Community Parliaments make voices heard and needs felt. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R8113: Improved agricultural rural transport for Kenya.
Community Parliaments (CPs) offer well-structured, innovative mechanisms for making local voices heard. They also improve coordination and dialogue among community groups, creating an empowering platform to steer local development. In Kenya, farmers had little access to marketchain information, and lacked basic farm inputs, labour and credit. Intermediaries, who deprived farmers of their profits, ran markets. Finally, poor infrastructure made it difficult to get farm produce to markets. Community Parliaments have helped to change this picture in four parts of Kenya, addressing these and other problems. Micro-credit is one of the important services they offer. The government, private companies, and development agencies are using CPs to reach almost 10,000 people in the four locations and the model is quickly spreading to other parts of the country.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (17 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
CPH11, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 111.