Agriculture remains the mainstay of Kenya's economy. Kenya's population is approximately 30 million yet the capacity of available resources to meet the demand of this growing population for food remains uncertain. Agriculture presents the major solution to this crisis. The prevalence of poverty has posed a big development challenge to the government.
   
The eco-schools programme in Kenya with funding from DANIDA established schools micro-projects geared towards addressing poverty related issues while at the same time promoting environmental conservation. Schools came up with proposals for micro-projects as per their identified needs and problems. These included among others, horticulture, agro-forestry, dairy farming, poultry farming, energy alternatives and waste management. It was envisaged that once the micro-projects pick up, the local communities would learn from the experiences at school level and replicate the same. During the initial stages of micro-project establishment, a survey was done that showed extreme lack of local initiatives despite the fact that communities were gifted with abundant natural resources.
   
The situation has so far changed since the schools started realizing income. It has awakened the local communities who have started venturing into the same income generating initiatives at a speed that leaves one with a lot to be desired. This is now evidenced by the diminishing demand and high market access competition for same agricultural products in some schools. "We are facing a very big challenge in as far as selling our produce is concerned. When we started we were alone and our products were selling like hot cake. It is interesting how the situation has changed drastically." These were remarks of by one of the eco-school coordinator at Kandiege Primary School, the situation is not any better at Muhoroni Primary School. Some schools have now ventured into other products and others are now considering diversifying their horticulture so that they remain relevant in the market.
   
In a country hard hit by famine with even lives being lost as a result of food shortage, such eco-schools micro-project experiences just depicts that it is possible to avoid famine cases in the country if appropriate strategies are adopted. The eco-schools programme being one of them. Its strong component of stimulating local actions is just being realized in the pilot phase. Lets remember, the consequences of lacking food are more disastrous (loss of life) than that of having access.

(February 2005)

   
The current inadequacy of relevant learning support materials for effective Environmental Education (EE)/Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Kenya is a critical need that ought to be addressed. Admittedly, effective education should be planned and developed through interactive materials for learners and educators. Unfortunately though, the lack of relevant and appropriate resource materials for EE/ESD has been sited as the major obstacle to the efforts to successfully implement EE/ESD in Kenya. Teachers' conferences, meetings and workshops called to brainstorm on the way forward for EE/ESD in Kenya have always challenged the relevant lead agencies to pave the way by providing the relevant materials to guide the process of EE/ESD implementation. Independent research and monitoring conducted by the Kenya Organization for Environmental Education (KOEE), which is the lead agency in EE/ESD in Kenya has also perceived the urgent need for EE/ESD resource materials for Kenya. A challenge it has tactfully considered to respond to, through the Eco-Schools materials development initiative.
   
Eco-schools policy guidelines developed in partnership (June 2002) by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Eco-Schools coordination of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), Share-net and SADC Regional Environmental Education programme and The Kenya Organization for Environmental Education (KOEE) recognized that appropriate learning support materials are key to the Eco-Schools programme. The Eco-Schools programme realizes the importance of support materials for learning in the formal and informal sector. As a contribution towards the need for relevant support materials in Kenya, KOEE in collaboration with the Danish Out-Door Council (DOC) and the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) plus other partner and research organizations, with support from The Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) are developing resource materials to enhance Education for Sustainable development (ESD) in the Country. The materials will be developed in the form of an Eco-Schools Starter pack, Theme packs, posters, Teacher's ESD curriculum manual, and a Teachers' training module. The Starter pack will be developed first as an introductory material of the Eco-Schools Programme in Kenya. Work on all the sets of materials is underway but is constrained by the limited financial resources. Due to this impediment, a few materials will be produced during the first phase and the distribution for piloting will have to be limited to only a few schools.
   
The development of these materials is quite timely for Kenya having taken the necessary steps to address the looming environmental crisis. Notably: The development of a national strategy for ESD by The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) in collaboration with KOEE, the inclusion of environmental issues in the curriculum, Integration of environmental concerns in plans of development and the enactment of appropriate policies and legislation that enhance sustainable environmental management and development. This initiative is also in line with the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).
   
KOEE's materials development initiative hopes to enhance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sustainable development using Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity and Waste issues. Other crosscutting issues of Entrepreneurship, Disaster preparedness, and Poverty will also form an important part of the materials to be developed. Having thoroughly considered the different approaches to materials development, KOEE opted for the participatory materials development processes due to its apparent strengths. The materials will be developed through the participant/teacher-centred approach that seeks to respect the needs of the schools and calls for flexible and responsive planning processes. This process is expected to empower teachers and all participating stakeholders on material development processes owing to its participatory nature; this clearly reflects a shift from the traditional expert-centred approaches which focus on the Research-Develop-Disseminate-Adopt (RDDA) model.
   
