MOMBASA COUNTY SOCIAL PROTECTION STRATEGY
The County Government has a duty to provide essential services to ensure the development and enhancement of human capital (through health, education and livelihoods).
This means creating an environment in which every individual can develop and grow capacities to sustain their own welfare, and contribute to county and national growth. The creation of such an environment requires deliberate investment in social sectors that will cushion vulnerable populations from the effects of extreme poverty, and from the impact of emergencies due to natural factors, or resulting from forms of conflict.
Indeed, the global attention to Social protection interventions is fast gaining prominence especially within developing economies and there is a continued need to strengthen policy and strategic frameworks to support and consolidate the diverse programs. Mombasa County, on its part, has prioritized the social sector thus prompting the development of a social protection strategy that will provide a framework that will aid in mitigating the rising poverty and vulnerability within the County. Considering its position as the second-largest city in Kenya, Mombasa County has a significant floating population due to an influx from neighbouring Counties which means it has a distinct daytime and nighttime population. This continues to strain the County’s resources making service delivery a big challenge. Further, the creation of the National and County Governments by the Constitution of Kenya 2010, led to the devolution of some functions to the County Governments while others remained with the National Government, which has resulted in service gaps in the social sector some of which this strategy aims to address.
The strategy will integrate and link all stakeholders working in the Social sectors for effective and efficient service delivery and outline core social protection programs to be implemented by the county for the next five years. The developed policy will give a clear road map on how to mitigate the various challenges being encountered in the County which may include and not limited to; prioritization of the senior citizens, disability mainstreaming, drug and substance menace, radicalization, children on the streets, school dropouts, early pregnancies, malnutrition, high HIV prevalence and other communicable and non-communicable diseases, poor sanitation, open defecation, inadequate sensitization on hygiene, child abuse, neglect and labour, child sexual exploitation, lack of child rescue and protection centres among others.
The approaches proposed by this strategy will protect the poorest and most disadvantaged populations; mitigate risks that could lead to negative coping strategies and further impoverishment; and build human capital by expanding opportunities, including access to health, nutrition and education services for poor households – subsequently leading to improvements in productivity and economic growth.
In particular, the Strategy will guide the county government to;
- Implement a multi-sectoral, integrated set of core social protection programs aimed at reducing vulnerabilities throughout the life‐cycle of targeted populations
- Establish and strengthen a county-level coordination mechanism to promote and nurture social protection synergies – by ensuring effective linkages with all relevant ministries, departments and key stakeholders at the national and county level;
- Develop and operationalize a County Level Information Management system(s) for the effective implementation of social protection programs;
- Increase the amount of funding available for social protection by 20% through influencing higher county government budget allocations, and strengthening mechanisms for resource mobilization
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