In Turkana County, these relationships were institutionalized on 8 March 2021 when the ILO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the County Government of Turkana and an implementation agreement with the Turkana Chapter of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI-Turkana).

The County Government of Turkana is a key stakeholder in the implementation of PROSPECTS and outcome areas. The MoU provides a framework upon which PROSPECTS will provide technical capacity to the County Government and develop joint interventions targeting both refugees and host communities. Key areas that have already been identified for collaboration include:

The Kakuma Kalobeyei Economic Development Plan (KIDSEP): The ILO is taking part in the area-based development plan technical working group on Trade and Private Sector under which interventions on enterprise and private sector development fall. The ILO is also participating in the education pillar, where education and skills interventions are coordinated.


The department of roads and infrastructure: The ILO is working with the department to build their capacity to apply labour-based approaches in delivering public infrastructure under the Employment Intensive Investment Programming (EIIP). The County and other PROSPECTS partners have identified the road leading to the Kakuma Biashara/Huduma centre and approved it for training and demonstration of the approach during the current financial year. 


Department of TVET: The programme is working with the department to support provision of market-demanded skills to youth in the County’s TVET institutions, and to demonstrate the dual learning model of skills acquisition that combines both institutional and work-based learning. So far, the collaboration has placed 35 students from the County, including 9 women (from host and refugee communities) in an industrial learning course in Nairobi to pilot the approach, in collaboration with the East African Institute of Welding (EAIW) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). 


Department of Trade: The collaboration with the department aims to support entrepreneurship development and job creation in the County, as well as to strengthen the County’s capacity to offer services to businesses and to create an enabling environment.

The collaboration with the Turkana Chapter of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce (KNNCI-Turkana) is a major step towards working with private sector to support the creation of decent employment and the formalization of businesses. The local chamber is committed to implementing the promise of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to include refugees in its membership and promote access to decent work for refugees. So far, the collaboration has encouraged chamber business development officers to participate in capacity training organized by PROSPECTS, namely the Financial Education and GET Ahead trainings of trainers. They gained the capacity to train their members and micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with relevant business skills, as well as achieving the following implementation agreement objectives, namely coordinating and strengthening the governance of MSME networks in Turkana County within both host communities and refugee businesses; mobilization and organization of MSMEs for PROSPECTS activities – both formal and informal; and providing capacity-building for the business networks to better support MSMEs – both formal and informal. The implementation agreement aims to reach over 2,000 businesses within Turkana Central, Turkana East and Turkana West, encompassing refugees and host communities.

Ultimately, PROSPECTS endeavours to implement activities that will lead to an increased number of refugees and host communities with enhanced livelihoods and employment in safe and decent work, resulting in improved sustainable living conditions for women, men, girls and boys in refugee and host communities in Kenya.