Research Papers

This study seeks to establish the status of pluralism in the private sector in Kenya by examining: efforts by players in the sector aimed at promoting pluralism; the nature of diversity management in the sector; the extent to which the sector has embraced or resisted efforts towards pluralism; and identification of trends, challenges and drivers of pluralism in the sector. The study also aims at facilitating a common understanding of pluralism among all stakeholders in the private sector. The findings provide a resource list for private sector organizations’ top leadership and
management to learn more about diversity management and pluralism, with the goal of optimizing their organization’s approach to diversity management, and the ultimate realization of pluralistic
workplaces.

The objective of this study is to create a foundation for quality service delivery in Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the County of Nakuru through the assessment of students’ satisfaction at polytechnics in the County. The study was designed for a thorough and detailed work to be conducted towards the development of an invaluable document not only for the target polytechnics and the County of Nakuru, but also for other polytechnics and educational institutions in Kenya. The outcome would therefore, be useful to TVET institutions in Kenya to continuously improve the quality of services rendered to students and enhance quality teaching and learning services delivered.

The periods that precede elections in Kenya have often been characterized by high intensity campaigns. As a consequence, greater focus during this period has mostly been on political communication that is unrelated to the real policy challenges that the country is faced with. Coupled with the recent history, this period causes anxiety to Kenyan citizens and economic actors who think that this pre-election period exposes Kenya’s fragility.

This discussion paper examines the roles of South Africa and Kenya as regional gateways for global value chains (GVCs) coordinated by multinational corporations (MNCs), and the obstacles small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face in entering those value chains, owing to the voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) enacted by MNCs. As SMEs play a significant role in the formal and informal sector, both of which are crucial to the two countries’, and their neighbours’, economies, integrating them successfully holds developmental gains. 

Most countries consider infrastructure development as a key enabler of development, as it spurs job creation, trade and investment. For many developing countries, multilateral development banks (MDBs) are important in addressing their infrastructure financing deficits. MDBs have historically dictated the terms of financing by prescribing rules on financial management and environmental and social safeguards, despite the presence of similar systems in the relevant countries. Increasingly, however, both MDBs and their borrowers are seeking to eliminate such extra requirements in favour of the full utilisation of countries’ own domestic systems and processes, broadly referred to as the ‘use of country systems’ (UCS). The defining benefit of greater UCS to MDBs is that it respects the sovereignty of countries by not imposing external conditionalities. UCS also promotes national ownership of development projects by increasing the involvement of domestic actors, institutions and processes, and hence increasing projects’ sustainability. At the same time, UCS can strengthen domestic systems through greater utilisation, thereby exposing deficiencies that can be corrected and eliminating the duplication of costs and efforts engendered by parallel systems. Ultimately, UCS gives developing countries a greater stake in their own development trajectory, as well as the tools to manage the process better. Yet the greater uptake of an UCS approach by MDBs and borrowers has been hampered by a number of key challenges.