6.6 Recommendations for Capacity Building

6.8 Recommendations for Climate Change and Resilience

The projects outlined in this report will help to strengthen the resilience of the Municipality to climate change, and the GBI development framework presented can provide an approach to mainstream climate resilience within the development priorities for the county. While the projects and interventions outlined in this report represent strong foundations on which to build, much more will be needed, both in terms of infrastructure investment, and strengthening institutional capacity, to ensure that KKM can reach its goals despite challenging climate conditions.

Key to increasing the resilience of KKM is the ability to attract funding to implement climate adaptation projects. Several Kenyan Counties have created, or are in the process of creating, County-level climate change funds, designed to be used to finance key climate change activities in the County, and deliver locally on the priorities of Kenya’s National Adaptation Plan. Initial evidence shows that these funds are effective not only in terms of finance, but also for the coordination of climate resilience programmes among different actors. We recommend that the County explores whether it is feasible to establish a similar fund for KKM, or a body designed to attract inward investment of climate and sustainable finance. The projects presented in here have undergone a climate screening process and are designed to meet the basic funding criteria for climate finance, although specific requirements will vary, and full project concepts would be needed.

The GDI approach provides an opportunity to build resilience at the landscape and catchment scale. There are significant climate resilience benefits that could be achieved through improved catchment management measures, with water sensitive land management in the upper catchments around Mt Kenya helping to both reduce flood risk, and increase the quality and quantity of water available downstream. A variety of approaches to catchment restoration and protection can be explored, including Payment for Ecosystem Services projects, where upstream landowners are paid for good environmental practices by downstream beneficiaries, which could also help to increase catchment resilience.

It is clear that a climate-resilient agricultural sector will be essential both for driving growth in the County, as well as improving livelihoods and reducing poverty. Initiatives such as the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Programme provide important learning opportunities and can start to lay the foundations for a resilient agricultural sector. Scaling-up the lessons from this and similar programmes will require a coordinated programme of investment, with potential Focus Areas on:

> Training programmes on Climate Smart Agriculture; > Improved access to seasonal and 10-day forecasts; > Increased awareness of appropriate insurance products (e.g. Weather-based index insurance); > Reducing post-harvest losses.

The creation of a climate-resilient agriculture policy, building on existing county agricultural plans, and national policies such as the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy (2017-2026), could help to coordinate these efforts and build institutional capacity on climate-resilient agriculture. Future developments in the county need to be designed to be resilient to climate change, or they risk not meeting development objectives. This requires the establishment of a clear process for including climate risk assessment within development decisions. We recommend targeted capacity-building to increase knowledge and skills of the relevant departments and developing simple approaches that can be used to ensure that climate risks are well considered in future development.

This report has highlighted important linkages between poverty, exclusion, and climate change, and there is a need to establish the mechanisms so that traditionally marginalised groups are included in decisions about both the development and implementation of the GBI development framework, as well as wider decision-making processes on climate risk and resilience. Ensuring that there is representation from groups particularly vulnerable to climate change will reduce the risk that activities designed to increase resilience have unintended consequences, and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and inequalities.

Although the selected VCs are agriculturally focussed, assessment shows that they are not highly vulnerable to climate change, and there are opportunities to integrate appropriate adaptation measures, as detailed for each prioritised VC in sections below.

Key climate risks relate to rainfall variability and water availability. However, the husk VCs will draw largely from irrigated rice crops, while the volume of produce needed for the banana VCs are low compared to production. Additionally, crop modelling suggests that banana production in Kenya may actually increase relative to other countries, in particular if simple adaptation measures are integrated, as outlined in the resilience assessment below for the VC.