Summit remarks · 4 November 2025
Madam President,
I am honoured to join fellow leaders at this Second World Summit for Social Development, convened to renew the global promise first made in Copenhagen 30 years ago, that no human being should be left behind in the march towards prosperity.
In the years since Copenhagen, the world has made tremendous advances in science, technology, and innovation, transforming lives and economies.
Yet, amid this progress, poverty, inequality, unemployment, and social exclusion persist and, in far too many places, they have deepened.
In Kenya, through our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, we have charted a deliberate roadmap to confront these challenges head-on, and I am proud to share a few of its key highlights.
We recognise that education is the most powerful equaliser in society. That is why Kenya has fully transitioned to the Competency-Based Education and Training system that emphasises practical skills, innovation, and lifelong learning.
Equally, to make higher education equitable, we introduced a student-centred funding model that guarantees access to quality education for every learner regardless of their background.
In three years, we have hired 76,000 new teachers, a number that will reach 100,000 by January 2026, improving the teacherto-learner ratio from 1:45 to 1:29; putting us on course to meet UNESCO’s 1:25 benchmark by 2027.
We have also rapidly expanded technical and vocational education and training institutions across the country, ensuring that learners gain market-ready skills aligned with the needs of industry and entrepreneurship.
Beyond education, we are empowering citizens economically through initiatives like the Financial Inclusion Fund, popularly known as the Hustler Fund.
To date, the fund has disbursed KSh80 billion ($615 million) to 26.7 million Kenyans. It now counts more than 9.5 million repeat borrowers, including 5 million individuals who have successfully restored their creditworthiness through consistent repayment, enabling them not only to re-enter the formal credit market, but also to access higher borrowing limits and better financial terms.
At the same time, together with partners, we are launching programmes such as the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement Project. Over the next five years, it will reach one million young Kenyans, training them in skills that are in demand, financing start-ups, and enabling access to government procurement opportunities.
We are equally committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, including the elderly, orphans, widows, and persons living with disabilities. Through our National Safety Net Programme, Inua Jamii, what began as modest monthly support to just 500 households has now expanded to reach more than 1.7 million families across the country.
Madam President, Excellencies, through the Affordable Housing Programme, we are delivering much-needed shelter while at the same time creating jobs and fostering inclusion.
Today, over 230,000 housing units are under construction nationwide, employing more than 320,000 Kenyans and expanding opportunities for local artisans and small businesses.
We are also expanding pathways for labour mobility through bilateral agreements with partner countries, like here in Qatar, where over 70,000 Kenyan nationals are proudly working and earning a decent living. In just three years, over 400,000 Kenyans have secured jobs abroad, sending home remittances that support families and strengthen our economy.
In the digital economy, nearly 2 million Kenyans have been trained in digital literacy, and over 300,000 youth have accessed digital jobs in e-commerce, business process outsourcing, and innovation hubs.
Through reforms in health, ladies and gentlemen, the number of Kenyans with medical insurance has grown from 8 million in 2023 to 27.2 million today, ensuring that no one is denied healthcare due to inability to pay.
In summary, Excellencies, Kenya’s experience affirms that people-centred policies deliver transformative results.
Yet, in an interconnected world, national action alone cannot overcome global inequities. It is therefore incumbent upon us, today, to stand together with renewed resolve to confront and dismantle the entrenched structures that enable global exclusion and perpetuate inequality.
Regrettably, Madam President, I note that this Doha Summit convenes at a time when global solidarity in advancing social development has weakened considerably. Thirty years ago, in Copenhagen, the world spoke with one accord and acted with common purpose.
Today, however, that sense of shared conviction has significantly dimmed. Faced with new and complex crises, from climate shocks and conflict to unequal trade and debt distress, nations are too often divided by competing interests, inward-looking nationalism, and short-term calculations.
We witnessed it in the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, in the unmet pledges on climate finance, and in global systems that privilege power over partnership.
The consensus that once bound us together in Copenhagen is fraying, and the world risks retreating into isolation at a time when cooperation should be a priority.
Excellencies, as the UN@80 Initiative reforms process unfolds, the time will soon come for all of us to make critical choices about the mandates and structures of the United Nations.
In doing so, we must resist the temptation to elevate one pillar of the UN at the expense of others. The United Nations was founded on a holistic vision of delivering global peace and security, human rights, and development. These are the three inseparable, indispensable pillars that together sustain global stability and human dignity.
I habour no doubt in my mind that while the UN must remain the foremost guardian of global peace, it must also be a catalyst for prosperity and a champion of human dignity anywhere and everywhere.
The Doha Summit must therefore renew our shared resolve to act decisively, both as individual nations and as a united global community, to eradicate poverty, create decent work, and advance social inclusion as the surest paths towards a world that is truly resilient, inclusive, and sustainable. I thank you. ###