On 1^st August 2022, KEPSA CEO Ms Carole Kariuki held a consultative meeting with Mr Anthony Ngororano at the KEPSA Offices. This was an introductory meeting to scope opportunities for partnerships and synergistic actions between the two institutions.

Ms Carole Kariuki in her introductory remarks lauded UNDP for their instrumental role in setting up KEPSA Public-Private Dialogue forums as well as the progressive implementation of SDGs.Moving forward, she noted the need to reconfigure the KEPSA-UNDP partnership framework to support the development and implementation of KEPSA's National Business Agenda IV (NBA IV) which seeks to enmesh the topical private sector policy recommendations with the incoming Government's manifesto, AFCFTA protocols, and Climate Change blueprints et al.

Ms Agatha Juma, the Public Private Dialogue Lead at KEPSA, noted the import and value of strengthening private sector engagement in AFCFTA to unlock the trade opportunities which remain underutilized. Further, she noted the need to conduct private sector economic diplomacy and induction sessions with the new administration to train them on pro-business policy and legal development.

Mr Benjamin Musungu, the Devolution Technical Lead at KEPSA, presented the Private Sector Devolution Support Program (PSDSP) and the key interventions it seeks to address. Particularly, he noted that the PSDSP program is premised on the implementation of the County Competitive Index, implementation of the SDG Investor Maps, the entrenchment of Public-Private Dialogue mechanisms between the private sector and the county governments, promotion of the Cross-Learning Agenda (CLA)  between the Council of Governor's Maarifa Centre and the KEPSA Sustainable Inclusive business and strengthening of KEPSA's engagement with the 7 County Economic Blocs.

In his response, Mr Anthony acknowledged the shared institutional focus areas and the need to weave a close-knit relationship founded on mutually beneficial synergies. Particularly, he noted that the UNDP strategic focus is modelled around innovative financing of SDGs, Inclusive digital transformation and development of the Blue Economy. 

Whilst acknowledging the primacy of SDG financing towards implementation of the last mile of Vision 2030, he noted the need to embed the proposed KEPSA interventions within the Medium-Term Plans and ensure congruence with the newly signed UNDP-GoK Technical Cooperation Program.

The key takeaways from the meeting were threefold as follows:

1. KEPSA and UNDP to sign an MoU detailing the agreed partnership areas and modalities of implementation.
2. UNDP to be invited to the upcoming meeting with KEPSA Governing Council to appraise them on topical private sector concerns
3. UNDP and KEPSA to hold monthly high-level lunch meetings to fine-tune the proposed partnership areas