Climate change has adversely impacted on the communities and economies of the people of Makueni County. This is an inventory of adaptation and resilience projects supported by ADA Consortium under devolved climate finance mechanism. In September 2015, the Makueni County Government enacted the Makueni County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) Regulations, committing 1% of its annual development budget to climate change. This was a result of support received from the Adaptation Consortium project for policy legislation to establish devolved climate finance mechanism. The Makueni County Climate Change Regulation, 2015 was formulated under the Public Finance Management Act of 2012, and climate change legislations to provide a mechanism that enables vulnerable communities through their Climate Change structures, access and use climate finance to build their resilience to the changing climate in a more coordinated way. Through the regulations, the Makueni County government has established climate change structures (CCCF Steering Committee, the CCCF Board, the CCCF Planning Committee and Ward Climate Change Planning Committees) to oversee the coordination of devolved climate finance.
In 2016, Kshs. 42,280,830 (28,280,830M contracts’ payment, 4M operations and 10M co-funding by county government) was used in implementation of the prioritized public good investment as prioritized by communities and are currently benefitting 35,925 people. The investments range from the rehabilitation and construction of five sand dams, two earth dams, a water pipeline distribution and a rock catchment structure. The investments have contributed to increased water security and enhancing community resilience to climate change and have brought water closer to communities as they are able to collect and store rainy season run-off water which is made available for longer during the dry season. Communities also reported that the investments have reduced the distances that communities walk in search of water and enhanced food security as more arable land is used for micro irrigation.
Further through ADA project support interventions, 861 Climate Information Intermediaries (CIS) were trained to receive, interpret and disseminate climate information across the county for timely decision making through the support of Kenya Meteorological Department. This has led to reduced agricultural loses and informed decision making. About, 425,830 people have since received climate information
