There is need for counties in Nyanza region to adopt community conversations as a social approach to promote development.
The new tool is being fronted by two civil society groups to promote development in the counties.
The Kenya Medical and Education Trust and Concern Worldwide said community conversations is aimed at enhancing public engagement on county projects.
The CSOs are fronting the strategy as a socially transformative approach that galvanises communities to discuss issues affecting them.
Community conversations aims at examining social relations and contracts, and how these impact on individual, family, and community dynamics and behaviour.
KMET programme officer governance, Deby Otambo, said if the tool is adopted, communities will effectively state their needs and suggest solutions to problems.
Speaking during media and civil societies training on Tuesday, Otambo said the initiative will improve good governance in the devolved units.
The officer said the new tool will enable communities to address fundamental causes of underdevelopment in respective counties.
Otambo said for the benefits of devolution to be realised, a new social contract between counties, its citizenry and non-state actors is required.
“The objective is to bring the community together to be able to converse on areas of their concern and find possible solution,” she said.
She noted that without adequate attention to the process and outcomes of citizen participation in the counties, processes like budget making risk being elite driven.
She said the initiative generates deep understating of community concerns hence should be embraced by counties.
Otambo added that it also help in creating unity in the community to analyse concerns and take appropriate action.
She said the tool has been widely used across the country to drive some agenda. The communities are empowered to be able to move beyond dialogue to action and participate for the public good, she said.
Kisumu joins Marsabit and Migori counties where the tool is under a piloting programme to enhance accountability and local organizational capacity.
Other counties where community conversation has been piloted include Samburu, Moyale and Nakuru.
In Kisumu, the project is being carried out in Kisumu Central and Kisumu East constituencies where 21 groups are being targeted.
Otambo said they are engaging the local leaders to adopt the initiative methodology to enhance participation at the county level.
She added that the initiative has improved public participation among communities saying there is plan to expand to other counties.