NAIROBI, Kenya – The Council of Governors (CoG) has launched a new manual to guide the standardised training of Ward Climate Change Planning Committees (WCCPCs), a major step toward strengthening grassroots climate action.
The trainer’s guide was developed by the ADA Consortium, with financial and technical support from WWF-Kenya’s Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) program.
Why it matters: This manual harmonises WCCPC training across all 47 counties, ensuring consistency, building local capacity, and closing gaps caused by previously fragmented training efforts.
At the launch in Naivasha, Dr. Wilbur Ottichilo, Governor of Vihiga County, praised the ADA Consortium’s work.
“Intergovernmental collaboration is not an option—it is the foundation upon which we will build sustainable and resilient communities.” Said Dr. Ottichilo.
County directors in charge of climate change will now be socialised with the manual for rollout.
This comes when the need for greater locally driven climate action intensifies as we approach COP30 in Brazil.
Why the FLLoCA Program matters to Kenya
Global and national policies to channel climate financing and decision-making power to scale up these techniques have not kept up with the decades-long accumulation of knowledge on the benefits of disaster risk management and local and community-based adaptation.
Kenya is attempting to change that with the launch of the Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) Program.
This initiative, which was created with assistance from the World Bank, the governments of Denmark and Sweden, and others, creates the first national-scale model of devolved climate finance and helps the Kenyan government implement its ambitious climate agenda on a larger scale.
Since local communities are more familiar with the situation and what is required to bring about change, the program acknowledges that locally led adaptation may be more successful than top-down initiatives.
It draws on the frameworks and institutions established by Kenya’s devolution initiatives and applies the ideas of meaningful citizen participation in climate decision-making.
To make sure that support for climate resilience reaches those most at risk, such as women, youth, people with disabilities, the elderly, and other historically marginalised groups, 90% of the FLLoCA program is being used at the county and community levels.
With 100% climate co-benefits, this program encourages collaborations between local governments and their constituents to evaluate climate threats and find locally relevant, socially inclusive solutions.
FLLoCA adopts a broad definition of resilience and acknowledges that communities are knowledgeable about and skilled at handling several threats at once.
What is the Kenya Accountable Devolution Program
Investments might, for instance, concentrate on initiatives that promote livelihood diversification or multi-risk readiness at the community level.
Investments could also support natural resource management, restore degraded areas, encourage early warning systems, or encourage water conservation and more efficient use of water, depending on what communities prioritise.
The initiative expands upon the Kenya Accountable Devolution Program, a World Bank-funded pilot program, as well as the Adaptation (ADA) Consortium’s County Climate Change Funds (CCCF).
Through a very collaborative approach, the CCCF pilots funded about 100 public good improvements that were prioritised by the communities.
These investments reached over 500,000 beneficiaries, the majority of whom were women, throughout the five counties of Isiolo, Garissa, Kitui, Makueni, and Wajir.
Among other things, investments were made in water harvesting, storage, and distribution systems; sanitation facilities; governance initiatives; borehole restoration; and solar equipment installation.
