County governments key in fight against climate change

Country Governments are critical actors in Kenya’s responses in dealing with the thorny issue and challenges brought about by climate change. The devolved units are pivotal because of their proximity to the grassroots communities and their mandate as prescribed under the devolved governance structure.

The counties are more strategic in developing and executing home-grown climate action strategies to the specific environmental and socio-economic conditions of their regions which ensures relevant and targeted interventions on localised climate issues such as deforestation, flooding and droughts. Indeed, the countries, in collaboration with other players such as the National government, development partners and Civil Society, can ensure that real-time and effective interventions meet the needs of the most vulnerable groups, who often bear the hardest impacts of climate change.  The counties are therefore well-positioned to effectively undertake public education and awareness campaigns among grassroots communities to embrace climate-resilient lifestyles and practices such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling and waste management among others.

However, as the bridge between the national strategies and community-level action, the devolved units ought to be adequately empowered with the necessary resources, including technical support, capacity building, and climate finance to enable the country to effectively build sustainable climate resilience and response to the emerging challenges of climate change.

Besides, and in line with the County Climate Action Plans (CCAP), and the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) III-2023-2027, counties can easily integrate climate resilience into infrastructure, development, urban planning, disaster preparedness among others to reduce the vulnerability of the inhabitants to climate-related risks.

To effectively respond to the climate crisis, counties are required to prioritize locally-led climate actions in their budgets and policies through the establishment of a specific legal framework and mechanisms to enable them to attract support and financing from donors, national government, development partners, especially the World Bank so as to enhance accountability. This is why the Government, with the support of the Treasury in collaboration with the World Bank and other donors, established the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) programme to support and build the county’s ability to manage and deliver locally-led climate resilience actions.  The project is aimed at building the capacity of counties to plan, implement, budget, and report on their respective local actions in line with the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) 2023-2027 and the Constitution. FLLoCA is a five-year initiative implemented by the National Treasury through the Programme Implementation Unit (NTPIU) and the County Climate Change Units (CCCUs).

Last year Treasury authorised the release and disbursement of Sh7.3 billion to 45 counties that met FLLoCA’s eligibility requirements to fund grassroots climate resilient projects. However, a section of civil society groups including the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Kenya Platform for Climate Governance (KPCG), County Governance Watch, Action Aid and VSO Kenya who have been monitoring the use of the FLLoCA funds in 24 counties have raised key accountability and audit concerns over the management of the funds.

The concerns were voiced early this month during a three-day National Convention for Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Engagement in FLLoCA Implementation at Maanzoni Lodge in Machakos County.

The report, which focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of the FLLoCA implementation delivery and progress cited cases of suspected corruption which they demanded that they be addressed, urgently.

They described the concerns as part of the mitigations and interventions put together with the Program Implementation Unit (PIU) as part of the review process. The IPU is one of the most efficient review mechanisms. They also called for the enhancement of the community participation and information flow mechanism which is currently considered as one of the weak links.

As PACJA, we noted with concern that communication is not tricking down to the common mwananchi about FLLoCA projects signifying weak communication and information flow strategies that have led to low awareness of FLLoCA’s goals and activities by communities.

 Limited engagement of communities especially most vulnerable groups such as women, youth, and marginalised groups was noted as it negatively impacted on inclusivity with over 6 per cent of respondents saying they had not seen nor being able to distinguish between FLLoCA projects from the county developmental projects funded by generic sectorial county budget. Clearly, these gaps can be expeditiously closed.

Peter Odhengo, the head of Climate Finance and Green Economy at the National Treasury and Economic Planning noted that the review and feedback was vital on how to make FLLoCA effective.

“This process today is a process that now requires that the civil society, which is a very key component of building the local resilience, bringing in the communities together, the civil society has to take their role, the government has taken their role,” said Odhengo.

The author is the co-founder of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)