Kenya Coastal Management Initiative

January 2001 - June 2002

Please note that this is a closed, archived program.

The Kenyatta Beach Self-Help Group in Mombassa manages the only remaining public access beach on Kenya's North Coast , which is in constant threat of being "grabbed" for private use. The group, made up of fishermen and boat operators who use the beach for their livelihood, hope to secure the public beach for their use and for future generations. The University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resource Center is working closely with USAID and the Government of Kenya to mitigate trends of ecosystem damage by empowering North Coast communities with the capacity of self-governance of their coastal resources. Here, URI is using an integrated coastal management approach to is help all stakeholders define shared objectives, create mechanisms for addressing coastal issues and create forums for resolving conflicts. Having given priority to safeguarding public access points from further private encroachment, URI contracted with Pact Kenya to provide organizational development services to the Group to enhance their ability to manage the beach

Pact's approach

Working in collaboration with the Coast Development Authority (a Kenyan parastatal), Pact Kenya administered a participatory organizational capacity assessment (OCA) tool to identify the organization's strengths and weaknesses in order to determine training needs to strengthen the organization's project and financial management operations and increase skills in networking and advocacy to secure public support for protection of the beach.

Results

• Conducted OCA that found that the Kenyatta Beach Self-Help group needed practical experience in beach management activities. Follow-up mentoring has focused on action plan development to build capacity within the Group to coordinate beach resource management and improve CBO governance.
• Launched a beach clean up activity, for which the Environmental Trust of Kenya donated cleaning equipment, and which was covered by the media. The weekly beach clean up has resulted in significant and noticeable improvement in beach cleanliness and offered members new skills in seeking support from government and nongovernmental agencies and private sector to support CBO resource management. The beach clean up has served to reinforce and build capacity within the CBO in resource management, group governance, fundraising, and advocacy. The group is now soliciting support for a first-ever car parking area for the beach.
• Improved governance and leadership, with the group holding it first-ever election of board members since 1996. The election was conducted in a fair manner acceptable to the membership and resulted in inclusion on the board of other beach stakeholders such as fishermen, boat operators, hawkers and tuber renters and ex-officials from GOK agencies. Under the new board, which now meets twice a month, users pledged to develop joint management strategies for the public beach, including advocacy to address key issues and to resolve existing resource use conflicts.