BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT

Oxfam in Kenya in partnership with the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) and the Diocese of Lodwar are implementing a two-year project with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) on fiscal justice and the extractives sector. The project is entitled “Civil Society Capacity Building for Improved Fiscal Justice in East Africa-Kenya”. The overall objective of the project is “Transparent and accountable revenue generation and public financial management in Turkana, Nairobi and the national government of Kenya, for improved social service provision.” In doing this, the project seeks to tackle inequality and poverty by promoting accountable, transparent and gender responsive policies on resource mobilization, allocation and spending

PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY ANALYSIS

The purpose of the PEA was to provide Oxfam and partners with a political economy analysis on the Kenyan context vis-a-vis oil and public revenue management from a structural and systems approach. Specifically, the PEA aims;

1. To identify the key power relations, dynamics and trends in governance systems, structures and processes related to Kenya’s oil sector and public revenue management. This included overt and covert power brokers, values and norms for decision making, as well as enabling institutions both formal and informal for oil and public revenue management.

2. To undertake a stakeholder mapping and power analysis for oil revenue and public financial management with a view of identifying overt and covert power brokers, structures and systems that enable these power brokers, incentives and rewards for the power brokers and the formal and informal institutions enabling perpetuation of the perceived or real power of these power brokers.

3. To establish the current roles of women in decisions and actions related to the governance of oil and public revenue management

4. To identify key obstacles that prevent active and influential advocacy for transparent, accountable and inclusive oil and public revenue management;

5. To provide recommendations on both immediate and long-term approaches/strategies that Oxfam and other stakeholders such as governments, companies, investors and civil society can use to ensure transformative governance in oil and public revenue management

SCOPE OF THE POLITICAL ECONOMY ANALYSIS

The PEA focused on identifying the critical actors and institutions that facilitate or block fiscal reforms. The study thus unpacked the visible, invisible or hidden relationships between these actors and institutions that exercise significant control over oil and public revenue management. Emphasis was put on context, power, institutions, actors, relationships and processes. The review tested the explicit and implicit assumptions about the influence and interests of stakeholders and the way that power is exerted in a specific institutional and individual context that underlies policy orientation and implementation as well as attitudes and behaviours. The table below illustrates a summary of the key questions that the PEA sought to answer that shaped the collection of data, analysis and reporting