By Grace Adhiambo
Siaya Sets the Pace in Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development
Multi-Sectoral Teams (MSTs) from Siaya and Homa Bay Counties are taking part in a two-day peer-learning workshop on Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development (NCfECD) under the Smart Start Initiative. The event is being held at Le Savrain Suites in Kisumu.
The workshop brings together the two counties’ MSTs, whose core mandate is to bridge the gap between policy and practice. They do this by strengthening coordination and ensuring that nurturing care interventions deliver tangible results for children and families.
During the discussions, both counties identified inadequate coordination among sectors and stakeholders as a major challenge in implementing integrated nurturing care interventions. This underscored the need for stronger collaboration, clearer accountability, and more effective service delivery.
Ten counties within the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) are currently implementing the Smart Start Initiative on Nurturing Care. Siaya County continues to serve as a benchmark, showing that the integrated model works in practice through effective multisectoral coordination and community-level implementation. The county was praised for successfully linking technical leadership with sub-county, ward, and community structures, ensuring that interventions reach families where they are needed most.
The workshop was attended by the Chief Executive Officer of the Lake Region Economic Bloc, Mr. Victor Nyagaya, together with county MST chairpersons, technical leads, and development partners. Participants are exploring practical ways to strengthen governance, policy implementation, financing, and inter-county learning.
The engagement aims to identify promising practices, address implementation gaps, and develop county-specific action plans that will sustain investment in early childhood development across the region.
Siaya County remains committed to advancing nurturing care through a coordinated, multisectoral approach that gives every child the opportunity to thrive.
