4.3. Recommendations for Capacity Building

The Strategy identifies County governments as critical co-financiers who can take the role of Executing Entities and/or Implementing Entities of climateresilient and low-carbon initiatives.

The Strategy provides a roadmap for stakeholders in harnessing resources from the GCF.

› The Adaptation Fund: The AF finances projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change.

Initiatives are based on country needs, views and priorities. The financial instrument / delivery mechanism used by the Adaptation Fund is grants. › NEMA is the is the National

Implementing Entity (NIE) for Adaptation

Fund in Kenya. › The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF): The LDCF was established to meet the adaptation needs of least developed countries (LDCs). Specifically, the LDCF has financed the preparation and implementation of National

Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) to identify priority adaptation actions for a country, based on existing information.

The financial instrument / delivery mechanism used by the LDCF is grants. › The Global Environment Facility (GEF) administers the LDCF and Operational

Focal Points (OFPs) are responsible for coordination in country. › The Ministry of Environment and

Forestry is Kenya’s GEF Operational

Focal Point.

› The Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF): The SCCF was established to address the specific needs of developing countries under the UNFCCC with respect to covering incremental costs of interventions to address climate change relative to a development baseline.

Adaptation to climate change is the top priority of the SCCF.

The Municipal managers and other municipality staff will be responsible for the overall management and delivery of the SUED value chain and infrastructure projects. Ensuring that these staff have sufficient capacity and skills will thus be of critical importance to the success of the SUED project. The following recommendations have been made based on interactions with municipality staff to date.

› Municipal managers could benefit from capacity building on project management and delivery of large projects (as relevant to the UEP) and the community engagement required › Aside from capacity building of the municipal managers, developing a consolidated project preparation, delivery and monitoring office within the municipality would be beneficial. Existing municipality staff could be trained to work in this office and the office would function as a “horizontal” capability, providing specialised project management assistance to projects across all sectors. There are potential capacity building synergies to be realised in conjunction with the World

Bank’s Kenya Urban Support Programme (KUSP) which is also considering related capacity building activities › As the SUED value chain and climate resilient infrastructure projects involve diverse stakeholder backgrounds and representations, strong governance and strong institutions will be required to effectively manage all stakeholders.

Technical assistance and capacity building to support governance and institutional strengthening is thus also recommended

› In order to progress the SUED value chain and climate resilient infrastructure projects, additional investment will need to be secured from a range of public and private sources. Currently, the investment sourcing and investment coordination capacities of the municipality is limited.

Some amount of capacity building efforts should focus on this issue

› The municipality could also benefit from general commercial development capacity building. The training does not need to be sector specific, and should cover:

› Engaging with business › Developing business linkages › Developing commercial prospectus › Building and testing business cases › The two value chains of agro-processing and construction, it would be beneficial for the municipality or county to develop some vocational training focused on: › Food processing: standard food hygiene course and wider product handling, packaging and processing courses. The honey processing facility could be set up to be used as a training site as well › Construction: basic training in building techniques with a focus on using interlocking construction blocks. The block making facility could be used as a training site. Training could be expanded to cover multiple products, as well as general house and building construction

Recommendations for Social Inclusion

Developing Kitui into a sustainable municipality will require urban economic planners and social inclusion experts to make decisions that promote nondiscrimination. In Kitui, this will involve inclusion of vulnerable groups strategically categorised as PWDs, youth and women; but specifically identified as PLWHAs, PWDs and People Living with Albinism. To fully harness the potential of sustainable urban development in Kitui, social inclusion will be a basic prerequisite that will be achieved by: 1. Commitment to promote age, gender and PWDs with responsive planning and implementation by enabling full and meaningful participation of PWDs,

PLWHAs and albinos in implementation of the VC and other infrastructure projects; 2. Commitment to ensure that for all emerging capacity building and/or employment opportunities available, employment opportunities available, are given equal and fair opportunity access to be engaged in training and employment respectively; 3. Commitment to facilitate access for

PWDs on an equal basis with others to basic physical and social infrastructure without any form of discrimination; 4. Commitment to develop safe, accessible, green infrastructure projects that promote people living safely together, and social inclusion 5. Commitment to build the social inclusion capacity of all the UEP players in Kitui so that non-discrimination becomes embedded in the related discussions and planning Climate Change Capacity and Resilience

A key prerequisite of the SUED Programme is the implementation of climate resilient infrastructure. Thus the ability of the municipality to respond to this challenge needs to supported through building appropriate capacity. In 2018 Kitui County drafted its climate change policy as a specific response to the existing national climate change policies, strategies and plans. The draft county climate policy aims to enhance the adaptive capacity of its population and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change, achieve a structured efficient and effective information management and dissemination systems, enhance county-level climate finance mobilisation capacity and create a robust mechanism for collaboration between actors.

The Kitui County Department of Environment and Natural Resources has the mandate to promote climate adaptation and enhance mitigation among the county residents. To support the department, the following fund and committees were set up: › County Climate Change Fund › Steering Committee › Interim Technical Committees

› Ward Planning Committees (in ten selected Wards) Activities and capabilities to build the capacity of key staff and actors across Kitui County will underpin its climate resilience objectives. The activities will be centred around the core functions of institutions including authorising, resourcing and delivering climate action19; while the capabilities will be centred around climate-specific capacity needs (human resources and skills, policy integration and participation) and climate-relevant capacity needs (across sectors, policy and market instruments, political economy) within the local context of the county20 . The climate change skills and performance of Kitui County staff both individually and collectively need to be enhanced to ensure the delivery of the county climate change policy and that climate change is effectively embedded into county and municipal development processes and plans, while at the same time providing support for the interdependent functions necessary for efficient implementation. The availability of sufficient, well equipped and motivated personnel is important for translating the climate change adaptation objectives of the county climate policy into action. A sufficient headcount of qualified staff for the task at hand will help ensure those appointed are not thinly spread across too many issues.

19 https://www.cpgd2019.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Learning-Paper-Strengthening-Institutional-Capacity.pdf 20 http://www.oecd.org/env/cc/21018790.pdf 21 https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/pdf/ready_or_not.pdf 22 The pilot applications of the framework in Bolivia, Ireland, and Nepal suggest that the NAC framework is useful across a range of countries and that it can be tailored to specific country contexts Kitui municipality, as the major urban centre within Kitui County needs to support the County’s Climate Change Policy (2018) which itself responds to the National Adaptation Plan (NAP2015-2023) as well as other national policies and strategies. As a result,the climate change technical skills and performance of the municipality needs to be coordinated, enhanced and delivered through the municipality’s Department of Environment which currently mostly focuses on waste management issues. Adaptive Capacity

This will complement the identification of climate change adaptation measures and the assessment of their costs and benefits. It is recognised that a gradual and phased approach over time will be required to bridge the gap (through investments and action) from the existing capacity to the required level. To support this process, Kitui County could apply the National Adaptive