The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has clarified an article that appeared in the East African Standard newspaper on Thursday, July 25, 2002 titled "NGOs fail to account for grants."
AKF said the article that stated: It has been "revealed that NGOs affiliated to Aga Khan Foundation Early Childhood Development Project (ECD) have failed to account for funds awarded to them," was incorrect.
The Foundation would like to inform the public that: First, there are no NGO's affiliated to AKF in Tana River District.
The Foundation has been directly implementing the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme in the district and second, the AKF has submitted all financial reports due to the Ministry of Education, accounting for all the relevant funds received.
The following is a brief statement on the five-year (1998-2002) ECD project through a contract signed with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology:
The AKF was selected as one of the five implementing agencies in the World Bank-funded ECD project.
The other agencies included ActionAid Kenya, Care Kenya, Catholic Relief Services and AMREF.
AKF contributed 49.2 per cent of the amount allocated for the implementation of the Community Support Grants in three designated districts (Mombasa, Taveta and Tana River).
In May 2001, the statement further states, discussions with the Ministry and the World Bank on the programme indicated that four years into the project life, the process of community mobilisation and capacity building using the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approaches was still going on.
It was collectively felt that in the interest of sustaining the impact of the activities at the community level, it would be desirable to have the contracts of the implementing agencies extended for a further period.
The World Bank agreed to this extension for an additional two years (July 2002 to June 2004).
As agreed with the Ministry, the statement adds, AKF submitted a formal extension proposal in March 2002.