Courtesy Call By A Team From UN Women

Today, Monday 26th January, 2026 the State Department for Economic Planning Principal Secretary, Dr. Bonface Makokha hosted a delegation from UN Women led by their Country Representative, Ms. Antonia N’Gabala-Sodonon who paid him a courtesy call at his Treasury office.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 5, whose aim is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The goal recognizes gender equality as a fundamental human right and essential to a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. The meeting also highlighted areas of collaboration as outlined by the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) on SDG No.5.

While chairing the meeting, Dr. Makokha pointed out that the collaboration was timely and strategic to help mainstream gender parity and reduce gender gaps. In addition, the PS emphasized the importance of providing quality data from various statistics to measure the level of economic and access by women and to establish whether SDG No. 5 has been achieved.

The UN Women Country Representative, Ms Antonia outlined areas of partnerships including inter-ministerial coordination, capacity building, financing and policy formulation as key components in ensuring that SDG No.5 is achieved in Kenya. She also briefed the meeting on the upcoming launch of “Phase II: Making Every Woman and Girl Count” Conference.

On his part, the PS expressed positive support for the conference through provision of technical expertise to ensure that women and girls in Kenya are positively empowered accelerate and propel national development.

Present during the meeting were: the UN Women Country Representative, Ms. Antonia N’Gabala-Sodoon, the Economic Planning Director General, Dr. Masini Ichwara, the KNBS Director General, Dr. MacDonald Obudho and Ag. Economic Planning Secretary, Festus Wangwe among others.