DfID Kenya

While absolute poverty in Kenya has declined in recent years, inequality remains high: 46% of the population still lives below the food poverty line, a situation that has not been helped by the recent political crisis. The Department for International Development (DfID) is one of Kenya's largest bilateral donors, working to enhance governance and accountability, promote economic growth and investment in people, and to improve the quality of aid.

Understanding ModernGov were commissioned to work with DfID's Kenya Office on ministerial submissions and correspondence to improve the ability with which DfID's excellent work was being communicated to Central Government. With a specific need within the department to deal more effectively with ministerial submissions and briefings, we put together a bespoke programme to cater for their precise requirements. This included covering core writing skills and techniques before going on to look at the role of a minister, how to write concise, clear submissions and parliamentary debate.

All attendees were able to take something from the two days, with Sophia Chemai saying:

"The case studies were excellent. The mock parliamentary debate was fantastic! The briefs represented actual correspondence and made lots of sense".

The course was a great success and we will be returning to Nairobi to provide a similar programme to DfID's entire East African Region in August 2009.