Voluntary Sustainability Certification (VSC) has grown rapidly in Kenya over the past decade, driven by significant buyer demand for Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification.

This development has been coupled with rapid growth in participation in the Fair Trade and the former UTZ programs (now merged with RA), a dynamic that has brought opportunities and challenges for the tea sector.

To address these issues, the facilitating organizations (Kenya Tea Directorate, Sustainable Inclusive  Business/KEPSA, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development [IISD]), through the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) convened key representatives from all segments of the Kenyan tea value chain for a multistakeholder meeting of the sector, held on March 6, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to track adaptation outcomes are a crucial element of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. However, these systems are often complex to design and implement.

Challenges include measuring results amid uncertainty, limited baseline information and data availability, and multiple scales of interventions, among others. Kenya is working to overcome these challenges by using a phased approach to develop and implement a doable and effective adaptation M&E system.

This Country Brief presents Kenya’s experience with the design of its adaptation M&E system. It highlights Kenya’s climate change policy context, priority adaptation actions and principles to provide guidance for the design of Kenya’s adaptation M&E system. The brief concludes by proposing next steps to move forward in a phased approach to design and implementation of the country’s adaptation M&E system.

Key Messages

• The Government of Kenya has taken significant action to align efforts under the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This alignment is driven by the recognition that climate change is a threat to national sustainable development in Kenya, and disaster risk management is a top priority in climate change programming.
• Kenya’s national adaptation plan (NAP) 2015–2030 and nationally determined contribution (NDC) are implemented through the National Climate Change Action Plan, 2018–2022 (NCCAP). The action plan purposefully aligns with the SDGs and disaster risk reduction agendas, demonstrating systemic alignment through a shared vision for climate-resilient development. The NAP and NDC demonstrate systemic alignment because the NAP is the basis for the adaptation information in the NDC.
• Much of the adaptation, disaster risk management and SDGs alignment is through the identification of synergies in key policy and strategy documents. Opportunities exist to enhance this alignment through improved coordination mechanisms, climate risk information sharing, harmonized financing strategies, and coordinated monitoring and evaluation systems.
• The Kenyan experience provides lessons for alignment of the three policy processes, including that NDC implementation plans offer the opportunity to create synergies; multistakeholder adaptation processes offer a starting point for coordination and harmonization; and common reporting using SDG indicators can link the three policy processes.

This case study is part of a series of briefs focusing on alignment of country efforts under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The case studies explore early experiences in efforts to align national-level policy processes under these global agendas, highlighting the context-specific nature of the alignment process. This case study focuses on the efforts of the Government of Kenya to link planning for sustainable development, climate change adaptation and disaster management

Climate change is negatively affecting Kenya’s water systems. The degradation of wetlands, changing rainfall patterns, increased severity of drought and floods have serious implications for food security and human health.

In Kenya, women are the main collectors of water for household needs and are extensively engaged in the agriculture sector which is the most intensive user of freshwater resources through irrigation. Although women interact with water on a daily basis, they tend to contribute less than men to decision making in water resource management. Moreover, women are denied equal access to land, technology, credit, and other critical resources essential to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.

Public policies can challenge socially constructed gender stereotypes and empower women in many sectors, including in the water sector. Through its legislative framework, Kenya has made positive steps towards helping women to be well represented in decision-making structures, formulated requirements for government budgets to support women’s empowerment and made some progress in establishing gender-sensitive monitoring systems. Gender equality is also being considered in relation to climate change through various government mainstreaming efforts.

This research is the result of a desk review of policies and institutions and interviews with stakeholders and experts in Kenya working on issues of water resources management, gender and climate change. These include the Ministry of Water, the National Gender and Equality Commission and the University of Nairobi.

See our similar analysis on Uganda.