Welcome to the Pastoralist Center for Social Economic Transformation Foundation (PACSET Foundation)! We are a registered organization operating in pastoral counties of Kenya since 2020. Our main aim is to socially and economically empower marginalized pastoral communities to claim their rights in local development and governance processes.
Our work is guided by several thematic areas, including:
- Climate change and sustainability: We work with communities to develop climate-resilient livelihoods and promote sustainable land use practices. We also engage in advocacy for policies and actions to mitigate the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities.
- Devolution and local governance:We promote citizen participation in local governance processes, including participatory planning and budgeting, to ensure that development initiatives respond to the needs of the communities they serve.
- Good governance:We advocate for transparency and accountability in governance processes. We work to strengthen democratic institutions and promote citizens’ participation in decision-making processes.
- Food security:We support communities to increase their food security through sustainable agricultural practices, access to markets, and alternative livelihood options.
- Women and youth empowerment:We work to address gender inequalities and promote the rights and empowerment of women and youth in marginalized communities. We support the development of skills, knowledge, and opportunities for women and youth to participate in economic and political processes.
Our approach to achieving our goals is grounded in evidence-based research, advocacy, and social accountability initiatives. We use participatory budget analysis, public policy analysis, and other approaches to generate evidence that informs our advocacy efforts.
PACSET Foundation prides itself as a lead organization in governance with a view of working to improve the capacity of marginalized and vulnerable groups to engage with and participate in the decision-making processes and the development process in general.
We offer training programs to enhance citizens’ knowledge of the country’s governance systems and their rights and responsibilities within it. We also inform and influence decision-makers to support policies in favor of marginalized and disadvantaged groups. We file petitions to advance human rights and equality and raise issues of public concern affecting the minority, disadvantaged groups, or individuals.
Our social accountability initiatives involve supporting communities to conduct social audits, community scorecards, participatory budget monitoring, and other initiatives that promote transparency and accountability in governance processes.
WHAT WE DO
According to Stiglitz, accountability requires that first, people are given certain objectives second, there is a reliable way of assessing whether they have met those objectives and third, consequences exist for both the case in which they have done what they were supposed to do and in the case in which they have not done so. Pastoralists has remained socially and economically marginalized and have little or no representation in local and national government.
We strive to achieve government accountability, transparency, participation, and inclusion to our pastoralist communities who have been left out. Devolution and political accountability have in recent years become a challenge. Challenges is crucial to ensuring that our pastoralist communities are fully embedded in our country’s development work.
We look to work with the government and the communities in addressing land governance and natural resource management and for dealing with related crises.
Working with communities to formally claim their community lands, resolve long-standing land conflicts, and respond to industrial land development in their territories. We are working to visit the communities and that way we are able to support them through community land protection process: negotiating boundaries with neighboring communities, resolving land conflicts, and drafting by-laws to strengthen community governance of lands and natural resources.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Forced Marriage (EFM) practices have denied girls access to school, choice, health and future goals. Lack of awareness of child rights and the law have left many pastoral people in Kenya ignorant of the fact that are illegal and harmful practices for girls.
Many children in the pastoral communities are not able to go to school because they do not have school uniforms, books for reading or the paper for writing and do not have any shelter where they can stay near the school during the week.
Women Pastoralists women play important roles with respect to livestock, land ownership and the household benefiting both their communities and the environment. However, they have not been fully recognized. Women are excluded from decision making processes and this weakens them in society.
We consider pastoralists women more vulnerable to the equality because they are members of the largely marginalized communities largely affected by gender imbalances and inequalities preventing the society as a whole from realizing the full potential of women in social, economic, legal and political spheres.
We are looking into sustainable pastoralism, introducing gender based programs that includes an approach aiming at diversifying economic participation of women and reinforcing their capacity to organize themselves for purposes of defending their interests.
There are quite a lot of challenges seen from limited accessibility of health care to pastoralists. We advocate for community based primary health care which will provide an alternative for these inadequacies in the health system.
We encourage women and youths to engage in agriculture through Self-help group providing them with access to finances.
We mentor and train them on good agricultural practices, farming calendars, exposure tours and how to market their produce, and later link them with the Ministry of Agriculture for support to boost the quality of their farm productivity and to expand their farming activities.
As a result of the trainings, mentoring and seed capital support, the group diversified to more profitable crops such as onions, tomatoes and kales.
Governments and all stakeholders need to build a coalition of support for pastoralists to tap their potential for economic development. Private and governmental underinvestment in pastoralist communities have contributed to the extreme levels of food insecurity.
With these crisis mostly in the areas of Baringo, West-Pokot, Samburu, Turkana, Laikipia and parts of North Eastern Kenya has focused the minds of PACSET FOUNDATION on the need to improve food security in the region, with a particular focus on small farmers and how to build up their resilience to forestall extreme hunger in the future.
Our youth development program aims at facilitating opportunities for skills development in effort to achieve more responsive and focused members of the society. Our youth development programs seek not only to prevent adolescents from engaging in health-compromising behaviors but to build their abilities and competencies.
Mission:
To empower and uplift marginalized communities through sustainable development and governance initiatives with focus on promoting social, economic and environmental justice
Vision:
To create a world where all individuals have equal access to opportunities for growth and development regardless of their background or circumstances, and where communities thrive in harmony with nature
Join Us…
Join us in our mission to create lasting change in pastoralist counties of Kenya. Rebuilding Lives for the Future is our motto, and we are committed to working with marginalized pastoral communities to promote their social and economic empowerment, helping them overcome their challenges and build a brighter future for themselves and future generations
