More than ten Ambassadors, Heads of Missions from the United Nations Mission and other development partners visited Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) Counties in the North Rift region on a development assessment and partnership tour geared at leveraging the opportunities.
The familiarization visit started on Wednesday in West Pokot County and is aimed at providing FCDC counties with the opportunity to articulate key regional development priorities, establish development partner government compact and to strengthen FCDC as a platform for member Counties to achieve socioeconomic development.
United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Siddharth Chatterjee heading the team, said the development partners were keen on supporting counties with infrastructure including implementation of universal healthcare.
Chartterjee said the visit is aimed at bringing together development partners and the member Counties in order to discuss development opportunities, challenges and solutions.
The officials, who represent the key international development partners in Kenya and visited projects in the area, agreed to work closely with the County government to actualize development goals.
“I immensely appreciate the delegates and the FCDC for the important talks and look forward to forging a close partnership in the benefit of our people.We want to realize President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four development agenda,” he said.
The envoys visited Kapenguria County Referral Hospital and Makutano Township to assess possible areas of intervention and partnerships and later proceeded to Turkana County.
Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa assured the FCDC Counties of continued support from the national government and timely release of funds.
The delegates acknowledged that West County possesses tremendous untapped opportunities for economic growth despite the challenges posed by climate change. “We highlighted the tremendous developmental achievements by the West Pokot County government in building community resilience and the avenues for cooperation with international development partners,” said Wamalwa.
West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo acknowledged the long term generous support from the embassies and recognized with deep appreciation the continuous support from various development partners to West Pokot County as well as other FCDC counties.
Lonyangapuo called on stakeholders and donors to continue helping. “We are grateful to FCDC Governors for visiting the region. The County government has presented proposals to the team in the sectors of health, education, trade, investment, food security, agriculture and youth and women empowerment,”he said.
While acknowledging the enormous challenges the County is facing in exploiting its untapped natural resources, Governor Lonyangapuo called for proper attention, understanding of its needs, potential and political commitment to address them.
The county boss further called for utmost collaboration and cooperation with donors and other development partners in the key sectors of education, health, roads, livestock and agriculture so as to keep FCDC Counties at par with vision 2030 and the rest of the country.