Investment Climate Reform Facility

The ICR Facility is one of British Council’s global Non-Formal Education (NFE) programmes co-funded by the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), together with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the British Council. It is jointly implemented with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Expertise France (EF), and Stichting Nederlandse Ontwikkelingsorganisatie (Netherlands Development Organisation, SNV).

The ICR Facility supports ACP countries to create a more conducive and sustainable business environment and investment climate, especially in support of women´s and youth’s economic empowerment. The ICR Facility provides the tools, resources, evidence etc. to public (e.g., Ministries/Departments/Agencies, etc.) and private (e.g., Employers’ associations, Chamber of Commerce, Business Member organisations, etc.) stakeholders, to undertake business environment and investment climate improvements (in various areas) that support the inclusion of young people and women in the economy agenda of ACP countries.

The ICR Facility has provided technical assistance to Social Enterprise Kenya to improve the business environment for Social Enterprises in the country

2021

NAME OF REQUESTER ORGANISATION: Social Enterprise Kenya

PROJECT NAME: Improving Business Environment Reform for Social Enterprises in Kenya

CONTEXT: Social enterprises are playing a crucial role in the economic growth of Kenya, but more support is needed to enable their growth. Social Enterprise Society of Kenya (SESOK) is the membership body for social enterprises in Kenya.

In 2020, a draft Social Enterprise Policy was developed by SESOK and its partners. To ensure relevance and ownership, there was a need to take the draft policy through a Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) process to finalise before submission to the Kenyan Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise. There was also the need for SESOK’s capacity to pursue the adoption and mainstreaming of the Social Enterprise Policy and to sustainably support its members to be strengthened

OBJECTIVE: The technical assistance was to update the draft of the Social Enterprise Policy for Kenya. It was also to develop a resource mobilisation framework and to deliver trainings to SESOK on building a sustainable Business Member Organisation.

RESULT: The intervention produced a final draft of the Kenya Social Enterprise Policy. It also developed an accompanying Action plan to guide SESOK's efforts towards mobilising support for the adoption of the policy. In addition, a resource mobilisation framework was developed and associated capacity trainings delivered to SESOK and its partners, who confirmed an improved capacity to support social enterprises in Kenya.

SESOK has shared the final draft of the policy to the relevant ministry and is using the final draft policy to engage stakeholders through quarterly SESOK Impact talks, KEPSA Forums, National Advisory Board (NAB) for Impact Investment Task Force meetings (the CEO of SESOK is a member of the Task Force). SESOK has also held a number of workshops on the draft Kenya Social Enterprise Policy among its members. In addition, using the resource mobilsation Framework and improved capacity from the training, SESOK is one of the implementing partner of CRESS Mayotte in the BusinESS OI Project co-funded by the European Union.