Devolved Climate Finance (DCF) Alliance
An alliance of government and non-government organisations is promoting a mechanism for delivering climate finance to the local level for inclusive climate adaptation.
On the eastern coast of Tanzania, communities are restoring mangrove forests to adapt to rising sea levels and storm surges. Enabling local decision-making and providing climate finance to the local level are key parts of the DCF Alliance's work (Photo: UN Environment Programme, via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
A number of institutions taking part in implementing devolved climate finance (DCF) mechanisms in Mali, Senegal, Kenya and Tanzania have formed an alliance and agreed on a set of shared objectives. This DCF Alliance has three main objectives:
- Advocacy: to build recognition of the value of DCF approaches
- Learning: to share knowledge and skills, and strengthen the evidence base for DCF, and
- Quality: to uphold DCF standards and principles and be accountable for these.
The devolved climate finance mechanism
The members of the alliance have worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Senegal to test and refine a devolved climate finance and planning mechanism.
They have established institutions that enable communities to identify and oversee resilience-building investments, using bespoke planning tools. These tools incorporate valuable local knowledge and recognise the different ways climate change affects women, men and marginalised groups.
The mechanism draws upon climate information services to enhance planning, and on monitoring and evaluation methods to support learning along the way. It is this systematic approach that makes the mechanism innovative and supports the fulfilment of a common vision to get climate finance to where it matters.
Background
The DCF mechanism has been piloted in Kenya since 2011 and was followed by Tanzania in 2014, and Mali and Senegal in 2015. It has channelled more than GBP£6 million of funding to create 284 community-prioritised investments across the four countries.
In February 2019, the institutions taking part in implementing DCF programmes in the four countries met in Nairobi to discuss how to form a community of practice around DCF mechanisms and approaches. The institutions agreed to establish the DCF Alliance to uphold the key premises of DCF, build the capacity of partner institutions, and share emerging evidence and lessons about DCF between partners, countries and external audiences.
Click on the image above to enlarge it
DCF mechanism – lessons from four countries
The DCF Alliance published a paper in September 2019 to share the DCF mechanism as it has been implemented under contextualised conditions in Kenya, Mali, Senegal and Tanzania. The mechanism is an approach for adaptation planning and finance systems targeted at delivering adaptation for all.
The DCF mechanism offers an innovative model for investing in public goods at the local level and building enabling environments for sustainable and climate-resilient livelihoods. It aims to bridge bottom-up, flexible, local and often customary planning with formal planning and budgeting processes, integrated at both national and local levels.
It also seeks to create informed and inclusive governance processes that rebalance the relationship between the state and its citizens, while contributing to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
An example from Kenya
In Kenya, participatory digital resource mapping makes it possible for Indigenous knowledge to be included in planning and policy where for too long it was excluded, showing technology can bring people’s voices to power.
- Read more about this participatory process in this blog by Ibrahim Jarso, a rangelands specialist at MercyCorps; Hausner Wendo, a climate information and resilience planning officer at the Adaptation Consortium; and IIED senior researcher Sam Greene.
Listen
The third episode of the 'People, Planet and Public Finance' podcast, published in April 2020 by IIED and the International Budget Partnership (IBP), focused on DCF as a new mechanism for getting public money to the local level. It featured DCF colleagues Emilie Beauchamp, from IIED, and Bara Gueye, former director of IED Afrique in Senegal.
Get in touch
For any questions, to find out more about the devolved climate finance mechanism, or to get in contact with one of the alliance organisations, email dcfalliance@iied.org. You can also sign up for the DCF Alliance newsletter on request.
