
by Lorraine Anyango
The Kisumu County Multi-Sectoral Nutrition (MSN) coordination platform made great strides in the last two years prioritizing nutrition matters in Early Childhood Development Education Centers (ECDE) among others.
Even better, the Kisumu MSN initiatives have gotten a boost with the coming in of the Ealy Childhood Development Network for Kenya (ECDNek)as a partner to drive the Nurturing and Care agenda in the same space.
ECDNek convened a stakeholder’s workshop aimed at providing a platform for sharing strides in the ECD sector to promote learning and generate replicable knowledge related to ECD, nurturing Care Advocacy strategy, policy implementation, financing, and governance.

The workshop was opened by the County Executive Committee Member for Education Technical Training, Innovation and Social Services John Owiti who emphasized the importance of nurturing and care in the foundational years of a child.
He welcomed the initiative as it will further improve the children’s formative years as well as the conditions in the ECD centers while sustaining the gains already made.
While expanding on the ECDNeK, Agenda, the partnership manager Ms. Rachel Makena said that they seek to strengthen the coordination of stakeholders in the ECD sector through the formulation of learning networks bringing together, multi-sectoral representation by governments, CSOs, and Academia.

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The workshop attendees included the five departments that make up the MSN coordination platform which includes Education, Health, Agriculture, Water, and Social Protection.
During the workshop, the MSN departments shared what they had done to ensure that ECDs were well-equipped with what was needed to make them effective and favorable environments for the children.
The workshop also saw the formation of Kisumu ECD Chapter Technical Working committees with a selection of conveners in the county.
The workshop was also graced by the Chief Executive Officer KMET, Monica Onyango, representatives from LREB, PATH, Kidogo, Catholic Relief Serves, Organization of African Youth-Kenya, and youths with disabilities.

ECDNeK undertakes programs about research in ECD, nurturing care for ECD advocacy, effective partnerships, and coordination of state and non-state actors.

Through these initiatives, it seeks to achieve its mission of promoting, supporting, and sustaining an enabling environment for nurturing care for ECD, to strengthening ECD initiatives in all the 47 counties.
In the coming ECDNek will be scaling up knowledge sharing through coordination and formulation of a national Multi-sectoral Chapter in the Lake Region Economic Block.
The organization will also strengthen the coordination of stakeholders in the ECD sector through the formulation of learning networks bringing together multi-sectoral representation by government, CSOs, and academia.
They will ensure that the Muti-sectoral platforms are functioning at grassroots levels.
The MSN coordination platform will hold quarterly knowledge exchange meetings , it will have webinars which will serve as a platform for continuous showcasing of best practices from all counties.
The Chapter will also convene a Bi-annual National learning and knowledge exchange platform and participate in the 6th National ECD Stakeholders conference that will be in Garissa County.