During August 2004, KOEE organized a very successful materials development workshop at the Lakeside city of Kisumu with the view of setting the process going and involving relevant stakeholders in the process. The key objectives of this workshop were to: enlighten participants on how to enhance Education for sustainable development through the use of effective and relevant materials, to equip participants with skills and knowledge on how to develop resource materials that promote active learning, support investigative activities, and encourage environmental action taking for change. The envisaged learner support materials are expected to reflect good qualities of communication, draw on appropriate educational ideas, be able to engage learners in Action-Oriented environmental learning activities and problem solving, propose diverse Environmental Action learning (EAL) methods/approaches, be easy to use, be appropriate to the levels of learners, be flexible for use at both Micro-projects sites and the classroom, be relevant to current environmental issues in the light of the millennium thematic areas, and most important enable learners to explore values that promote sustainable development. It is hoped that this initiative, will contribute significantly towards sustainable development through education in Kenya.

(September2004)

   
The Eco-Schools programme in Kenya has come at the most appropriate time. With the biting famine, looming hunger and starvation orchestrated by crop failure; the situation in some parts of Kenya is so sad that one wonders what longterm measures could be put in place to avert future advent of similar calamities. The Eco-Schools programme is surely one such a measure. Thanks to the Kenya Organization for Environmental Education (KOEE), The Danish Out-Door Council (DOC) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for initiating the Pilot Eco-Schools programme in Kenya. Through the Micro-projects component of the programme, the communities around the pilot Eco-Schools are bound to benefit a great deal both in knowledge as well as in actual tangible benefits.
   

A recent visit to Nzoia primary school (one of the pilot schools in Siaya District) just confirmed this. Nzoia primary school opted for Horticultural farming as their Microproject. Horticultural farming was strategically considered owing to the scarcity of fresh horticultural produce in the region. This is attributed mainly to poorly drained soils and unreliable rainfall; a phenomena that has over time discouraged the local community from venturing into Horticulture as a business. When the Eco-School committee chose to venture into horticulture, the decision was met with a lot of resistance, which consider it a high-risk venture. Thanks to the determination of the committee members who went ahead to seek technical advice from the local Agricultural Extension office and a technical expert from the community. Through their technical advice and expertise, drainage channels and makeshift water reservoir was constructed to implement the project.

   
Four months down the line, Nzoia primary school today boasts a daily income of up to 1000 Kenyan shillings (about 10,4 euros) from the sale of kales, onions and tomatoes from their horticultural farm. The committee has made a projection of 400.000 shillings (4200 euros) from the project this season. The community members who were initially sceptical about the feasibility of the project are now resigned as they depend on the Eco-School micro-project for their horticultural supply at subsidized rates.
   
The community has learnt several lessons from this Eco-Schools venture:
* Through networking and school community cooperation, they can get relevant technical guidance.
* The economic status of community members can improve in a matter of months if they initiate similar projects with an assured minimum daily income of 200 shillings;
* Horticultural farming is not a reserve of certain regions with good soils and reliable rainfall.
   
It only takes careful planning, relevant technical advice, some capital and hard work to succeed in their localities. With regard to curriculum work, it was encouraging to note that the school was using the horticulture farm to enrich teaching/learning activities in the school. The students were involved in several environmental action learning (EAL) activities such as nursery bed establishment and other routine farm activities. These activities were linked to daily lessons in subjects such as Science and Agriculture. After the training workshops on localizing the curriculum, more ideas on the use of school grounds as a teaching/ learning resource were gained and it is expected that this will further enhance environmental action learning in the school. The school is also making an attempt to establish composting sites for degradable waste. A school environmental policy with regard to waste management and environmental best practices is being developed. The compost will be used to improve soil fertility in the farm.
   
In conclusion, I wish to state that: the Eco-Schools programme, through the micro-projects component has unlimited opportunities to change the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. But to realize tangible sustainable development steadily, similar initiatives ought to be replicated in other parts of the country soon. The Eco-Schools programme should be embraced as a national programme. The challenge thus lies on the implementing organizations and other wouldbe partners to move fast in extending the programme.

(July 2004)