The impact of dialogue and advocacy in Kenya
Business membership organisations, policy makers, academics and others are interested in whether dialogue and advocacy makes any difference to public policy. In Kenya, the Business Advocacy Fund supported BMOs for 15 years from 2007 till 2020 through a combination of training, mentoring and grant aid to engage in dialogue and advocacy.Project completion report
Impact
The Fund made a point of attempting to assess the impact made by the BMOs and projects that it supported. In many cases, the Fund published Impact Assesssments; in some cases it published cost benefit analyses; it published summaries of impact; and annual reports always carried some examples of success and impact. Although the Business Advocacy Fund is no longer operating, you can access those reports here.Summaries of impact
The Business Advocacy Fund took seriously the need to assess impact arising from the hard work of the BMOs that it supported. Not every project was specficially intended to result in financial or ecconomic benefit though all can be interpreted in that way, even the health policy reforms, if so desired. The two summaries of impact showcase advocacy projects from the first two phases of BAF, 2006-2011 and 2012-2016.
Impact assessment reports
It is not surprising, given the continued reliance of agriculture on the economy of Kenya that many of the reforms are related to agriculture.
The next four impact studies review cases where the BMO was seeking new legislation or was aiming to amend or avert proposals made by government to reform legislation.
The last three impact studies cover the effort by the Vihiga branch of KNCCI to persude the county to abide by national legislation when raising revenue, a good example of administrative reform and local legislation to improve the management of a livestock market.
Three end of project evaluations, including assessments of impact, were prepared during the first phase of BAF
Cost benefit analyses
As well as undertaking impact assessments, BAF undertook a small number of cost benefit analyses. Two of these are particularly interesting since they featured advocacy with other jurisdictions in addition to the Government of Kenya. The most successful project, in terms of impact on the economy, was that of ACTIF
One impact assessment was prepared in advance of legislative reform as part of the effort to persuade the government
Annual reports
Annual report 2017 (including case studies of AgroAK, KHPS, KAHC, ISK, KARA and KSP).
Annual report 2016 (including case studies of KCPA, KATO, AIN, KAM & county revenue laws, KARA and KAHC).
