This component supports the enhancement of the existing Social Protection delivery systems established under the NSNP and aims to further merge the Consolidated Cash Transfer Programme (CCTP) under the State Department of Social Protection (SDSP), and HSNP under the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), within a consistent and coherent delivery system. Key project activities are:

• Enhanced Single Registry: KSEIP seeks to support gradual expansion and enhancement of functionality of the existing Single Registry, by adding a social registry module. The new registry would cover up to 50 percent of all Kenya households that can be identified as potential beneficiaries of social protection or other poverty-targeted interventions. The Enhanced Single Registry (ESR) is a system that has been developed to increase efficiency in the administration of social protection programmes in line with the National Social Protection Policy and the Vision 2030. The Registry will provide reliable and up to date data on individual and household characteristics of actual and potential beneficiaries, and accurate and analytical reports on the performance of the social protection sector.
• Integrated Grievance & Case Management Mechanism: KSEIP supports decentralized implementation and enhancements in the National Safety Net Programme Grievance and Case Management (G&CM) mechanism. The CCTP-MIS G&CM module was developed and made operational at the national level in 2019.
• New Payment Solution for NSNP: The aim is to gradually roll out this mechanism to cover all beneficiaries under the National Safety Net Programme. This mechanism would also be used to deliver cash payments for KSEIP activities. The project supports among others, continued roll out of the new payment solution, enhanced management including fiduciary controls, and necessary updates in the MIS payment module.

This component would contribute to the Government of Kenya’s goal of UHC by establishing and supporting a functional referral mechanism to improve NSNP beneficiaries’ access to the NHIF and expand nutrition-sensitive safety net services to additional counties. It would also support the testing of GoK-led economic inclusion models for targeted households (NSNP beneficiaries and others) to improve their welfare and self-sufficiency. As such, it is well positioned to build human capital, a key priority of the Government and World Bank. Key project activities are:

• Expansion of Nutrition-Sensitive Safety Net: Nutrition Improvement through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) Programme is being implemented as one of the innovations under KSEIP to improve the nutritional status of children in the first 1,000 days of life. It complements the National Safety Net Programme through a combination of interventions, that is, nutritional counselling, cash and child protection (positive parenting and alternative family care) in the life cycle. It targets members in the existing households of NSNP (Inua Jamii and HSNP) Cash Transfer Programmes to improve health outcomes for both women (pregnant and lactating mothers) and children up to 2 years in the participating counties. A cash transfer top-up of Kshs. 500 is provided to a household with a pregnant mother or one child who is under 2 years while a household with more than two children  under the age of 2 years or more than two pregnant mothers will qualify for Ksh.1000 per month. Associated through a Government-led and executed KSEIP Grant financed by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is providing an extensive technical support to design and establish foundational systems and mechanisms for NICHE implementation at national and county levels. Under KSEIP, the SDSP is expanding the NICHE programme to four additional counties (Kilifi, Marsabit, Turkana and West Pokot) and continue to scale up in Kitui county. This expansion will benefit approximately 138,600 individuals in 23,500 households.
• Systematic Access of NSNP Beneficiaries to NHIF: KSEIP will support a systematic collaboration between the SDSP, Ministry of Health (MoH) and NHIF, and invest in the information systems to facilitate enhanced access and enrollment of NSNP beneficiaries in the NHIF. Development of this structured referral mechanism would build on a formal agreement between SDSP, MoH and NHIF, which is already inplace for the Single Registry complementary services module under the NSNP.It would require the NHIF to provide aggregate information by locality on enrollment and possibly on utilization of NHIF by NSNP beneficiaries…….…learn more…(Attach link to the State Department’s site on the NICHE Page)
• Economic Inclusion Programme: It was designed with an objective of enhancing access of 7500 extremely poor households to social and economic inclusion services by increasing access of households to skills, productive inputs, asset, finance and economic opportunities. The programme targets both beneficiaries of National Safety Net Programme (Inua Jamii) and non-NSNP beneficiaries.It is being implemented in five pilot counties of Muranga (Muranga East &; Maragwa sub-counties), Makueni (Mbooni &Kibwezi East sub-counties), Kisumu (Nyando & Kisumu West sub-counties), Marsabit (Saku & North Horr sub-counties) and Taita Taveta (Mwatate & Taveta sub-counties) …learn more…(Attach link to the State Department’s site on the EIP Page)

This component would support the National Drought Management Authority to expand HSNP coverage and improve the shock responsiveness of the safety net system, including financing arrangements for timely support to vulnerable households affected by climate-induced risks.

Institutional and Capacity Strengthening: Financing will be provided to enable effective oversight of project implementation, and strengthen fiduciary systems, safeguards, beneficiary outreach and communication, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This includes support for capacity building, trainings, and technical assistance related to overall institutional capacity.

Social Safeguards: Special effort would be made to implement safeguards measures, as per the Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups Framework (VMGF) developed for KSEIP, to enable the project to effectively identify Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups and ensure that they are considered in targeting exercises as relevant, and that their participation in KSEIP activities is monitored.