For Immediate Release

Office of Press Relations
press@usaid.gov

Press Release

The following is attributable to Spokesperson Rebecca Chalif:

Assistant to the Administrator (AtA) of USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning Michele Sumilas and Director of the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation’s Local, Faith and Transformative Partnerships Adam Phillips traveled to Kenya from May 26 to May 31. During the trip, AtA Sumilas and Director Phillips held a series of meetings, field visits, and discussions focused on gathering evidence, learning, and field-level perspectives to inform USAID’s initiative to increase localization.

During the trip to Kenya, AtA Sumilas and Director Phillips visited Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya, to meet with co-founder and CEO Kennedy Odede of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) and to visit their clean water, girls’ education, gender-based violence and community-organizing programs where they also spoke on the larger global movement for Localization. Sumilas and Phillips traveled to the USAID-supported Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservation Association (MMWCA), where they met with Maasai landowners, faith-leaders, private sector partners, and women, including the first-ever MMWCA female wildlife rangers to discuss cross-cutting partnerships for climate resilience and economic empowerment. They also met with the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) and national faith leaders ahead of August’s national election to discuss how an interfaith coalition is planning for peacebuilding after the polls close. The team also met with humanitarian partners, including locally-led NGOs, working to save lives threatened by drought, food insecurity, Covid-19 and instability in Northeast Kenya.

During the visit, AtA Sumilas and Director Phillips participated in a localization-focused roundtable co-hosted by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the University of Nairobi; as well as, a stakeholder convening led by Kenya’s Movement for Community Led Development. Sumilas and Philips also visited the PEPFAR DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe) center in Dandora, where they heard directly from beneficiaries about the impact of USAID’s locally-led programming.

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