Every year, the Ecosystem Restoration Alliance of Kenya (KERA) hosts one in-person and two virtual co-creation and co-learning workshop bringing together practitioners, researchers and policy makers from the government, private sector, nonprofit sector and institutions of higher learning to share best practices and learn “what works” in the fields of ecosystem and ecological restoration, carbon sequestration and carbon dioxide removal (CDR), and invasive species management and control.
The virtual workshops are build-up and preparatory co-sharing events meant to understand the objectives of this initiative, the selected County Anchors (CAs), opportunity gaps presented by each of the County Anchors, settling on common gaps presented, and co- designing of the in-person workshop outlook.
Inside KERA’s Mission
KERA strongly believes in place-based and context-specific locally led solutions where the local system actors naturally occupy the center of all ecosystem restoration interventions to promote sustainability. Our focus on developing and strengthening the capacities of local systems is rooted in reality that achieving and sustaining the outcomes of large-scale landscape restoration and subsequent land regeneration depends on the synergistic contributions of local communities, multiple and interconnected local actors, and development partners.
Building, developing and strengthening the capacity of a single local system actor or relationship is inadequate. KERA is focusing on a local system as a whole by co-designing a shared-visioning with all the relevant stakeholders for place-based implementation and actor-specific investments.
The goal of KERA’s periodic multi-stakeholder co-creation and co-learning workshops is to bring together promising local actors for synergy building by collaborating to create sustainable place-based solutions and resilient pathways to improving their on-the-ground nature-based solutions activities.
The goal empowers KERA, local actors and development partners to identify common challenge(s) faced by local actors working on a specific niche of ecosystem restoration, community led carbon dioxide removal and invasive species management – say, bamboo agroforestry system, mango or /and cashew nut value chain-based restoration, biochar-based carbon sequestration, and Prosopis juliflora management and control – and develop common deliverables and master plan to address them in a sustainable way, putting more responsibility in the hands of local actors.
The Inaugural Multi-stakeholder Co-creation and Co-learning Workshop
In the year 2023, KERA successfully held its Inaugural Multi-stakeholder Co-creation and Co- learning Workshop on the 27th of November 2023 at Liaison House along State House Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop brought together 47 representatives from NGOs, corporates, government agencies and research institutions drawn from within the country and outside the country. The focus of this in-person workshop was to showcase to diverse partners what the mission and core values of KERA as a new national youth collective focusing on large- scale ecosystem restoration in the country.
The event presentations were done by the KERA Board of Directors, KERA Secretariat, KERA Regional Facilitating Agencies (RFAs) and Government Agencies led by Micro and Small Enterprise Authority (MSEA) – Nairobi Regional Office. After the welcoming remarks; KERA’s CEO embarked into a detailed presentation on KERA’s Theory of Change, Strategic Areas of Intervention, and Action Plan to lead on-the-ground implementation of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 in the context of an integrated implementation framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Kenya’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), and Africa’s Agenda 2063.
The second presenter was Jacob Gache who is a young agricultural economist and research associate at KERA. Gache presented the upcoming multi-dimensional nature-positive project, World Generation Restoration Center (WGRC) and its anticipated impact within the Lake Region Economic Development Block.
We also had thought-provoking presentations from YAFNET that focused on green entrepreneurship, YAPAD that highlighted their ecosystem restoration activities in the Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of Kenya which includes the historic Marsabit Botanical Garden, Green World Campaign of Kenya that focuses its agroecological initiatives at the Coast, and Transform Green World that is undertaking large-scale ecosystem restoration in counties across Rift Valley region (particularly South Rift and North Rift).
The Village Transforming Network (VTN) took us through their groundbreaking work in supporting local communities to restore Koguta Forest and wetland conservation initiatives along Sango – Rakwaro beaches of Lake Victoria. One of our Board of Directors, Polycarp Odiedo who is a young scientist in Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) took the audience through the carbon removal landscape in Kenya, including policy and legal frameworks.
The workshop then transitioned to a deep-dived open forum where the participants had the opportunity to:
(i) Provide comprehensive feedback about KERA Theory of Change and Modus Operandi, including modification needed
(ii) Share what (and how) their institutions/organizations of amliation do in line with ecosystem restoration, implementation challenges their face and set mitigation measures
(iii) how they want to work with KERA.at the community level. This open, intriguing, cohesive and forward-looking forum excited participants who collaboratively generated new ideas, insights, and solutions to intentional mass collaboration for large-scale ecosystem restoration from the ground-up.
Everyone was excited about KERA and the timing of its entry into Kenya’s environment sector. The feedbacks were overwhelming yet simple: we want KERA to remain authentic, innovative, inclusive and transparent as it is during its early days of operation as a non-commercial startup. The powerful empathy, creativity, and alignment fostered during this open forum challenged us further for a more inclusive, responsive, courageous and locally-led #generationrestoration movement.
The workshop’s resolutions
At the end of the KERA Inaugural Multi-stakeholder Co-creation and Co-learning Workshop, our promise was equally simple and straightforward. We are going to remain responsive and locally-led by implementing all the recommendations generated by the workshop. So far, we have kept our words to the institutions/organizations who participated in our inaugural co- creation and co-learning workshop.
Our words shall always be our bond. Moving forward, in partnerships with the local actors and rural communities that we serve, we shall diligently walk the ambitious and bold nature- positive talk. So, from where we stand, our request is also simple: we are requesting good people, institutions, organizations, development partners and the government to believe in our mission and support us in this tremendous journey to transform rural communities in Kenya.
Upcoming events
In 2024, we did not manage to hold in-person co-creation and co-learning workshop. as a non-commercial entity who still fully rely on collaboration with the local communities, county governments and self-facilitation by our volunteers, our volunteers and regional facilitating agencies were not able to dig deeper into their pockets and support our second annual in-person co-creation and co-learning workshop.
Moving forward, in the spirit of implementing feedbacks of the inaugural workshop, we shall be re-focusing our key target audience to in-line county government department and one promising community nonprofit implementer in the counties of interest for place-specific and county-based implementation.
Our next in-person co-creation and co-learning workshop will be held in January 2026 with two virtual workshops taking place in November and December 2025. The workshops will be focusing on upscaling ongoing community mangrove conservation and restoration in six coastal counties including in-line departments in six counties, six community mangrove ecosystem actors, policy makers, funding partners, researchers and relevant partners.
Based to feedbacks and consultations we have had over the past months, under the name Local Ecosystem Restoration Shared Visioning Support Program, the program will strive to offer technical assistance to address the common gaps identified.
The technical assistance is in terms of technology transfer and adaptation, project management support, partnership development, organizational capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing and development.
Written by: Secretariat