UN says Kenya making steady progress on MDGs

Kenya could achieve key UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets like eradication of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and gender parity, if the government accelerates policy reforms and resource mobilization, senior UN officials said on Monday

Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the UN Kenya Resident Coordinator said at a media briefing in Nairobi that Kenya's progress towards achieving MDGs was inspiring.

"Kenya is on course to achieve three MDGs on poverty, school enrollment and gender equality. However, the country must intensify action on high maternal, infant mortalities and poor sanitation,"she said.

The UN agencies in Kenya last year launched a joint development assistance framework to address pressing challenges like diseases, hunger, climate change and illiteracy in the east African nation. Bekele-Thomas said UN agencies have partnered with the national and county governments to streamline implementation of development programs at the grassroots level.

Kenya must invest in food security, education, health and environmental conservation to achieve sustainable development, Bekele-Thomas said, noting that innovative partnerships were crucial to accelerate progress on MDGs.

"There are innovative strategies Kenya can adopt to reactivate progress on MDGs that are lagging behind. Partnerships, financing and improved governance are key to enable the country to achieve key millennium targets,"she said. "We assisted the Kenyan government to come up with rapid results initiative that addresses bottlenecks towards achieving MDGs." Endi