Workshop in Kenya: Accessing finance for community-led low-emission development projects

After four years of supporting multi-level climate governance and community-driven local climate action, the V-LED project will conclude operations in Kenya with two workshops on November 7 and 8 in Kwale County. 

Kenya is reaching for ambitious climate targets. Initiatives to foster low-emission development at the subnational level are multiplying and offer great potential to achieve these goals. During the last four years, the V-LED project (Vertical Integration and Learning for Low-Emission Development) implemented strategies to strengthen policy coordination and to network local actors with stakeholders across sectors and national and sub-national governing levels in Kenya. The project additionally works in South Africa, the Philippines and Vietnam. The upcoming workshops on November 7 and 8 represents the close of the project in Kenya, and partners and participants from national and county governments will gather with civil society, representatives from community-based organisations and private sector stakeholders to reflect upon lessons learned after four years of operations.

Strengthen Policy Coordination Processes and Networks

The first workshop will address possibilities to finance community-led climate-resilient projects. In partnership with the Kwale County Natural Resource Network, V-LED will match prospective investors from the private sector and donor communities with community projects that promote local climate action. Three community-based organisations that have received training and coaching from V-LED over the past 2 years will present their bankable projects to donor representatives. The second workshop will reflect on the V-LED project’s impacts after four years and highlight observed good practices. Each workshop will host about 30 participants from national and county governments, local community organisations and private sector stakeholders.

Launch of the “V-LED Kenya Country Study”

The project also conducted research on multi-level governance for local climate action and low-emission development in Kenya. The Kenya Country Study on multi-level climate governance will be launched at the workshop. Two additional publications will also be launched: the V-LED Devolving Climate Change Guide, which explains Kenyan governance devolution through the lens of climate change, and the V-LED Local Climate Action Toolkit, written for community-based organisations.

In the first week of December, V-LED will host a lessons learned event in Asia, where the project will launch the Country Studies for Vietnam and the Philippines. The event for South Africa will take place in January in Berlin, together with the publication of the project’s synthesis report.

adelphi is leading this four-year-project along with an international consortium of key organizations driving local action on the political agenda. The project partners, besides ILEG, are the UN Habitat/Regional office for Asia and the Pacific in Philippines and Vietnam, Sustainable Energy Africa and ONE World Sustainable Investments in South Africa. The V-LED project started in June 2015 and will conclude in 2019. It is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).