Our Strategic Plan

We successfully expanded our programmes across the six sub-counties of Kericho County, building on experience gained during the pandemic, responding to demand from communities and stakeholders and evolving our model based on community feedback and lessons learned over many years of working in Kipkelion East and West.

We responded swiftly and effectively to crises and unexpected events which severely challenged the communities and service providers that we work with – including Covid-19, a major accident in Londiani, extreme weather events – demonstrating our commitment and strengthening our position as a key, trusted actor across the county.

We deepened our work on gender inequality and inclusion, supporting communities to challenge and reappraise conventional gender roles that often underpin gender inequalities and the exclusion of women and girls. Through the engagement of men and boys in our programmes we now see them accompanying women to antenatal clinic visits, assuming roles in the fight against Female Genital Cutting (FGC) and getting involved in Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and menstrual health management activities. We demonstrated the importance of promoting inclusion through the participation of People Living with Disability in our programmes, helping to reduce stigma and increase opportunity. We worked effectively with government to identify the furthest behind or at-risk communities and to respond to their needs.

We engaged more deeply and effectively in policy fora, strengthened external communications and internal systems and policies. We fully adhered to governance, ethical and compliance practices for the Charity sector in Ireland

The inter-related crises of climate change, gender inequality and food security are impacting levels of need across Kenyan communities and increasing vulnerability and unpredictability. As communities grapple with shocks and stresses, we need to ensure that progress is sustained and development gains are not reversed. We will test out and document our approach to community resilience, evolving our model through practice and partnership.

We will remain focused on Kericho County, adapting our work to communities’ changing needs. We will be more explicit and systematic in our approach to expansion and roll-out across the county, developing clearer criteria for prioritisation, targeting and clustering of programme interventions. We will identify conditions for entering and exiting from programmes or locations, informed by evidence and an analysis of the specific needs of particular communities.

Whilst remaining community-driven, we will integrate an influencing lens in to our work and the way we conceive and measure results. This recognises the progress made by Brighter Communities Worldwide in influencing system-change over the last two decades, the strength of our relations with government and other stakeholders, and the invaluable role that Brighter Communities Worldwide plays in the health ecosystem.

Over the next five years, we will emphasise organisational development and resilience, ensuring that we continue to build sustainable, professional and dynamic organisations, in Kenya and Ireland. We will continue to strengthen internal systems, structures, capacity and culture.

We will increase efforts in documenting the longitudinal impact of our work, ensuring that this does not get forgotten over time. This will require an investment in research, documentation and evaluation and in leveraging relevant fora in Kenya and in Ireland, where we can share expertise and further develop our approach to locally-led development.

Brighter Communities Worldwide is committed to the aims and principles of active global citizenship as set out in Irish Aid’s Global Citizenship Education (GCE) Strategy and the IDEA Code of Good Practice for Development Education. We will be more explicit in incorporating GCE principles into our approach and programmes, providing a framework for our volunteering, communications and public engagement work.