Alliance partners
Kenya
Anglican Development Services – East
Kenya Meteorological Department
National Drought Management Authority
Adaptation Consortium Secretariat
Merti Integrated Development Programme
Mali
Senegal
Innovation, Environnement et Développement en Afrique
Tanzania
Institute of Rural Development Planning
Local Government Training Institute
President’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government, Tanzania
Tanzania Natural Resource Forum
Zanzibar Climate Change Alliance
United Nations Capital Development Fund
Cross regional
International Institute for Environment and Development
Resources
Synthesis of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) approaches from the Devolved Climate Finance mechanism: lessons from Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal and Mali, DCF Alliance (2021), Project report | en français
Video presentation: Water development in the drylands (June 2021)
Tanzania
- Lessons from piloting the decentralised climate finance programme, Tanzania, Sam Greene (2019), IIED research report
- Resilience building in Tanzania: learning from experiences of institutional strengthening, Sam Greene (2015), IIED working paper
- Enabling resilience: bridging the planning gap in Tanzania, Sam Greene (2015), IIED briefing paper
- Community and government planning together for climate resilient growth: Issues and opportunities from Longido, Monduli and Ngorongoro Districts, northern Tanzania, Ally Msangi, Joseph Rutabingwa, Victor Kaiza, Antonio Allegretti (2014), IIED research report
- Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in drylands development planning in Tanzania, Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (2013), project material
- Participatory digital map-making in arid areas of Kenya and Tanzania, Tom Rowley (2013), IIED journal article
Kenya
- The county climate change funds in Kenya. Real practice in collaborative climate action (PDF), Victor A. Orindi, Hausner Kitali Wendo, Tucker Landesman, Paola Adriázola, Lisa Strauch (2020), project material
- Integrating climate risk management in county development and resilience planning in Kenya, Hausner Wendo, Florence Crick (2020), ADA consortium policy brief
- Country climate change fund guidelines, ADA consortium (2020), toolkit
- Climate information services toolkit, Emma Visma, Ayub Shaka, Yazan Elhadi, ADA consortium toolkit
- Delivering climate finance at the local level to support adaptation: experiences of County Climate Change Funds in Kenya, Florence Crick, Ced Hesse, Victor Orindi, Mumina Bonaya, Jane Kiiru (2019), IIED working paper
- Climate Finance in Kenya: Review and Future Outlook, Peter Odhengo, Joanes Atela, Paul Steele, Victor Orindi and Fiona Imbali (2019), ADA consortium discussion paper
- Country experiences with decentralised climate finance: early outcomes, Adriana Quevedo, Neil Bird, Aklilu Amsalu, Florence Crick, Achiba Gargule, Omeno Suji (2019), ODI working paper
- Emerging good practices: Denmark and Kenya, community-based adaptation. Global approaches to adaptation planning, Vijeta Rattani, Yangdup Lama (2018), report
- Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: strengthening the evidence and informing policy, Hannah Reid, Victor Orindi (2018), IIED project report
- Improving the impact of climate information services in Kenya’s Arid and SemiArid Lands, Marina Apgar, Dominic Kniveton, Lars Otto Naess, Victor Orindi, Nicholas Abuya, Mumina Bonaya (2017), IDS policy briefing
- Kenya’s county climate change funds, Deborah Murphy, Victor Orindi (2017), NAP Global Network country brief
- Democratising climate finance at local levels, Victor Orindi, Yazan Elhadi, Ced Hesse (2017), book chapter, Edward Elgar Publishing
- Subnational finance allocation: Comparing decentralized and devolved political institutions in Kenya, Sam Barrett (2016), MIT Press
- Resilience assessment toolkit, ADA consortium (2016), toolkit
- Supporting local climate adaptation planning and implementation through local governance and decentralised finance provision, Virinder Sharma, Victor Orindi, Ced Hesse, James Pattison, Simon Anderson (2014), article in Development in Practice
BRACED DCF – Mali and Senegal
- The Decentralising Climate Funds Mechanism: principles and operational arrangements in Mali and Senegal (PDF)
- Social inclusion in the Decentralised Climate Funds process in Mali and Senegal (PDF)
- Decentralising climate adaptation funds in Mali (PDF)
- Decentralising climate adaptation funds in Senega (PDF)
- Tools for resilience assessments and climate-sensitive local planning (PDF)
- Assessing resilience: reconciling community knowledge with government planning (PDF)
- Resilience from the ground up: how are local resilience perceptions and global frameworks aligned?
- A rough guide to the Green Climate Fund: Enhancing Direct Access in Mali (PDF)
- Incorporating tools to measure resilience into Mali’s local planning systems (PDF)
- Family portraits: a tool for understanding local adaptation strategies (PDF)
- Economic valuation of benefits from adaptation investments (PDF)
- Case studies: Building resilience at the local level: community-prioritised investments in adaptation (PDF)
Contact
DCF Alliance secretariat (dcfalliance@iied.org)
