On 20 May 2022 UNCTAD organized an online meeting to present the National Action Plan for Kenya towards developing high-quality sustainability/SDG reporting by companies. The Action Plan is one of the key outputs of the Development Account 11th Tranche Project on Enabling policy frameworks for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting in Africa and Latin America.
The action plan provided recommendations and proposed activities to overcome the gaps in priority areas identified with the previous assessment of the reporting infrastructure in the country. The meeting encouraged participants to discuss and provide their views and suggestions on the proposed plan of action. It has also paved the way to improve the sustainability/SDG reporting in Kenya and enhance the quality of corporate reporting, including on environmental, social and corporate governance aspects.
The gaps identified through the ADT assessment have been grouped into 3 categories:
- Lack of legal & regulatory framework on enterprise reporting
- Lack of institutional coordination between relevant stakeholders in the area of sustainability reporting
- Limitation on Human Capacity Building lack of regulation in educational requirements in enterprise reporting
The action plan addressed the established categories accordingly by taking into consideration the country-specific constraints and available market opportunities.
The 3 strategic objectives identified in the action plan are highlighted below:
- Strategic Objective 1: Strengthen the legal and regulatory frameworks for sustainability reporting
- Strategic Objective 2: Strengthen regulatory infrastructure and institutional cooperation in the area of SDG/Sustainability reporting
- Strategic Objective 3: Strengthen the human capabilities for corporate and sustainability reporting
The meeting helped to agree on the composition of the working group, define the roles and responsibilities of the group members, proceed with the election of a chair and secretariat, develop a meeting calendar for each group as well as determine the activities which should commence in 2H of 2022 and prioritise activities to be delivered in 2023-2025.
