Private sector development
02 feb 2011
Kenya's long term ambition is to transform the country into a newly industrializing, 'middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by the year 2030'. This vision is based on three 'pillars': economic, social and political.
Private sector development is a key sector for economic growth. NICHE will focus on four subsectors based on Kenya vision 2030, the MASP and discussions with EKN sector specialists. The objective will be to improve the quality, relevance and gender sensitiveness of post-secondary education in the selected subsectors and to contribute to employment in the private sector.
- agriculture: horticulture and dairy;
- participatory and integrated water management;
- sustainable tourism*;
- culture*.
* These sub-sectors are currently on hold.
Kenya has the ambition to maintain a sustained annual economic growth of 10% over the next 25 years. Kenya has selected six sectors as key growth drivers. NICHE will focus on two of these sectors: (eco)tourism and increasing value in agriculture.
NICHE will also focus on participatory and integrated water management as it supports economic development (including a higher agricultural production). In addition, it is a growing market for entrepreneurial technicians. Finally, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands considers it important to invest in the cultural sector in order to tackle (youth) unemployment.
A central theme of Kenya's social strategy is to strengthen the knowledge and skills of the Kenyan population by investing in education. In its Vision 2030 document the Kenyan government voices the need to revise curricula of universities and technical institutes to put more emphasis on science and technology, together with a more modern teacher training approach.
At the same time Kenya faces many challenges with regard to inequality in terms of income, geographic location and gender. Poverty and inequality are recognized by the Kenyan government as underlying causes of the 2008 crisis.
