Award win highlights collaboration for Kenya climate resilience
A consortium working to support climate change adaptation in Kenya has won a prestigious UK award. The Adaptation Consortium is a partnership of six organisations, including IIED.
Pastoralists in Isiolo County mapping community resources, such as water sources and good grazing areas. This pilot project developed a mechanism that allows local people to identify investments that can build their resilience to climate change. (Photo: James Pattison/IIED)
The Adaptation Consortium was selected as the winner in the "Outstanding International Collaboration" category of the British Expertise International Awards on 14 April, 2015. The awards celebrate international achievements by companies in the UK professional services sector.
The initiative is enabling Kenya's county governments to use climate information and access climate finance in support of community-prioritised adaptation.
The consortium works under the leadership of the Kenyan National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), with technical support provided by Christian Aid, the Met Office (UK), Kenya Meteorological Service and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
"An exemplary approach to collaboration"
The shortlisted projects were selected because they demonstrated "an exemplary approach to collaboration between UK companies and/or with international partners".
The Adaptation Consortium combines the expertise of international organisations and local partners to enable county governments to deliver the project across five arid and semi arid regions of Kenya. Christian Aid is leading work in Kitui and Makueni counties, through its local partner Ukambani Christian Community Services (currently rebranding to Anglican Development Services Eastern).
IIED is leading the consortium's activities in Garissa, Isiolo and Wajir counties, working through three local partners: WomanKind Kenya, Resource Advocacy Programme in Isiolo and Arid Lands Development Focus in Wajir respectively.
Kenya's Meteorological Service and the UK Met Office are providing technical support to the consortium across all the five counties, while NDMA is providing the secretariat for the consortium and ensuring lessons are informing national climate change and finance policy.
The project started in Isiolo County developing a county-level decision-making and funding mechanism to finance investments in public goods, prioritised by local people, to build their resilience to climate change. The success of this initial pilot led to the Adaptation Consortium receiving a three-year grant from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to develop the model across the five counties.
Victor Orindi, climate change advisor at NDMA and coordinator of the Adaptation Consortium, says: "The important thing about the consortium approach is that it provides platforms and a mechanism through which the local community, government and non-government organisations work together to strengthen planning and implementation of resilience building activities as prioritised by the vulnerable groups, such as research feeding directly into policy and practice."
Find out more about this project:
Isiolo County Adaptation Fund: activities, costs, impacts after the 1st investment round, NDMA (2014), Report
