Kenya

Projects

PropelA Kenya – Dual Apprenticeship for Youth Employability

PropelA Kenya helps young people move from limited training opportunities and uncertain job prospects into skilled employment. It does so through an employer-driven dual apprenticeship model in which companies co-design the curriculum, host apprentices in the workplace, and recruit the graduates they have helped train. As Swisscontact’s flagship private sector engagement project, PropelA adapts the Swiss dual training approach to the Kenyan context together with leading firms such as Hilti, Geberit and Schindler.

Kenya: The Eye Focus Project

The Eye Focus Project aims to improve access to quality, affordable eye health services for Kenyans in rural and peri-urban areas, thereby enhancing health outcomes and overall productivity. The project strengthens local health markets and establishes sustainable public-private delivery partnerships within the eye health sector to achieve this.

NURTURE - Wealthy People, Healthy Landscapes

The project is piloting a nature-positive, climate-resilient economic model in Northern Kenya. By unlocking the untapped potential of the honey and gum Arabic value chains, the project aims to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in fragile contexts while advancing ecosystem restoration. This is by incentivizing both communities and private sector and piloting innovative, nature-positive business models within the honey and gum Arabic value chains through the private sector.

Enhancing the Resilience and Adaptive Capacity of refugees and host communities in Turkana County (CP WASH)

The CP WASH project enhances access to sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in Turkana County, empowering refugees and host communities to become more resilient, economically self-reliant, and climate- adaptive. Through private-sector-led, market-based solutions, the project transforms WASH challenges into economic opportunities by integrating entrepreneurship, scalable business models, and circular economy approaches.

News

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26.05.2026

How Access to Finance is Strengthening the Gum Arabic Value Chain in Northern Kenya

In Northern Kenya, limited access to finance has long constrained the gum arabic trade. Through a market system-based approach that links aggregators to affordable credit, the Nurture Project is helping businesses grow, stabilise supply chains, and strengthen rural livelihoods.

21.05.2026

From Unsold Honey to Market-Ready Producers: A Beekeeping Transformation in Laikipia

In Laikipia, a group of beekeepers once struggled to sell their honey. Today, with improved skills, infrastructure, and market access, they are building viable businesses showing how a market-based approach can unlock rural enterprise.

13.05.2026

Kenya’s Skills Crossroads: Why the Dual Pathway is a Sure, Bold Move

Kenya is standing at a defining moment for national development, and the stakes could not be higher. While the conversation often centers on job creation, a recent report from World Data Lab reveals a far more sobering reality: only 8.6% of working Kenyan youth hold formal jobs, and even more alarming is the fact that 35% of young workers, despite being classified as employed, remain trapped in extreme poverty. This means the country is not only facing a shortage of jobs, but a deeper crisis of job quality and productivity. As we move further into 2026, the question is no longer whether our youth want to work, but whether we are bold enough to build a system that makes their work meaningful, dignified, and globally competitive.

Country Director, Swisscontact Kenya

Sharon Mosin

OUR APPROACH

For over 25 years, Swisscontact has been part of Kenya’s evolving development landscape, adapting our work to meet the country’s most pressing challenges, from financial inclusion to youth unemployment, climate vulnerability, health system gaps, and digital transformation. Our work focuses on fostering employability, entrepreneurship, and resilience among young people and future-ready enterprises, creating a foundation for transformative change.

For 14 years, we pioneered inclusive finance with local institutions, helping lay the foundation for Kenya’s now-thriving digital finance ecosystem. For 12 years, we deepened our work in fragile contexts like Kakuma, building livelihood models that endure beyond donor funding by tapping into the power of enterprise.

Building on this foundation, we focus on future-ready solutions with a market-led and locally rooted approach, including:

Skills for emerging economies: Youth workforce models aligned to green, digital, and care sectors
Health workforce development: Building rural health talent pipelines to close critical service gaps
Climate resilience and green enterprise: Enabling nature-positive, income-generating enterprises in vulnerable communities

Over the years, Swisscontact Kenya has reached over 151,000 enterprises and graduates in financial inclusion, mobilizing CHF 38M. We have trained more than 9,900 youth (50% women), with over 3,000 youth placed in dignified work. Strong partnerships have been established with over 74 private sector partners and 4 public institutions since 2019, with CHF 600K in partner co-investment reinforcing sustainability and shared ownership.

Inclusive Finance Programme - 14 Years of Financial Services in East Africa

Although the 2018 IMF Financial Access Survey confirms a positive trend in access to financial products and services in Sub-Saharan Africa, many people are still excluded from the formal financial market system. Sub-Saharan Africa comprises 48 countries and 47% of the people live on less than $ 1.9 a day (World Bank 2018). To a considerable extent...

Skills for Life - project journey

The Promoting Life Skills and Livelihoods project commonly referred to as Skills for Life (S4L) was designed to strengthen the income-generating capabilities of youth (both refugee and from the host community) in Kakuma by enhancing their technical, financial, life and literacy skills to improve their chances of an enriched livelihood.

Microleasing

Transforming the lives of entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers through innovative financial solutions.

The Journey of Microleasing in Eastern Africa 2006 – 2017.

Jobs

Motivated and productive employees with initiative constitute the most important success factor in all areas of our work. We count on individuals who are looking to the future, impact- and team-oriented, and want to work in international development cooperation.