KISUMU, Kenya, Mar 25 – The National Treasury is now set to release a total of Sh7.4 billion to counties as part of the grants towards climate change mitigation program under the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program in the current 23/24 financial year.
The program that is funded by the national and county governments as well as the World Bank and the Governments of Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, and Sweden will help reverse negative effects of climate change.
National Treasury and Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u says the government with support from partners is keen to ensure that climate finance reaches the most vulnerable communities, where the devastating effects are already evident.
Njuguna says the funds will be used to assist counties in developing and implementing tailored climate resilience strategies in response to risks identified by communities in sectors such as agriculture, water, and natural resource management.
“I have seen the program, resources will be provided but remember it is a program for performance, we want results,” he said.
Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya who spoke during the event in Kisumu attended by participating counties from the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) says counties must be able to show tangible results so as to demonstrate the contribution to bettering the country’s ecosystem.
Tuya says the program is unique since it will encompass every Kenyan to participate in combating effects of climate change since it has no boundary.
“We have agreed that we are going to work closely with the 47 counties to scale up the program,” she said.
The Ministry has put in place the requisite policies, strategies and plans to rally all efforts in the country towards the common goal of achieving a low carbon climate resilient development pathway.
Vihiga Governor Wilbur Otichilo who is the Environmental committee chairman at LREB committed that the counties will effectively use the funding to make a major impact in combating ravaging impact of climate change that has now seen many counties affected.
Otichilo says LREB has a number of ecological challenges which stand to be addressed through the program.
“Most of wetlands have been destroyed, reclaimed and as a result of that we are having a lot of challenges in terms of some of our rivers have dried and some in the process of drying,” he said.
Otichilo says Lake Victoria has neither been not spared by the effects of climate change because of various pollution.
The FLLoCA program development objective is to strengthen local resilience to the impact of climate change, natural hazards and other shocks by building local capacity to plan, budget, implement and monitor resilience investments.
