By: Evan Girvetz Climate Change and Soils e.girvetz@cgiar.org
The Challenge
Kenya is highly vulnerable to serious threats posed by climate change and highly dependent on climate-sensitive natural resources. Given the extent of uncertainties in understanding how different systems, departments, and crops would likely be affected, there is a need for policymakers to draft appropriate adaptation plans with reliable information on climate change. But the financial burden on drafting and implementing these plans is out of reach for many developing countries.
CIAT’s Role
CIAT-CCAFS past work in Kenya, including creating a national climate-smart agriculture (CSA) plan, served as the catalyst for a Kenyan government partnership and World Bank investment. In 2015 CIAT-ICRAF-CCAFS, with World Bank support, developed the CSA country profile for Kenya to systematically assess the state of CSA nationally, including agricultural practices that deliver higher productivity, improved resilience, and lower emissions. CIAT had also prepared 8 of the 24 County Risk Profiles under the Kenya Adaptation to Climate Change in Arid Lands Project (KACCAL). The World Bank used the national and county plans as the technical basis to develop the Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP).
Other inputs cited in the KCSAP proposal for developing innovative business models that consider value chain impacts and link smallholder farmers to markets include CIAT Big Data Site-Specific Recommendations and the CIAT LINK methodology (described in another 2016 outcome story). The World Bank cited the CIAT-CCAFS CSA Prioritization Framework (CSA 101 Website) as the first key design principle for the project, and determined country risk profiles as integral and necessary.
What has changed?
With the World Bank investment, Kenya can officially move forward in creating CSA plans and collaboration on this project deepens the relationship between CIAT and the Kenyan government. The Kenyan government requested CIAT to prepare 16 additional profiles for the remaining counties in the KCSAP project. The government also requested adding TIMPS (Agricultural Technologies, Innovations, Management Practices) prioritization; these techniques could include water management, animal health, market access, and other strategies. The KCSAP project assesses the institutional, policy, and financial entry points for taking CSA to scale in the participating counties. Recognizing the strategic advantage of preparing CSA plans, the World Bank and Kenyan government required CSA profiles from each of the counties in order to participate in the project.
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