East Africa: The Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Awards Program (MILGAP)

Project Manager: Cecilia Njenga-Kinuthia
Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Awards Program
Urban Development Branch
UN-HABITAT
P.O. Box 30030
Nairobi, Kenya

Phone: (254 020) 7623164
Fax: (254 020) 7623715
E-mail: milgap@unhabitat.org
Web site: http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=510

UN-HABITAT, with support from the Ford Foundation, initiated the Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Award Program (MILGAP) in 2002. The program was developed in response to the growing regional and national commitment to civic engagement, sustainability, and economic development in East Africa. Its mission is to alleviate poverty and promote excellence in public service delivery, good governance, and enhanced local democracy and decentralization.

Awards are presented every two years. Currently, the program draws applicants from three nations: Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. UN-HABITAT uses the program to disseminate information on good governance and to encourage community participation and replication of successful projects. The MILGAP awards process has two tiers, involving a national and sub-regional stage. Once three projects are selected from each of the three countries involved in the program, the projects compete with one another at the East African regional level for first, second, and third positions. Selected programs have addressed such diverse goals as poverty, food security, and environmental sustainability.

Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga is a human settlements officer at UN-HABITAT in the fields of local development and governance. She has coordinated a range of regional and national technical cooperation projects, including research and advocacy work on numerous local and urban planning issues in Africa and Asia. She is the founder of the Mashariki Innovations in Local Governance Awards Program (MILGAP); and serves as the task manager of the Lake Victoria Region City Development Strategies Initiative, a program for improved environmental sustainability and poverty reduction. Before joining UN-HABITAT, Ms. Kinuthia-Njenga worked in the international NGO sector and as a consultant in sectoral and macroeconomic policy areas. Her research interests include civil society involvement in governance, sustainable economic development, HIV/AIDS health and education, participatory planning, and small and micro-enterprise development.