Developing countries require significant financing to support the development and implementation of their national adaptation plan (NAP) processes.

This financing is expected to come from a mix of sources, including domestic public finance, international public finance and private finance.

Building on an earlier overview brief on domestic public finance options for NAP processes, this NAP Global Network sNAPshot takes a closer look at five county governments in Kenya—Garissa, Isiolo, Kitui, Makueni and Waji. These counties have established County Climate Change Funds (CCCFs) that identify, prioritize and finance investments to reduce climate risk and achieve adaptation priorities.

In recent years, Kenya has achieved economic and human development gains, and adopted a new constitution that decentralizes greater decision-making authority to its 47 counties.

As explored in this report, climate change presents a test to this progress. The country continues to be challenged by water scarcity, high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, an expanding population, gender inequalities and high levels of multidimensional poverty. These factors contribute to Kenya’s vulnerability to climate change, particularly within its extensive arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). Kenya has recognized its vulnerability to climate change and is establishing a comprehensive policy framework to guide and help implement its response to climate change. This includes creating a climate change bill, finalizing both its National Climate Change Response Strategy and its National Climate Change Action Plan (2013–2017), and establishing a National Climate Change Secretariat. In collaboration with its development partners, Kenya is also implementing adaptation actions that reduce the vulnerability of its agriculture, livestock and water sectors, among others, particularly in its ASALs. Yet there remains significant need to increase attention to climate change across key sectors, such as tourism and infrastructure, and strengthen the capacity of county governments to realize the benefits of devolution and fulfill their role in implementing adaptation actions. Greater efforts are also needed to strengthen knowledge development and exchange among communities of practice. These issues are explored within this report, which is one of a series of country reviews prepared by IISD to provide the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) with a snapshot of adaptation action in its countries of engagement.

As part of its green economy work, UNEP is conducting green economy assessments for a number of countries.

IISD (Jason Dion) contributed to the underlying analysis and recommendations of a study that looked at the possibility of shifting to a green economy in Kenya. This work included considering the macroeconomic profile of the country and the overarching challenges it faces, looking at the existing policy landscape in the country and analyzing particular sectors. The sectors of agriculture, energy, manufacturing and transport were determined to be of particular importance to the country, and recommendations for the greening of each of these four sectors—as well as recommendations to create strong enabling conditions—are provided.

Climate-related risks adversely affect the lives and livelihoods of the people of Kenya and threaten the country's near- and long-term development prospects.

To analyze how Kenya's capacity to prevent, manage and recover from disasters and adapt to the impacts of climate change could be strengthened, this desk-based review summarizes:

• Kenya's vulnerability to climate risks given current progress toward meeting its defined development goals.
• Kenya's exposure to climate risks historically, and how these risks might change in the future given available climate change projections.
• The degree to which key sectors of the Kenyan economy and particular groups are vulnerable to existing and future climate risks.
• Kenya's current capacity to address climate risks given its policy framework, institutional arrangements, information availability, ongoing projects and capacity needs.

The paper concludes by providing sector-specific recommendations to address knowledge gaps and general recommendations to strengthen response capacity.

This paper was produced as part of the Climate Risk Management Technical Assistance Support Project funded by the United Nations Development Programme.

Despite its declining prevalence in most parts of Kenya, malaria infection continues to be the main cause of disease and mortality in the country.

It is also currently re-emerging in the western highlands due to a combination of climatic and non-climatic factors. The population of the Kenyan Western highlands is highly vulnerable to malaria epidemics. If the existing socioeconomic characteristics (such as deforestation and other land-use changes, high levels of poverty, and misaligned health interventions) remain constant, the projected rise in temperature and changes in rainfall patterns may exacerbate existing health risks and create new ones. In addition to strengthening the health system and improving collaboration among actors engaged in malaria control and climate risks, two actions should be prioritized for malaria control in the face of climate variability and change: 1) improving the monitoring and prediction of malaria epidemics in all regions by taking into account climate, health and socio-economic data, as well as by combining local knowledge of weather change with scientific knowledge, and 2) promoting a switch from top-down, universal interventions focused on technical and financial responses to more bottom-up, targeted interventions adapted to local needs and specificities that account for socio-cultural barriers.

The case study Enhancing resiliency to drought in Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands provides an overview of a pilot project undertaken in Kenya between 2005 and 2010 that linked together the provision of downscaled weather forecasts, improved agricultural practices, increased access to reliable water sources and the promotion of a revolving microcredit system for women's self-help groups.

Implemented by the Nairobi-based Centre for Science and Technology Innovations in collaboration with the Arid Lands Resource Management Project, the pilot project responded to the fact that drought associated with climate change and climate variability have become more pronounced in Kenya in recent years, adversely affecting the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in its arid and semi-arid lands.

The case study is one of six produced by the Canadian Coalition on Climate Change and Development (C4D) in 2010, along with an accompanying synopsis of lessons learned, as part of its Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from Canadian NGOs initiative. Drawing directly from the experience of Canadian NGOs and their partners in the global South, the case studies highlight climate change impacts and how local communities are reducing their vulnerability to changing conditions. Financial support for this initiative was provided by the International Development Research Centre.

In 2013 an epilogue to this case study was prepared by Cynthia Awuor. The epilogue highlights how activities that build resilience to climate change at the field level continued after the ACCESA pilot project ended in 2010. It was one of 10 new and updated case studies prepared by C4D in partnership with Canadian NGOs.

The Kenya case study profiles one of three pilot projects being implemented as part of the regional project, Integrating Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change into Sustainable Development Policy Planning and Implementation in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACCESA). This project was implemented by the International Institute for Sustainable Development on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme. Funding for this project was provided by the Global Environment Facility and the governments of the Netherlands and Norway, and supported by in-kind contributions from the governments of Germany and Kenya. Further information is available here.

This report is based on the findings of research carried out in two community wildlife conservancies in northern Kenya earlier this year.

It illustrates how climate change is affecting the distribution and prevalence of natural resources in Kenya, but makes it clear that this is not the only factor contributing to resource scarcity. It emphasizes that competition for natural resources is a key driver of conflict, but also that it interacts with a range of other factors and that violence is not inevitable. The research found that local governance mechanisms, especially natural resource management mechanisms, provided by community conservancies in the region, are crucial in determining whether competition over scarce resources will turn into violent conflict.