Localisation and Community-Based Approaches to Development: Examples from Kenya

Please join us for a special event with visiting academics Dr Anne Kamau, Dr Oscar Otele and Associate Professor Rosemary Atieno from the University of Nairobi and Martin W. Irungu from EmpServe, Kenya.

This one-off event will be held in-person and online.

• If attending in-person registration is essential for catering purposes.

• If attending virtually please use this zoom link: https://unimelb.zoom.us/j/82368959729?pwd=BeA4W1p4b1GSSG77voLnahbVOaXcKa.

Localisation and Community-Based Approaches to Development: Examples from Kenya

Discourses on localisation have shifted from the margins to the centre of global development debates. Donors, multilateral agencies and NGOs all agree with the localisation agenda in principle, pledging to shift power, redistribute resources and share decision-making processes with local communities. Yet in practice, the reality remains far from these commitments. This has become even more evident as in recent years, Official Development Aid flows have decreased dramatically, potentially putting the future of development work at risk. At the same time, local communities in contexts like Kenya have increasingly relied on local and community-based approaches to development. This seminar, co-organised by ADS and the African Studies Group invites development scholars and practitioners from Kenya to share in practical ways how their work is embedded in local ontologies and community-based approaches to development. Specifically, they will examine localisation through the lens of their respective projects on women and reproductive labour, cross-border care, organisational capacity building, alternative funding models, and local governance.

Dr Anne Kamau, a Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr Oscar Otele, Senior Lecturer and Chair of Department of Political Science and Public Administration University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Martin W. Irungu, Founder and Executive Director, Empower and Serve, Kenya.

Associate professor Rosemary Atieno, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.