Blog Launch of the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Multi Stakeholder Platform strategic plan, Kenya CSA M&E framework and CSA training manuals

Agriculture in Kenya

With a population of more than 50 million people, Kenya’s economy is highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture, which is particularly susceptible to climate variability and change. Increasing inter-seasonal variability and an increase in the magnitude and frequency of climatic extremes such as droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures have impacted agriculture production and livelihoods negatively over the last few decades.

Since 1960, the country has experienced a general warming trend, which is expected to continue. Overall annual rainfall remains low, the long rains have been continuously declining in recent decades, and the proportion of rainfall that occurs from heavy events is expected to increase. The frequency of rainfall events causing floods has increased in East Africa from an average of less than three events per year in the 1980s to over seven events per year in the 1990s and 10 events per year from 2000 to 2006. Droughts have intensified in frequency, severity, and coverage over the past few decades. Sea level rise along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast is projected to be greater than the global average of 26 to 82 cm by the 2080s, due to increased melting of land-based ice such as glaciers and ice sheets and thermal expansion, caused by ocean warming.

Kenyans are feeling the impacts of climate change. Extreme weather events have resulted to loss of lives, diminished livelihoods, reduced crop and livestock production, and damaged infrastructure, among other adverse impacts. An example is the torrential rains and severe flooding from March to May 2018 that devastated communities that were already struggling to recover from a prolonged drought.

Subsequently, it is incumbent upon the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives (MoALFC), to urgently take appropriate climate actions through interventions that support the agriculture sector to be more resilient to climate change while minimizing its greenhouse gas emissions. These impacts of climate change hinder economic growth and pose serious threats to realization of Kenya’s sustainable development goals.

ICAT is an unincorporated multi-stakeholder partnership and is steered by a Donor Steering Committee. ICAT focuses on increasing the overall transparency capacities of countries, including the capacity to assess the contribution of climate policies and actions on countries’ development objectives, and providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence-based policy-making. ICAT’s innovative approach is to integrate these two aspects.

In the Kenyan Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and as one of the key priority areas in the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP 2018-2022), the agricultural sector has committed to implement Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) measures to meet its part of national obligations of addressing climate change. To actualize this objective, the sector developed the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy (KCSAS) 2017-2026 and the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Implementation Framework (KCSAIF) 2018-2027, which outline modalities through which the sector is to implement climate-smart agriculture.

Kenya is the latest of five countries to have joined the ICAT-Adaptation Project. In Kenya, the project is implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives. The primary goal of ICAT in Kenya is to strengthen the capacity to implement adaptation actions effectively and efficiently, while monitoring, and reporting on climate action in the agriculture sector in a transparent manner.

The ICAT Approach

The ICAT Approach

Realizing the complexity and the intertwined nature of climate change and agricultural development, the KCSAS and KCSAIF have emphasized the need for enhanced synergy and efficiency in CSA implementation, monitoring and reporting. On this basis, therefore, the MOALFC through its Climate Change Unit (CCU) together with other stakeholders set up a Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP) for CSA at national level. The aim of the MSP is to promote an inclusive institutional framework for coordination and harmonization of CSA implementation while fostering an enabling environment for the realization of CSA objectives.

To increase stakeholder capacity, ICAT project in Kenya has successfully engaged a broad set of national and subnational stakeholders with technical expertise to provide essential information and co-develop tools related to current national and global policy frameworks. 
Among the outcomes, are a national climate smart agriculture monitoring and evaluation Framework for Implementation, as well as tools and activities for adaptation reporting identified and analyzed for sectoral needs. Additionally, the CSA MSP stakeholders' capacity to monitor and report on their climate actions at the national and county levels has been strengthened, as has the multi-level and multi-sectoral coordination of reporting climate adaptation in the agriculture sector via the MSP structure.

Through these engagements, national and subnational stakeholders have received training on climate change adaptation reporting including:

  • Global and national legal and policy requirements for reporting climate change actions in agriculture 
  • Climate-smart agriculture concepts, for implementation of climate-related agricultural projects at regional level.
  • Climate-smart agriculture approaches with a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder approach to implementation.
  • Enhanced capacity of the CSA MSP stakeholders at both national and county level in monitoring and reporting their Climate actions
  • Strengthened multi-level and multi sectoral coordination of reporting climate adaptation in the agriculture sector through the MSP structure

Based on the foregoing and to celebrate the milestone achievements of the National CSA MSP and pave way for implementation and reporting, a high-level event to launch the CSA MSP Strategic Plan, the Kenya CSA Monitoring and Evaluation Framework as well as the CSA training manuals has been organized to take place at Safari Park Hotel on 15th March 2022 starting at 9.00 am.

The agenda consists of:

  1. Exhibitions/displays of CSA initiatives implemented by MSP members in various parts of the country 
  2. Showcasing of the CSA M&E online reporting tool developed by the MSP 
  3. Launch of the CSA MSP Strategic Plan, the CSA M&E Framework and the CSA training manuals for the potatoes, green grams and beans value chains 
  4. High level speeches from the organizations supporting the MSP with a keynote speech by the Cabinet Secretary MOALFC

For more information on the project please contact Caroline Mwongera.