Webuye, Kenya: yesterday evening (23 Jan 2024) we started for the third time our annual System Changer Network (SCN) Kenya meeting – a 3 days meeting where the nine NGOs from Central and Western Kenya who form the SCN Kenya exchange, learn and plan together how develop communities who live at the poverty line in a more holistic way and with the support of the trusted network.

The curiosity and interest to learn about the SCN has raised a lot over the past two years including Government and public authorities, universities and other local, regional, national and international stakeholders.

The meeting started together with a lot of local and international representatives. Besides the SCN teams from the network, a representative from the national and county government, a representative from the county police, two bishops and school headmasters from our areas, testimonials and beneficiaries from the communities themselves, such as people with albinism, children, teenage mothers, our young adult group participated. Also some international guests and a few local NGOs were there.

After short introductions, the participants could link up and share with each other in a more informal way.

In the next days we will have a look back at the achievements 2023 as the SCN network and plan our actions 2024. We will run a lot of information sharing on national and international funding opportunities, focus on the organizational development and on how to develop the SCN pattern further and to attract attention from outside to this new way of working across all borders. This includes also a new way of doing systemic changes beyond one specific topic or area, an innovative measurement that includes also KPI tracking on the relationships and exchange structures, developing a common SCN project that could cover large parts of communities in many areas …

Here are some impressions: