World Water Day Event Opens $15.3 Million Kenya RAPID+, Building on MWA’s Innovative Kenya RAPID Program in Five Counties in Northern Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya, March 24, 2022 – The Swiss Ambassador to Kenya joined representatives of the Kenyan Government, local and international nongovernmental organizations, and private sector partners on World Water Day (March 22) to launch Kenya RAPID Plus (the Kenya Resilient Arid Lands Partnership for Integrated Development, also now known as RAPID+), a major effort to accelerate access to safe drinking water and rangeland services for more than 200,000 people in Turkana, Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, and Wajir counties.
The program began organizing in November last year, but with the formal launch this week, it will now engage multiple partners for increasing access in pastoralist communities to sustainable water for multiple personal and agricultural uses, and to improve the health of rangeland resources critical to likelihoods in this region. The Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) is the primary funder, with contributions from implementing nongovernmental organizations and others for a total of $15, 365,239 USD through October 2026.
From 2016 to 2021, The Millennium Water Alliance-led Kenya RAPID program, funded primarily by SDC and the United States Agency for International Development, deployed $31 million USD to improve or bring first-time access to water, sanitation, and hygiene for 650,226 people. RAPID brought together public, private, and civil society institutions and communities to increase access to water and sanitation for people and water for livestock, and to take steps to restore a healthy rangeland management.
The new RAPID+ is designed to address two core problems and complex interactions amid changing climate conditions: insufficient access to adequate and sustainable water for multiple uses, and declining rangeland resources.