The national Treasury & WFP partner to boost climate action in Kenya
Through this partnership, the WFP will support the scaling-up of community-led climate-sensitive actions, invest in increasing the capacities of national and county institutions to programme, finance, and implement climate change initiatives, and while rebuilding the livelihoods of families that have lost their incomes.
Speaking during the signing of the agreement, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury & Planning, Hon. Ambassador Ukur Yatani, said:
“The impact of climate change on Kenya’s economic development and growth is already significant, with climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods estimated to have an economic liability of between 2 to 2.8% of GDP annually.
This liability is driven by Kenya’s climate-sensitive economy, with sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, tourism and wildlife sectors most-affected and compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last year.
“In Kenya, the economic impact of climate change and its effect on development and growth – are already significant. Climate-related disasters, such as droughts and floods, are estimated to create an economic liability of 2-2.8% of its gross domestic product every year. This is largely due to the climate-sensitive nature of Kenya’s economy with the agriculture, water, energy, tourism, and wildlife sectors being of utmost importance. And, in the past year, these challenges have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Hon. (Amb.) Ukur Yatani, Cabinet Secretary for The National Treasury and Planning.
Kenya has over time put in place strategic interventions in collaboration with development agencies, to among other things, track and report climate relevant interventions and expenditures, to facility better co-ordination and effectiveness in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, while promoting greater transparency in line with the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.”
During the signing ceremony, WFP Kenya Country Director, Ms Lauren Landis, remarked:
“Climate change delivers more frequent and intense droughts and other extreme weather, which disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable people. These events can quickly spiral into full-blown food and nutrition crises, with the global risk of hunger and malnutrition estimated to increase by upto 20% by 2050.
“Eradicating hunger requires bold efforts to improve the ability of people to prepare, respond and recover, by investing in anticipatory action to understand the risks before a crisis arises and in long-term resilience-building activities, improving market access and rehabilitating land.
Our partnership with the National Treasury is aimed at jointly finding lasting solutions. By working together, we are confident that we will save lives, spend less on humanitarian assistance and set-up Kenyan communities for a more sustainable and food-secure future.”
The G-FLLoCA programme supports Kenya’s transition to a low carbon and climate-resilient development pathway, by strengthening local resilience to the impact of climate change, natural hazards, and other shocks and stressors, through capacity-building in planning, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of resilience investments in partnership with County Governments and communities.
Climate change poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity – the backbone of Kenya’s economy. If left unchecked, climate change-related shocks will cause untold disruptions to the food and nutrition security of the country, with those already disadvantaged bearing the biggest brunt.
The new partnership between the National Treasury & Planning and WFP places the power and tools to predict, prepare and respond to climatic shocks in the hands of the most vulnerable communities with county governments playing a central role.
About the United Nations World Food Programme
WFP is already working in 14 arid and semi-arid counties to build the resilience of people and lessen the effects of extreme weather events on sources of livelihoods.
Globally, extreme weather events have more than doubled in the last thirty years; 22 million people are displaced annually due to climate-related disasters, and nearly a quarter of the world's farmable lands are degraded, destroying land and crops.
In Kenya, more than 30 percent of the population lives in the arid and semi-arid areas, which suffer cyclical droughts and flooding.
WFP has developed deep expertise in analysing climate risks and understanding potential impacts on food systems, to inform national policy and planning. WFP works with partners to encourage anticipatory action, through technologies, services and tools that better equip communities to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The collaboration with the National Treasury will leverage WFP’s footprint in the most affected areas and build on the strong engagement already in existence with county governments and local communities.
The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.
About G-FLLoCA
The G-FLLoCA program is aimed at increasing access to green technologies to deliver low carbon climate resilient development at national and local levels as well as attract new investments in support of climate resilience.
Through this Program, the Government aims at bettering the policy and regulatory framework for climate change; enable national and county institutions to access climate finance and accelerate local financing, and give local communities the power to prioritize, plan, budget, implement, monitor and report on climate change actions.
Media Contacts
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