Coordinating climate finance in Kenya: technical measures or political change?

The document examines the complex climate finance landscape in Kenya, where a wide range of funding sources and a devolved governance model create coordination challenges. It identifies technical barriers such as capacity gaps and fragmented funding, alongside political barriers including a lack of high-level political will and diverging agendas between the government and development partners. The authors argue that while technical measures are necessary, they are insufficient without addressing underlying political priorities and shifting the government's focus to better include bilateral donors, who provide the majority of the country's climate finance.

• Kenya's climate finance landscape is characterized by high complexity due to overlapping funding priorities, diverse sources, and a lack of alignment between climate finance and general development assistance.
• Technical barriers to effective coordination include significant capacity gaps in personnel and financial resources within ministries and agencies, as well as a lack of expertise and awareness at the sub-national level regarding County Climate Change Funds.
• There is a significant discrepancy between the actual sources of climate finance and the Kenyan government's priorities; while bilateral donors provide the vast majority of funding, the government prioritizes attracting multilateral finance.
• Coordination is further hampered by a fragmented landscape where different multilateral funds have non-harmonized rules, procedures, and governance systems.
• Political barriers include a lack of a clear, shared definition of 'climate finance' and a lack of political will at the highest levels of government, evidenced by the Climate Change Council's failure to meet and establish the National Climate Fund.
• Diverging agendas between the Kenyan government and development partners lead to parallel coordination processes with limited alignment, as government bodies often perceive partners as having fixed, separate objectives.

APA

Dzebo, A., Shawoo, Z., & Kwamboka, E. (2020). Coordinating climate finance in Kenya: technical measures or political change? Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/coordinating-climate-finance-in-kenya.pdf

Chicago

Dzebo, Adis, Zoha Shawoo, and Elvine Kwamboka. Coordinating climate finance in Kenya: technical measures or political change? Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/coordinating-climate-finance-in-kenya.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dzebo |first1=Adis |last2=Shawoo |first2=Zoha |last3=Kwamboka |first3=Elvine |title=Coordinating climate finance in Kenya: technical measures or political change? |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/coordinating-climate-finance-in-kenya.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dzebo2020coordinating, author = {Dzebo, Adis and Shawoo, Zoha and Kwamboka, Elvine}, title = {{Coordinating climate finance in Kenya: technical measures or political change?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/coordinating-climate-finance-in-kenya.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }