Makueni County sets aside Ksh50M for climate change

Makueni County Government is set to access Ksh50 million for Climate Change adaptation and resilience after it passed the Makueni County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) regulation.

Makueni Governor, Professor Kivutha Kibwana, said that the County appreciated efforts by non-state sectors working with the vulnerable communities.

“Climate Change Fund regulation provides for this kind of interaction and involvement with vulnerable communities to explore opportunities and linkages within and outside the county,” said Kibwana.

So how will the county kick off their climate change agenda?

“For a start, the County has committed five million shillings for ‘Ngai Ndethya’ project and this commitment will continue to grow bigger as the regulation takes root,” Kibwana noted.

County Executive Committee Member for Water and Environment, Douglas Mbilu, said that the different organs of Makueni County will work to ensure the structure functions properly for the benefit of the communities.

“The CCCF regulations allow for those in charge of climate change departments to come up with implementations of proposed interventions,” he added.

The regulation is a first of its kind as it provides a mechanism through which counties and vulnerable groups can access and use climate finance to build their resilience in a more coordinated way.

These communities are organized and work through elected Ward Adaptation Planning Committees (WAPCs).

The duty of the selected committee is to identify and prioritize public good investments that are reviewed and approved by the County Adaptation Planning Committee (CAPC).

This is based on an agreed criterion which includes support to dominant livelihood strategies, climate risk management, and linkage with county integrated development plan as well as benefiting many people among others.

The money set aside is part of seed money provided by the Department for International Development (DFID) in the United Kingdom through the Adaptation Consortium.

These funds should support counties to be climate finance ready and mainstream climate change in planning and implementation.

Other counties participating in the programme include Isiolo, Kitui, Wajir and Garissa who are also expected to put similar structures in place in the next few months.

With such a strategy in place, the counties are able to access finances from diverse sources including their own budgets.

Together with their development budgets, there should be an increase in resources to finance investments in support of adaptation at county and lower levels.

The passing of the regulations is very significant as it moves Makueni County closer to becoming a sub-national implementing entity capable of accessing and using climate finance including the Green Climate Fund (GFC) which set to raise to 100 billion US dollars a year by2020.