INFLUENCING THE FLOW OF CLIMATE CHANGE FINANCES TO COMMUNITIES

With support from Hivos East Africa under the Voices for Just Climate Action Programme, PACIDA in partnership with Juhudi Mashinani, a non-profit organisation and Thinkout Africa, a communication and storytelling company, has been implementing a climate change project in Marsabit County.

The purpose of the project is to strengthen adaptation and resilience of communities from Marsabit County to climate change by rallying them to form and strengthen structures envisaged in the Marsabit County Climate Fund Act 2020 and therefore influence climate change funds flow to the wards.

Having established ten Ward Climate Change Committees that, the PACIDA Consortium has facilitated to draft Ward Development Plans (WDPs), the project is specifically undertaking the following:

1.  Building the capacity of Ward Climate Change Fund Committees
2.  Seeking to influence the budgeting for the Ward Development Plans as envisaged in the Marsabit Climate Finance Framework that the Consortium helped draft in the first phase of the project.
3. Seeking to influence long-term planning for climate change projects in the Marsabit County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) as well as develop the County Climate Action Plan 2022 – 2027.
4. As the project builds the capacity of Ward Committees and indeed as the committees influence the County Government of Marsabit budget, the CIDP and the County Climate Action Plan development the partners will utilise mainstream, community and social media platforms to bolster the visibility of public participation of these committees.

Since it is envisaged that climate change funds will flow to the wards within the project period, the importance of accountability cannot be gainsaid. In this regard, the media and social media platforms will be pivotal accountability pillars. The project targets to establish a network of Marsabit Climate Reporters Network (MACREN) – marshalling the bloggers and journalists trained in phase one of the project to establish a network.

This will be realised through facilitation of the formation of the network, capacity building and boot camps.

Big Innovation:
The PACIDA consortium has come up with an accountability tool known as ‘Mulika Tracking Tool’ that tracks funds allocated to climate change by the County Government of Marsabit. The tool is constantly updated and widely distributed with stakeholders who matter: the community,