Sustained civic education boosts community groups’ confidence to participate in county planning and budget-making processes
When Uraia facilitated six civic educators to provide sustained civic education and support community groups to participate in the planning and budgeting process, none of the selected participants had been exposed to budget documents or process before. Indeed, none of them were conversant with the budget calendar, the budget cycle, and technical budget documents like the County Fiscal Strategy Paper and the County Budget Outlook and Review Paper. The linkage between civic educators and leaders of community groups to Uraia budget facilitators changed all that.
The limited budget knowledge amongst community groups meant they could only mobilize their constituents to attend budget forums and capture their proposals. They could not really help them to prepare adequately for meaningful participation as pointed out by one of the budget facilitators.
“Previously I was participating in the budget making process with views/proposals from community members,” Linda Kageha from the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nakuru Chapter noted.
This changed significantly after the civic educators and community group members started working with budget facilitators and Uraia partner, Center for Transformational Leadership (CTL). CTL delivered budget training and aligning of content with the budget calendar to enable participants to relate theory to what is happening. The training helped the civic educators and community group leaders gain insights into the budget-making process as highlighted by Deborah Atieno, a Media Practitioner in Nakuru.
“Unlike before when I was ignorant about the budget making process, now I can relate what is happening around in terms of development and how the government plans and budgets,” she said.
One of the key skills that the community group leaders have developed after participating in the budget training is analyzing key budget documents. The community leaders found this skill invaluable in enhancing their participation in the budget making process and the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDP) development.
Wema Fadhili, Program Officer in Midriff Human Rights said, “I have learned about the budget cycle and the budget-making process. I can confidently say I have acquired essential skills and knowledge to analyze and interpret a budget document. This knowledge comes in handy when writing and making presentations on petitions and memorandums on budget to the County leadership.”
Beyond using the budget knowledge to enhance the participation of their organizations in the budget making process through the Nakuru County Civil Society Forum (NACCSOF), the budget facilitators are using the knowledge to improve the quality of citizen participation.
Fadhili further said, “I can now effectively engage citizens in the budget-making process by enlightening them on how to participate in the process and available avenues and approaches of engaging. Using the knowledge and skills gained during the training, I am currently writing to the county government, department of trade to request access to information on a stalled construction of a market shade in Subukia trading centre. I can comfortably identify, flag out and document budget issues that are of concern as highlighted in the media.”
Similarly, Kageha highlighted how increased budget knowledge has enabled her to support her organization’s audience. She said, “I am now able to guide them in analyzing budget documents to generate evidence and capture existing gaps then develop memorandums to advocate for the County’s improvement based on the issues identified in the analysis.”
The community group leaders successfully applied the newly acquired knowledge and skills during the Nakuru Sector Hearings in October 2022. They played a pivotal role in preparing and submitting memorandums to Nakuru County leadership, addressing critical areas such as health, social protection, environment, water and agriculture. These submissions were made under the auspices of NACCSOF.
