Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Ukur Yatani’s on Wednesday spoke on upcoming National Social Protection Conference slated for March 20 – 23.
Below is his full speech during the patners’ briefing at the School of Monetary Studies:
"Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning all.
It’s my pleasure to welcome you to this important occasion at which my Ministry will brief you about the upcoming National Social Protection Conferencethat will be held next week, between Tuesday20st and Friday the 23rd, 2018, at this venue (Kenya School of Monetary Studies). I sincerely thank you for finding time from your early morning schedule to attend to this meeting.
By holding the Social Protection Conference, the second such meeting in less than three years, the Government is underscoring the importance of the various safety netsthat are considered instrumental and effective in fighting and reducing poverty among the most vulnerability citizens.
Indeed, studies across the world haveshown that Social Protection initiatives not only help in addressing poverty across the life-cycles but also help to build resilience from socio-economic ‘risks’ and ‘shocks’ as well as enhancing the productive capacities and opportunities for the poor and vulnerable.
Ladies and Gentlemen,At the outset, I wish to state that the concept and practice of Social Protection speaks to the core of the Kenyan Constitution that seeks to movethe country towards a more equitable and inclusive future. Article 43(1) provides that ‘every person has a right to Social security…. and further guarantees all Kenyans their economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health, education, food and decent livelihoods’.
In Addition to the constitutional provisions, Kenya’s economic development blue print, the Vision 2030, in its ambitious goal of “providing high quality of life to all citizens by 2030”, clearly embraces Social Protection as a strategy to poverty reduction by envisioning investments targeting vulnerable groups and further goes to recommend the establishment of a consolidated Social Protection Fund.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It’s in realization of our constitutional provision of right to social protection that the Kenya Government through my ministry is running various cash transfer programmes to cushion the poor and vulnerable from the adverse effects of poverty, which includes; Cash Transfer to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC), Older Persons Cash Transfer Programme (OPCT) and Cash Transfer to Persons with Severe Disabilities (PWSD-CT).
Additionally, the Ministry is also preparing to roll out payments for the InuaJamii 70 years and above in the next few days. A program for health cover will also be extended to the beneficiaries in the same age bracket through the National Hospital Insurance Fund. It’s indeed gratifying to note that already funds have been allocated for this purpose by the Kenya Government and necessary arrangements have been concluded to facilitate the roll out. This is a great mile stone for our country considering majority of the older persons did not save for their retirement and are living in abject poverty.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At this juncture, may I take this opportunity to sincerely thank our development partners, private sector, civil societies who have walked with us over the years. Specifically, I recognize UNICEF, World Food Programme, The World Bank, DFID, SIDA, Financial Services Deepening (FSD) and Help Age International for the support they have continued to give towards the social protection programmes. It’s my hope that we shall continue to deepen thispartnership in the remaining journey ahead towards full realization of empowerment of the Kenya society with capabilities and opportunities to overcome poverty and make positive contributions to our national development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is by way of advancing the Social Protection agenda and spurring resonance across sectors and amongst various actors, that my Ministry, through the State Department for Social Protection, Pension and Senior Citizens Affairs will hold the Social Protection Conference. The conference is intended to create an interactive opportunity and platform for various stakeholders and actors to, not only showcase their ideas, innovations and best practices in the Social Protection arena, but also to exchange these ideas and learn from one another in the spirit of delivering the overall goal of Social Protection. The conference will create an opportunity for learning and sharing of experiences amongst various Social Protection actors with a view to stimulating, motivating, promoting and advocating for increased investment in Social Protection by all actors, at all levels and in a coherent and coordinated manner. Its theme is: “Scaling up investment in Social Protection to the delivery of Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the achievement of the SDGs”.
Deliberations of the conference will lead to the generation of a call for action for Kenya that will specifically speak to and seek to address the pertinent issues that shall have emerged from the conference in terms of actionable areas that will help move the sector forward in terms of financing and increasing investment across board as per the theme as spearheaded by the State Department for Social Protection.
About 500 local and international participants, including Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Heads of Government Agencies, Governors, Heads of Delegation from African countries, Heads of Diplomatic Missions and high profile guest speakers, are expected to attend the conference.Additionally, my colleagues Cabinet Secretaries from the relevant ministries have been invited to chair sessions, Civil Society Organisations, Development Partners, Academic institutions, International speakers/facilitators, Country delegations, Individual entrants, Media, County governments and Private sectors are expected to play prominent roles in the conference deliberations.
County governments have also been invited to participate in the conference as presenters and participants. My ministry looks forward to collaborate more with the counties as we advance the issues of social protection to ensure we create synergy andbetter coordination foreffective delivery of social protection programs to our people.
Issues to be discussed at the conference willinclude among others; The linkages between Social Protection, sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Vision 2030, Sustainable Social Protection financing, Social Protection in the changing world, Creating an enabling environment (policy & legislative framework), Innovative approaches for Social Protection including adaptive responses to climate change and emergencies and Enhancing complementarities in Social protection.
The conference proceedings will adopt various formats includingpresentations, plenary discussions, panel discussions, side events and round-table meetings to allow for closer interaction and deliberation.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As I conclude, I wish to give special gratitude to our media friends who have continued to inform Kenyans about our ministry’s programmes on social protection. We thank them for discharging this patriotic duty towards the cause of helping the vulnerable segment of our society. It’s my hope that we shall enhance our engagements by forging closer working relationship with a view to educating and building better capacities of the relevant stakeholders on all social protection programs. I have no doubt that good coverage of the upcoming National social protection conference including deliberate pre-conference visibility by our media will strengthen the existing cordial and strong partnerships we have built overtime and further enable the program take its rightful place in the national arena through.
Finally, I wish to assure our international and local participants who are planning to travel to Nairobi to attend this Conference that adequate security and administrative arrangements have been put in place to make them comfortable and to have a wonderful event.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is now my pleasure to welcome you all to the second Kenya Social Protection Conference next week.
GOD BLESS YOU."