VCA impact in Kenya: Local voices driving change through the implementation of Government-led programme, Financing locally-led climate solutions (FLLoCA)

Influencing local climate action solutions financing through movement building in Nakuru County, Kenya 

The Government of Kenya, in collaboration with development partners, recently secured Kshs 39.3 billion to roll out a locally led climate action programme. 

The initiative, dubbed Financing Locally Led Climate Action ( FLLOCA), is an innovative approach to ensuring climate finance reaches the most vulnerable communities, which bear the brunt of the devastating effects of climate Change. 

 

 

The Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) programme in Kenya partners with Slum Dwellers International (SDI), Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), and organisations supported by sister projects SEAF Kenya through Leading the Change (LTC). Through these collaborations, we leveraged this opportunity to ensure that the initiative’s planning and implementation are informed by the needs of the local communities. 

This was achieved through a series of engagements.

 

Influencing enactment of the Nakuru Climate Change Action Plan 

VCA kickstarted the engagement of ensuring FLLOCA reaches the most affected communities by influencing the enactment of the Nakuru County Climate Change Act 2021, which was mandatory for counties to access the Fund. 

The Act proposed, among other things, the formation of structures at the ward level (Ward Climate Change Planning Committee) and the Steering Committee at the top level. 

Later, the team, working through the Nakuru Climate Justice Movement, influenced the drafting and enactment of the Climate Change Fund Regulations, which set out how funds would be used for climate action in the county and required at least 1.5% of the county budget to be set aside for this purpose. 

Formation  of Ward Climate Change Planning Committees

As a prerequisite to accessing the FLLOCA Fund, counties were also required to establish local-level climate planning committees. Through an inclusive and participatory process, VCA collaborated with the county government to establish 55 ward climate change planning committees.

 

 

The committees’ formation, as stipulated in the County Climate Change Act 2021, included representatives of women, men, youth, marginalised people, community-based organisations, people with disabilities, and special interest groups. 

This move to ensure that all groups, including the marginalised, were represented on the committees was welcomed by all, with the leader of Persons with Disabilities (PWDS) in the county.

Mr Stephen Ogutu, a person with a disability, said: “I have been in this climate sector all my life, but I have never been involved from the grassroots to the county level like this! As people with disabilities, we feel this is the right way to go because, with this opportunity, we will be able to be part of the solutions and come up with proposals that take into account our special needs.” 

 

Capacity strengthening of the Ward Climate Change Planning Committees

With the formation of the 55 ward committees, the VCA team, in collaboration with the Nakuru County government, embarked on the process of building the capacity of these teams. The first round of training included strengthening areas such as leadership and governance, safeguards, climate change legal framework and project cycle. 

The committees were also guided to understand their roles as set out in the county climate change laws and finally supported holding elections, with most committees paying attention to gender in leadership positions. 

A number of them had an informal arrangement whereby if a man were chair, a woman would be vice-chair and vice versa. The inclusion of gender was welcomed by a number of ward committee members.

“As a woman, I felt honoured and that this was the first time I had had the opportunity to lead the process of finding local solutions at the grassroots level,” said Magdalene, Chairperson of the Kaptembo, Ward Climate Change Planning Committee. Magdalene said the project had made her strong by supporting her, and she looked forward to leading from the front in the future.

Co-creating Participatory Climate Risk assessments (PCRA)

The purpose of developing the participatory climate risk assessment was to jointly identify priority areas for support from the Climate Change Action Fund. Through an inclusive and participatory process, the committees created a Resource Map-to provide an understanding of the demography, places and resources (land, rivers, hills, fields, vegetation and habitation) present in their locality, as well as the use of these resources. The map was also  used to gather the community’s perception and knowledge of their surroundings and to identify their resources and risks

 

Ksh88m allocated in fundable proposals for locally-led climate actions in Nakuru

The teams were further trained in resource mobilisation through write shops, where the team of facilitators from VCA and the county government took them through the process of writing fundable proposals.

By the end of these sessions, all the county committees in Nakuru had submitted their proposals to the county and were ready to start implementation once they received funding. 

Some of the areas they focused on in their proposals include restoration of riparian and degraded areas, waste management, water supply to ward residents, etc.  Some of them were pleasantly surprised during the Write Shops, where, apart from the proposals, they were also given capacity building on advocacy and other sources of funding beyond the County and FLOCCA funds. 

 

For two years, the county allocated 88 million Kenya shillings from the 1.5% provision in its Climate Change Act, which it will distribute to WCCPCs in 2024 along with the 188 million it received from FLOCCA funds. 

Thanks to the advocacy training they received, they also lobbied the Governor to increase the allocation to the sector and received a commitment to increase it to at least 2.5% from FY24/25.

During the resource mobilisation training, David Koskei, a youth from the Nessuit ward was quoted as saying: “This has been an eye-opener, I feel armed and ready to fundraise and get funds to mitigate climate change in the County. As a youth, this has been a Godsend, and I will be a champion in the future”. David later helped the Nessuit District Committee, dominated by the indigenous Ogiek community, to develop a proposal to restore the banks of the Njoro River. 

As a result, Nakuru County pledged 2 million Kenyan shillings from FloCCA to fund the riparian restoration of River Njoro as a nature-based solution. WWF-Kenya, through VCA, will upscale the initiative to restore an additional 10 km. 

This initiative will help address some of the challenges facing the river while also improving the livelihoods of the indigenous Ogiek community through the sale of bamboo seedlings which they will propagate initially and later through value-added sales of the products.

Overall, through this support, Nakuru County has become the envy of peer counties who come to learn about the process and successes of finding local solutions while ensuring that community members are at the forefront. 

As the CEO of WWF Netherlands recently said, ‘Inclusive conservation is the way to do conservation’.