Kenya

"People Centred Governance:Assisting Communities Together(ACT) in Kenya."

The importance of local efforts to promote respect for human rights is widely shared among Governments, non-governmental organizations, the academic community and human rights advocates from across the globe. In this context, Office of the High Commission on Human Rights and UNDP launched in 1998 the Assisting Communities Together (ACT) Project, a joint project which makes small grants available for non-governmental organizations, local associations and other similar institutions carrying out human rights promotional activities in local communities. Click here to read the brochure on ACT-Kenya.This project has also put in place a 2005-2007 global plan of action.Click here to read.

The ACT Project focuses on a “bottom-up approach” by encouraging action at the community level with a view to improve human rights respect in practical ways, relevant to people’s specific conditions. Since 1998, Office of the High Commission on Human Rights and UNDP have implemented a pilot (1998-2000), second (2000-2001), third (2001-2003) and fourth (2003-2005) phase of the ACT Project. The fifth (2005-2007) phase was launched in November 2005.Click here to read on the resolution by General Assembly.

The ACT Project has entered into a new phase in its support for global action to promote human rights education.Public calls on proposals has been advertised.Click here to read the details.

The fifth phase (2005-2007) of the ACT Project puts a special emphasis on activities related to human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems (including, for instance, material development/translation; workshop/training course for relevant authorities, teachers and other education personnel; school competitions and debates), although not exclusively supporting grants in this area.

This is to create synergy with the newly-proclaimed World Programme for Human Rights Education (2005-ongoing), whose first phase (2005-2007) focuses on the primary and secondary school systems. In principle, the time allocated to the grant recipients to carry out the funded activities will be of six months (tentatively, March-October 2006).Click here to read more.

Throughout the years the ACT Project, principally aimed at strengthening local capacities for human rights education, training and public information, has also contributed, as reported by UN colleagues in the field and by grant recipients, to the following objectives:
(a) improvement of the human rights record at the local and national levels;
(b)bridging of the gap between the international and local levels;
(c) improvement of the relationship between civil society and local or national authorities;
(d) improvement of the relationship between civil society and the local United Nations presence.