01
Protect SRHR as a budget line
Counties must ring-fence funding for adolescent and youth-friendly SRHR services so it cannot be raided mid-cycle.
County Assemblies
Advocacy and Policy
Fully fund SRHR and GBV response. The cost of underfunding is paid in lives.
We are calling on the Government of Kenya, county governments, and international donors to make sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence response a protected line item, not a discretionary afterthought. The evidence is overwhelming. The political will is the missing piece.
The funding gap
What the numbers tell us.
Africa's leaders committed to allocate at least 15 percent of national budgets to health under the 2001 Abuja Declaration. Most countries, including Kenya, are still well below that mark. Within the health envelope, SRHR and GBV are funded last and cut first.
9.4%
Approximate share of Kenya's national budget allocated to health, against the 15 percent Abuja target.
< 5%
Estimated share of county health budgets reaching adolescent and youth-friendly SRHR services.
58%
Of teenage pregnancies in Western Kenya occur in households living below the poverty line.
1 in 3
Adolescent girls in Kisumu County report a barrier to accessing SRHR information or services.
Figures are drawn from publicly available Ministry of Health reports, KDHS data, and ARI community surveys. They are indicative and updated as new evidence becomes available.
Our policy agenda
Four positions we are pressing right now.
02
Fully fund GBV one-stop centres
Every Level 4 facility in Kisumu County should have a staffed, supplied, and trained GBV response unit operating 24/7.
Ministry of Health
03
Keep girls in school
Sanitary products, re-entry policies for teenage mothers, and safeguarding officers must be funded, not aspirational.
Ministry of Education
04
Fund youth-led organisations directly
Donors should move at least 25 percent of SRHR portfolios through youth-led organisations rooted in affected communities.
International donors
Advocacy in motion
What we have done so far.
Pressure is built, not declared. These are the receipts.
11
Policy memos and briefs submitted to county and national stakeholders.
36
Community dialogues with health facilities and county officials.
14
County Assembly sittings attended with youth representation.
6
Civil society coalitions co-led on SRHR and GBV financing.
Fund the movement
Donor money becomes advocacy capacity.
Advocacy is patient, technical, and chronically underfunded. When you fund ARI you are funding the youth advocates who attend county sittings, the data analysts who translate community evidence into briefs, and the convenings where decisions get made.
Talk to our partnerships teamTrain one youth advocate for a yearUSD 240
Convene a county-level dialogueUSD 1,800
Produce and disseminate a policy briefUSD 3,500
Sustain a sub-county advocacy hubUSD 12,000