Nairobi grows at incredible speed every year. The global metropolis has a young and energetic population, and Governor Johnson Sakaja has pledged to make it a city of “order, dignity, hope, and opportunity” where every child can thrive.
Early childhood development will play a key role: A baseline requested by the Governor and conducted by Aga Khan University showed that 16% of young children in the county were developmentally off track, more than three times the global norm. Governor Sakaja has made it his mission to reduce that number to 5% by 2030.
Doing so is not only important for the trajectory of individual lives – it will add enormously to the city’s productivity and economic output over the coming decades, while taking pressure off the education, health and social protection sectors.
Governor Sakaja’s plan is multisectoral, ambitious, and designed to ensure young children receive the integrated support they need to thrive. The program’s key objectives are:
- to promote the provision of quality, stimulating, and nurturing childcare services for all children under 3 years within health centers, communities and households;
- to provide opportunities for early learning through equitable access to quality and integrated play-based learning for children 3-6 years old in pre-school;
- to improve children’s adequate nutrition, school enrollment, retention and performance through the “Dishi na County” school feeding program;
- to create opportunities for outdoor play in communal spaces to impact children’s physical, cognitive, and social-emotional wellbeing; and
- to create awareness and support for the provision of nurturing care among parents and caregivers.
“Nairobi loves its children,” Governor Sakaja says. “We are committed to bringing up healthy and well developed children. I am championing this, and Nairobi will be an example of how to take care of children. It’s a paradigm shift on how we look at our children and their future.”
