This report is about transformative change. It is the result of a research that was undertaken in Bungoma, Kilifi and Samburu Counties between December 2024 and January 2025, to document moral and legal duty bearer’s experience from their involvement in the Kenya-Finland Bilateral Programme on GBV prevention and response. Consistently, across the three counties, the participants in the study told the research team a strong story about this change. They shared many examples from their private and professional lives, including stories about difficult events that had a profound impact on them. It is impossible to do justice to all those stories in a brief summary report. Each county, and even each group with whom the research team engaged, deserved their story to be told in full, so rich was the sharing in these discussions. To bring out the voices of informants, the authors of this report have made a deliberate choice to rely heavily on quotes. However, these quotes are but a fraction of the stories told, and are used as illustration of a key finding or key message that were often echoed across many of the focus group discussions. For participants in the programme who informed this report, transformative change is as much about the significant outcome achieved as a result of the programme, as it is about process. It is clear from the evidence collected that the programme had a profound impact on the way people are as individuals, professionals, perform as teams. It is also clear that the programme has reached a critical mass of individuals in a short period of time, and is having a profound impact on the functioning of the whole multi-sectoral GBV system in those counties. The programme served as a catalyst for a change process, a process that is still ongoing but that many believe will now continue on its own, even as the programme closes down. Yet, the Government of Kenya is recommended to continue invest in capacity strengthening, especially in certified trainings that build core competences for GBV prevention and response across multiple sectors. This investment needs to continue in Kilifi, Samburu and Bungoma, and is recommended to be scaled to other counties in Kenya as well. We hope that this report will provide sufficient evidence as to why this investment is important and strategic. We also hope that the report will provide food for thought for other countries that are engaging in GBV programming and help them make a strategic selection of capacity strengthening activities that have proven their effect on helping to break the cycle of GBV that in many places touch entire societies. The report can be read in conjunction with the programmes toolkit “Adopting a Systems-Strengthening Approach to Improve Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence: Lessons from the Kenya-Finland Bilateral Programme” which provides details on the programme interventions and approach that contributed to the results evidenced in this report.

Authors: Wilkins N. M., Anna N. S., Violet S., Victor O. O., Timothy O. O., Ewine O., Micheal W., Faith J. K.