LRBH Thematic Areas

The Lake Region Budget Hub, operating within the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB), encompassing counties like Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Busia, Kakamega, Vihiga, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia, Kisii, and Nyamira, centers its interventions on strengthening Public Finance Management (PFM) as the foundation for equitable resource allocation and accountability. As part of the broader Bajeti Hub network, LRBH conducts rigorous budget analysis, including virtual sessions on the County and National Programme-Based Budget, focusing on revenue, expenditures, pending bills, and capital projects. The budget champions and facilitators across the region have actively participated in the analysis of the county and national budgets and developed budget info packs to inform public participation and fiscal responsibility. Other key interventions in the PFM include participation of the hub in the County Budget Transparency Survey development of the tool, research and disseminating the result across all the counties. This has contributed towards enhanced coordination for transparency in our region.

Lake Region Budget Hub integrates PFM advocacy into the health sector to address financing gaps and improve service delivery in devolved health systems. A flagship intervention is the pilot Technical Working Group (TWG) with County Health Management Teams (CHMTs), launched with an inaugural meeting on November 2024, involving CHMTs from Kisumu, Kakamega, and Busia counties. This initiative focuses on budget tracking, resource mobilization, and performance analysis to mitigate shortfalls like the Sh50 billion national gap, ensuring alignment with the Kenya Community Health Strategy 2020–2025 and UHC goals. Through sectoral performance insights and CSO collaborations, LRBH supports community-level advocacy for integrated care, including human resource enhancements amid U.S. funding cuts affecting 41,500 workers. In February 2025, LRBH participated in a three-day exchange program in Nyeri County on good service delivery, drawing lessons for health sector improvements in the Lake Region. These interventions complement WHO's Country Cooperation Strategy 2024–2030 by fostering evidence-based budgeting for resilient health systems.

LRBH's work in social protection leverages PFM tools to promote lifecycle-based, universal programs, shifting from poverty-targeted exclusions to inclusive coverage for vulnerable groups in the Lake Region. Interventions include budget analysis and public participation to influence allocations under the Social Protection Act, ensuring non-contributory benefits for persons with disabilities, older citizens, and informal workers. By disseminating CBTS findings and facilitating memoranda submissions, LRBH advocates for transparent funding of social safety nets, aligning with the World Bank's 2025 State of Social Protection Report recommendations for maximizing benefits amid socio-economic shocks. In SDG localization efforts, as seen in Homa Bay County's inclusion in Bajeti Hub's 2025 community-level financing analysis, LRBH pushes for gender-responsive budgeting (SDG 5) and integration of social protection into county plans, addressing gaps in fiscal policy highlighted in the 2024 Budgets for What? report. Outcomes include enhanced citizen oversight, with quarterly implementation reports enabling tracking of protections against vulnerabilities.

Through PFM advocacy, LRBH links environmental and climate resilience to sustainable budgeting in climate-vulnerable Lake Region counties, supporting Kenya's Second NDC for 35% emissions reduction by 2035. Interventions focus on sectoral analysis and resource mobilization for green initiatives, including tracking climate finance in agriculture and health via county budgets. At the 12th LREB Summit in 2024, LRBH connected stakeholders to prioritize low- emission power and transport, countering declining public concern (from 42% in 2022 to 30% in 2025). Partnerships with CSOs enable public participation in carbon registry regulations and renewable energy investments, fostering African-led solutions ahead of COP30. These efforts enhance transparency in climate-relevant expenditures, per the 2021 Landscape of Climate Finance in Kenya report.

LRBH advances education sector equity by embedding PFM interventions in budget transparency and participation, targeting the KShs. 117 billion underfunding gap for 2024/25–2026/27. Key activities include analyzing county and national education allocations for CBC implementation, with over 1.1 million learners in the 2025 KJSEA, and advocating for gender parity. In public participation forums, such as October 2024 engagements with county officials in the region, LRBH submits memoranda prioritizing education amid revenue projections. The CBTS disseminations in 2025 assess online budget document availability for education funding. Aligning with SDG localization, LRBH promotes county plans linking budgets to inclusive education indicators, supporting private sector calls for a Higher Education Fund and fostering quality from primary through university levels.

Agriculture, contributing 30% to Kenya's GDP, is a priority for LRBH's PFM-driven interventions, focusing on climate-smart budgeting for the Lake Region's 6.0% sectoral growth in Q1 2025. Through budget champions' analysis of FY 2025/26 estimates, including capital projects for irrigation and yield resilience, LRBH tracks KSh 78.08 billion ARUD allocations to counter climate shocks like droughts impacting crops and livestock. Public participation memos, presented o various county governments and national government emphasize revenue enhancement for maize and wheat production rises. LRBH's sectoral insights support the adoption of technologies by over 60% of farmers, per the 2025 National Agriculture Production Report, and integrate with Kenya's Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy for resilient interventions.