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

This policy brief by the Stockholm Environment Institute examines the challenges of coordinating climate finance in Kenya. It identifies a complex landscape where technical gaps and political barriers—such as a lack of high-level political will and a discrepancy between the government's focus on multilateral funds and the reality of bilateral funding dominance—hinder the effectiveness of existing coordination mechanisms.

• Kenya's climate finance landscape is characterized by high complexity due to diverse funding sources, overlapping priorities between climate and development assistance, and a devolved governance model that transfers power to 47 county governments.
• Technical barriers to effective coordination include capacity gaps in personnel and financial resources within ministries, a fragmented funding landscape, and non-harmonized standards across different multilateral funds.
• There is a significant misalignment between the Kenyan government's priorities and the actual sources of finance; while the government emphasizes multilateral funds, bilateral donors provided the overwhelming majority of climate finance between 2010 and 2018.
• Political barriers, specifically a lack of interest at the highest levels of government, have stalled the implementation of key legal mandates. For example, the Climate Change Council, chaired by the President, had not met to establish the National Climate Fund as of October 2019.
• Coordination is further hampered by diverging agendas between the government and development partners, with the government perceiving that partners often arrive with fixed mindsets rather than aligning with national objectives.
• Existing tracking systems are incomplete; the National Treasury's climate finance tracking system fails to include funding from NGOs and development partners, creating a gap in transparency.

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} }