CLIMATE PROGRAM COORDINATION
Co-ordinating actors are those with a role in the overall co-ordination of climate change activities in the country (including co-ordinating funding into and within the country), and those responsible for developing a legal framework to guide climate change activities in the country and ensuring the ongoing coordination of activities and actors.
The National Treasury is the central player in terms of the co-ordination of funding. In addition, there are three other important co-ordination actors:
1) The Climate Change Secretariat: Established within the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources to ensure a more co-ordinated approach to combating climate change across ministries. It is further responsible for the technical implementation of the National Climate Change Response Strategy.
2) Climate Change Coordination Unit in the office of the Deputy President (formerly Office of the Prime Minister): Was until April 2013, responsible for the overarching coordination of climate change policy, for providing high level political support to climate change activities in Kenya through support of the Ministry for Environment, Water and Natural Resources, and to assist in harmonising on-going and future activities in order to integrate climate change into other government departments and sectors.
3) The National Climate Change Activities Coordination Committee: Established pursuant to requirements from the UNFCCC. It has a membership of 25, drawn from line ministries, academia and research institutions, non-governmental organisations and the private sector, and fulfils an important role in coordinating climate change activities across government.
During the period 2009-2012, funding for these coordination actors came to US$14.2 million from external sources, primarily in the form of grants, and US$ 34.8 million from the national budget.
As demonstrated above, the coordination and governance of climate change activities in Kenya is spread across different government ministries and agencies, and sometimes overlaps can be seen. For example, the Climate Change Secretariat has a clear mandate under the Kenya Climate Change Action Plan to take the lead in the coordination of climate change activities, including developing a climate change policy and legal framework. Despite this, the Office of the Deputy President was conducting community hearings on the draft national climate change bill, while the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources is also developing a climate policy. These uncoordinated and parallel processes are bound to have different outcomes, demonstrating ineffectiveness in the spending of resources.
