Plans to develop an Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) policy for poor households in Makueni County are at an advanced stage.
The ultra-poor households mostly refer to those led by women and are food insecure, have few or no assets, lack education, and also suffer from poor health, besides being victims of social exclusion.
The Executive for Trade, Marketing, and Co-operatives, Eng. Peter Mumo, said the policy will guide the county government on how to graduate the ultra-poor from the grassroots by capacity building and training the people in a bid to uplift their lives.
“We will identify such individuals and capacity build them before graduating them,” said Mumo, during a programme for the Makueni Ultra-Poor Graduation Policy stakeholders’ forum in a hotel in Wote town.
“The policy is to give us an opportunity to get resources from the government and development partners. This is not an event, but a process that should be sustainable,” he added.
The County Executive lauded a local NGO, Village Enterprise, for facilitating the government in developing the policy, which is currently in draft form.
According to the Kenya Poverty Report of 2021, the Monetary Poverty Rate (MPR) for Makueni County is 39.7%, which is slightly higher than the national rate of 38.6%, with approximately 392,623 people in Makueni being monetarily poor.
Speaking at the same forum, the Project Manager-Policy and Advocacy at Village Enterprise, John Ochieng, said that the county governments should ensure nobody lives below poverty by providing a framework to uplift the lives from abject poverty.
The draft policy has already undergone public participation and is to be presented to the County Executive for approval before it is taken to the Makueni County Assembly.
The forum was attended by relevant departmental heads and development partners, who gave their input to address the existing gaps in the proposed policy.
By Patrick Nyakundi
