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How the County Climate Change Fund mechanism is empowering Kenyan communities to adapt to climate change
May 26th, 2023
In November 2020, FSD Kenya initiated a partnership with the Adaptation Consortium (ADA) on a project to build the capacity of counties in devolved climate finance. The County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) mechanism, as it is known, supports counties to put in place context relevant climate finance legislation that informs their implementation of climate change projects and activities.
The two-phase project that built on previous work carried out by the consortium, then led by the UK’s International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), supported Vihiga, Kakamega, Kisumu, Bomet, Kisii, Embu, Kwale, Narok, and Trans Nzoia, among others, to enact climate change legislation, as well as to put in place climate change committees at both the county and ward levels to manage climate change aairs.
In addition to helping mobilise funds from different sources for projects with green and/or climate change outcomes, the County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) mechanism has been lauded for its inclusive, community driven, bottom-up approach to planning. Its implementation structure includes two committees – one at the ward level and the other at the county level. Ward Climate Change Planning Committee (WCCPC) is the central pillar of the mechanism.
The committee members, who are drawn from various locations, social groups, and livelihood systems in a ward, are elected publicly on the basis of their societal standing rather than just educational qualifications, are instrumental in working with community members in designing and prioritizing climate change response projects that meet the community’s needs.
Government technical staff are often co-opted into these committees to provide technical advisory input as necessary but do not have any decision-making powers.
Communities thus play a critical in deciding their priority climate change investments. It is for reason that ADA was recognised at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 27), winning the inaugural Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA)’s Local Adaptation Champions Awards under the financial governance category. In 2022, FSD Kenya’s investment in the CCCF began to yield results, with eleven of the counties it has supported so far – Kakamega, Vihiga, Wajir, Trans Nzoia, Embu, Nandi, Nakuru, Kisii, Laikipia, Narok and Kisumu – allocating a total of KShs 636 million of their own resources towards climate change in the financial year 2022/23.
