Kenya

By: Mercy Ndunge Mwanzia, Communications Liaison Officer, Kenya, WUSC The 11th of October is commemorated globally as a day to draw attention to the obstacles girls encounter while acknowledging their power to define their own futures. While there are many ways the global community can support girls to take back their power, one of the…

Young people are among those most disproportionately affected by displacement, with those under the age of 35 accounting for just over half of the global refugee population. Whether in camps or urban settings, refugee youth face challenges gaining access to employment; from legal constraints regarding the right to work or freedom of movement, to stiff competition…

Over the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed all of our lives in complex ways. Research shows that when a disaster hits, women and girls are some of the most vulnerable and highly affected, and this has proven true during the pandemic as well. Millions of women and girls have left…

The International Seminar is an annual WUSC event for young leaders from around the world to collaborate, share ideas and create long lasting relationships. Each year explores a different contemporary development issue through youth-driven ideas, research and solutions. Since its first iteration in 1948, the International Seminar has seen thousands of participants collaborate on projects…

Around the world, nearly 1 in 3 women are affected by gender-based violence (GBV) in their lifetime. While men, women, girls, and boys all experience GBV to varying degrees, women and girls are often disproportionately affected. GBV includes, but is not restricted to sexual, emotional, and psychological violence, early and forced marriage, domestic violence, female…

COVID-19 has become an unprecedented global crisis. The pandemic and its associated economic crisis have exposed deep structural inequalities around the world, with disproportionate effects on women and girls. This webinar, organized by Women’s Empowerment in Development (WED) Lab at McGill in partnership with the Institute for the Study of International Development, explores current issues around COVID-19…

The COVID-19 pandemic confirmed what we already knew – girls’ education is most at risk during emergency and crisis situations. Many girls, particularly those in refugee camps and their surrounding host communities, may never return to school. That’s why we quickly adapted our conditional cash transfers (CTs) approach and our radio programming in Kenya to keep girls’…

HIRES is a pilot initiative that resettles refugee youth who currently live in Kenya through a unique private sponsorship pathway that partners with Canadian businesses. This pathway involves vocational training and an employment placement upon arrival. Both, responding to persistent barriers to economic inclusion facing refugee populations and supporting Canadian employers to meet labour market…

In response to COVID-19, the Government of Kenya, much like other governments around the world, initiated lockdowns of businesses and schools and implemented curfews to help curb transmission. Despite these measures, in just a few weeks, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kenya almost doubled, bringing the total at the time of writing to…

Risk to Girls’ education and safety during COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about widespread lockdowns and school closures around the world, including in Kenya, where more than 2,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed.  In a country where 1.2 million primary-school-age children were already out of school before the crisis hit, these closures have…