with the management of locally devolved funds in Kenya. Further most of them had never engaged the various funds at the local level yet they continue to live in abject poverty. The CDF (Constituency Development Fund), followed by Youth Enterprise Development Fund are the most popular among the available devolved funds in the survey regions.
The accountability and performance of the above funds has also been criticised by the young people in the project region as being inefficient and unresponsive to their needs. For instance in one participating constituency, the CDF audit account indicated usage of funds in the construction of a social hall whereas indeed this was not the case as there was no evidence of such a facility. Information regarding the access and management of these funds was also quite limited especially among the youth representing a major challenge to the quest for accountability. Further young people were not involved in the critical stages of these funds such as planning and allocation thereby limiting their ability to benefit from these funds. Lastly some projects funded by these devolved resources are inconsistent with the local needs. These have continued to exhibit wastage of vital local resources.
