Bilateral development aid - 2018
In Kenya, Polish development cooperation efforts in 2018 were focused on support in three areas: human capital, environmental protection, and entrepreneurship and the private sector.
As part of projects implemented by Polish non-governmental organisations, Poland continued the assistance, commenced in 2014, in organizing a fire service training system. In the suburbs of Nairobi, a centre for firemen and rescue workers – a first in this part of Africa – was constructed and furnished using Polish funds. Thanks to this development, firemen from various regions of Kenya can obtain more uniform training and improve their effectiveness. This means that the inhabitants can put more trust in the fire service and feel safer.
Polish Aid also helped to mitigate the impact of climate change and provide Kenyans associated in agricultural cooperatives with access to water necessary for their crops and households. On seasonal rivers, sand dams were built together with shallow wells in an attempt to raise the level of ground waters. This allowed increasing the level of employment and improve the effectiveness of local farmers.
Initiatives were continued as regards so-called inclusive education to equalize educational and life opportunities of children with varying degrees of disability living in semi-arid rural areas, started in 2017; the schools saw a 60% rise in attendance of children with disabilities. Teachers began to pay more attention to pupils with varied educational needs, and many parents, pupils and school staff changed their attitude and way of speaking about disability.
Polish Aid projects also included efforts to promote modern education methods using new technologies and active means of knowledge transfer. They contributed to promoting health, improving living and sanitary conditions and educational facilities and more efficient health education. Also supported were the growth of entrepreneurship and the creation of jobs for young people. In total, ten projects were completed in 2018 – of which six projects were selected through calls for proposals for non-governmental organisations and four implemented through the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Nairobi. In addition, Poland contributed over USD 400,000 to the efforts of WFP Kenya aimed at refugees in the Daadab, Kakuma and Kalobeyei camps, as well as those targeting Kenyan counties most affected by the 2017 drought. The costs of educating young Kenyans at Polish universities were covered and a new tranche of a loan was disbursed under a 2015 agreement to finance agriculture modernization projects.
In 2018, the total ODA for Kenya was PLN 19.49 million
