Reforming Kenya's Schools' Curriculum

It bothers me a great deal that the form of education built around the empirical, discipline-based model that we have in our universities today is the product of 15th and 16th centuries transformation. As two leading scholars-Prof. Jeffrey Steinfeld of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Prof. Takashi Mino of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo-have recently noted, "this model has served us very well in the past, leading to enormous expansions of human knowledge, technology, and the global economy, but it may not be sufficient to address the problems of global sustainability that we now face (emphasis mine), which result, in part, from this growth in human activity. Indeed, this transition must succeed if we are to leave a healthy environment, a just society, and sustainable future to our descendants" (Sustainability Science (2009) 4:1–2). It is this that informs Climate XL's work on Kenya's schools' curriculum. 

Private Sector Participation

The thought that my hometown is wallowing under mounds of solid waste is disturbing as it is unecessary (see http://www.eastandard.net/environment/InsidePage.php?id=1144011609&cid=467&). The Ministry of Local Government or NEMA ought to have come up with 'good practices' that local authorities should emulate. There are many case studies of successful waste collection schemes all over the place! The central government and local authorities seem to have resigned to contracting out solid waste collection and disposal services. There is essentially nothing wrong with that only that private sector participation entails a number of things: sharing of invetments, risk, responsibility and reward between partners. Before becoming involved in public-private partnerships, a local authority must make certian adjustments to exisitng processes and arrangement for effective partnership. For example, the local authrotity should develop or access expertise necessary to evaluate, negotiate and implement the scheme. As the Eldoret Municipal Council should have learnt by now, even negotiating with street children requires certain competencies which may or may not reside within the council. So, consult consult and consult. Secondly, establish policies to guide decisions on public private participation. Unless there is a structured way of making decisions a council will underperform! Lastly, establish procedures that enable effective evaluation of delivery of service. This is the only way to determine if the council and by extension, the community is getting value for money.

A Dollar a Day Good for the Environment

Poverty has been blamed for environmental degradation since the United National Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Jenairo in 1992. The clock has since turned full circle; it is now acknowledged that the greatest threat to the environment is unsustainable production and consumption patterns. The tragedy of the 20th Century was in conceptualizing and gloryfying materialism. The more energy and food one consumed, in other words the more affluent they were, the better. This became the index for development. Not even the Limits to Growth thesis would deter the proponents of this accumulative culture. But alas, climate change has now come knocking and threatens to disrupt "our way of life". So, who is wiser? Is it the 65 percent of the world population who chose to fratinize with the environment by withdrawing minimally from it, or the 35 percent who pulled all stops and went for the gravy train to gratify unholy greed? Who has been more environmentally accountable? If all humanity had been rapacious to accumulate till their storehouses were full to the brim wouldn't ecosystems have collapsed decades ago? As the dash to the bottom gathers steam it is important to pause and reflect on whether the poor are environmentally smatter or not. If they ain't then the affluent must bare full responsibility of deprivation and the consequences of a changing climate. Period. If they are, have always been, then they have invested in our future and the rest of the world owes them infinite compensation.