Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

The UK Department for International Development (DFID)‘s mission is to help eradicate poverty in the world's poorest countries. In Kenya, DFID is working to strengthen peace and security, build resilience, promote prosperity and tackle extreme poverty. As part of its expanding Sustainable Economic Development portfolio, DFID Kenya has designed a new Sustainable Urban Economic Development (SUED) Programme that aims to support emerging urban centres in Kenya to put in place sustainable urban economic plans; improve the investment climate and draw in investment for key climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects. Kenya is the largest economy in East Africa and has managed to achieve 5.3 % annual growth over the last decade (currently at approximately 6 %). However, Kenya suffers from high levels of poverty and the World Bank estimates that to reduce the poverty headcount from 43 % (in 2005) to 15 % by 2030, Kenya's growth rate must rise to at least 6 %. Towns and cities are important for economic growth as higher population density allows for greater specialization and deeper markets, and makes infrastructure and business support services more cost effective. Kenya is currently rapidly urbanizing with an urban population that is expected to rise by over 50 % by 2030. However, poorly planned urbanisation can result in an array of poor informal settlements and population centres that are more vulnerable to environmental shocks. Accordingly, DFID is supporting emerging urban centres in Kenya to put in place sustainable urban economic plans; improve the investment climate and draw in investment for key climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects. This will include integrating digital technologies to build “smart” towns/cities that improve the quality and performance of urban services and enable a better quality of life. Although the 3 major cities of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu along the Northern Corridor in Kenya contain 50 % of the country’s urban population, towns situated on secondary economic growth corridors linked to these centres are seeing the fastest population growth, with the urban population outside of Nairobi growing at 7.3 % a year. Supporting these smaller, faster growing, population centres also presents an excellent opportunity for achieving more balanced growth by focusing on areas which have historically been more marginalized, such as towns in North/Northern Eastern Kenya and Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) more generally.