The new Kenyan government faces a complex domestic and global environment. Rapid population growth and urbanization with limited structural transformation present major challenges to Kenya’s ability to achieve food security for all and become a higher-middle-income country in the medium term.  If recent economic trends are any indication, the country risks not having enough jobs to support the projected increase in the labor force. Another key consideration for the Kenyan government is how to feed the country’s rapidly growing population in an increasingly volatile global environment complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The government is widely expected to address these challenges with a new set of policies and programs as part of its Bottom Up Economic Plan. This seminar will discuss results from an ongoing effort by KIPPRA and CGIAR’s National Policies and Strategies Initiative to model the expected impacts of implementing the plan on key socioeconomic outcomes such as the food system, diets, jobs, poverty, and inequality. To highlight the important links between the plan and food systems transformation, the seminar will also present recommendations from a new policy brief entitled “Transforming Food Systems in Kenya for a New Era of Growth and Prosperity.”

Welcoming remarks

• Rose Ngugi, Executive Director, KIPPRA
• Channing Arndt, Senior Director, Transformation Strategies, CGIAR and Director, Environment and Production Technology Division, IFPRI

Keynote address 

• Njuguna Ndung’u, Cabinet Secretary, Kenya National Treasury, and Economic Planning 
• Mithika Linturi, Cabinet Secretary, Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development ( Message read by Kello Harsama, Permanent Secretary, State Department for Crop Development, Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development )

Estimated impacts of implementing the Bottom Up Economic Plan on food systems and social outcomes

• Benson Kiriga, Senior Policy Analyst, KIPPRA  ( presentation )
• Lensa Omune, Research Officer, IFPRI ( presentation )

Transforming food systems to support the Bottom-Up Economic Plan

• Joseph Karugia, Principal Scientist – Agricultural Economist and Policy Expert, ILRI/CGIAR ( presentation )

Panel discussion and reflections on the study  

Q&A

Closing remarks

• Clemens Breisinger, IFPRI Country Program Leader & Lead, CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies
• Rose Ngugi, Executive Director, KIPPRA