The North Rift Economic Bloc is a platform for economic cooperation among member counties – Uasin Gishu; Nandi; Turkana; Samburu; Elgeyo Marakwet; Trans Nzoia; West Pokot, and Baringo. Its goal is to achieve economic integration among eight economically diverse counties that share a common vision for prosperity, stability and cohesion. The Bloc’s overriding priority is to catalyse rapid, sustainable growth, expand economic opportunity, create jobs and transform the lives of the region’s residents.
KDP- Timiza Ugatuzi partnered with North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB) through technical assistance to finalise the NOREB Blueprint and align it to the region’s Post-COVID-19 Social Economic Recovery and Reengineering Strategy. The Blueprint identifies the drivers of economic development in the NOREB Region, highlights key regional development opportunities, and identifies productive sectors and their current state. The alignment aimed to mitigate the pandemic’s effects among the NOREB counties by ensuring that the key pillars identified for socio-economic recovery were incorporated into the revised Blueprint. These include: Boosting the manufacturing sector; Exploiting East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) markets; Policy, legislative and institutional reforms; Strengthening preparedness and response to disasters; Enhancing ICT capacity for Business Continuity; Promoting human capital development; Irrigation for agricultural production; and enhancing Peace and Security in the region.
The Blue Print also details key challenges, opportunities for investment and economic activity for each productive sector; provides resource mobilisation strategies; and the potential socio-economic impact of investment into each productive sector in the region. Cross-cutting issues like gender, youth and persons living with disabilities, including strategies to ensure that the concerns of each of these groups are addressed, are also incorporated. To ensure effective and efficient implementation of the Blue Print, risks that may compromise its successes have been identified, and mitigation strategies have been provided.
This NOREB Economic Blueprint provides the first substantive milestone towards unlocking the region’s full economic potential. It gives an in-depth overview of the region’s economic potential, identifies key opportunities in each sector and frames a holistic strategy for the region’s economic take-off.
ABRIDGED VERSION
The British High Commissioner to Kenya, H.E Jane Marriot handed over the North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB) Economic Blueprint to the Chairperson of NOREB, H.E. Gov. Stephen Sang during a ceremony at the Office of the Governor, Nandi County on 1st February 2023. The Blueprint was developed with support from UKaid through its Kenya Devolution Programme (KDP) – Timiza Ugatuzi implemented by Act!
The NOREB Economic Blueprint provides the first substantive milestone towards unlocking the region’s full economic potential. It gives an in-depth overview of the region’s economic potential, identifies key opportunities in each sector and frames a holistic strategy for the region’s economic take-off. Its goal is to achieve economic integration among eight economically diverse counties that share a common vision for prosperity, stability and cohesion. The Bloc’s overriding priority is to catalyse rapid, sustainable growth, expand economic opportunity, create jobs and transform the lives of the region’s residents. NOREB member counties are: Uasin Gishu; Nandi; Turkana; Samburu; Elgeyo Marakwet; Trans Nzoia; West Pokot, and Baringo
