WOTE, Kenya, Nov 26 – Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana has called for timely locally-led climate action to cushion rural communities from effects of harsh climatic conditions.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 7th Devolution Conference in Wote, Makueni County, Prof Kibwana said he is confident the inaugural sub-national climate summit will give fresh impetus to county-led climate adaptation efforts.
“The discussion about funding and particularly how we fund local communities to act on the climate crisis and climate emergencies is critical. We need real action,” he told Capital News on Thursday.
Governor Kibwana welcomed interventions under the World Bank-funded Financing Locally–Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program, a five-year initiative being rolled out through the National Treasury, saying the project will go a long way in complementing adaptation efforts spearheaded by counties.
“Resources must come expeditiously and they must be used for intended purposes without unnecessary bureaucracy,” he said.
Under FLLoCA, over 32 counties have enacted climate change laws, established climate change funds, dedicated a county executive committee member in charge of climate change, according to the National Treasury.
Albert Mwenda, Acting Director General of Budget in the National Treasury’s Directorate of Fiscal and Economic Affairs, told the conference on Tuesday that the counties had also established climate finance and change units and dedicated an average of 2 per cent of their development budgets to support resilience.
Governor Kibwana noted resource mobilization will be critical in ensuring climate-related risks arising from erratic weather patterns are mitigated before they evolve into crises.
“We’re perhaps the first county to develop climate change regulations regarding funding. We dedicate a percentage of our development budgets to a climate fund. As we talk, we have 377 clusters made up of 10 villages each which receive at least Sh500,000 to lead adaptive measures within these cluster,” he said.
In Makueni, Governor Kibwana explained that his administration had established ward-level climate committees in all the 30 local administrative units to lead interventions geared at ensuring sustainable utilization of natural resources.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the sand issue for instance by preventing rampant sand harvesting. This particular intervention is actually internationally recognized,” Prof Kibwana noted.
He welcomed panel discussions at the conference that sought solutions to climate-linked challenges while expressing confidence in the implementation of outcomes agreed upon at the close of the 3-day conference.
“I could talk with a large measure of confidence because about 33 of us (counties) have already done most of the policy and legal framework as well as some nascent funding mechanism to work on climate change,” Governor Kibwana noted.
The Council of Governors was expected to issue a joint communique on Friday detailing outcomes generated from panel discussions which featured debates on climate change and risk management, sustainable urbanization, food systems, sustainable natural resources management, the impact of climate change on health in counties, and prevention and management of climate change instigated conflicts.
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