Aligning National Climate Policy and Sustainable Development in Urban Kenya: Presentation of findings

Event Type
Workshop

Location / Date
Nairobi, 25.04.2017

German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), African center for technology studies (ACTS)

The goals and objectives of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) create profound challenges for the development and implementation of coherent policies in all countries and at all levels of governance.

Kenya has demonstrated leadership and ambition in both multilateral processes and now aspires to live up to their transformative objectives domestically. Indeed, its “Vision 2030” and recent climate change legislation, including the 2016 Climate Change Act, provide for an elaborate framework that should facilitate the harnessing of synergies between climate policy and sustainable development.

Yet, Kenya’s dynamically growing cities are facing particular challenges in mainstreaming climate policy objectives with local development needs, especially regarding the provision of adequate infrastructures and access to basic services such as clean water and sustainable energy, all of which are priorities under “Vision 2030” and key targets of designated Sustainable Development Goals.

The research project “Aligning national climate policy and sustainable development in urban Kenya” has explored these challenges over the last couple of months. Six researchers from the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)’s postgraduate training programme – in close cooperation with research partners from the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)’s Climate Resilient Economies Program – conducted in-depth empirical case studies of Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru. They focussed on these three urban hubs of regional development to investigate how climate policies are mainstreamed into water and energy sectors, and to identify what helps or hinders effective climate policy integration at city level.

The purpose of this workshop is to present the project’s preliminary findings and to discuss relevant insights that may help to advance a more effective integration of climate policies to the benefit of urban development objectives and towards a climate-compatible implementation of “Vision 2030” at all levels of government. The exchange with the expert audience should help to further honing the conclusions and recommendations of the project, which will publish its results later this year.

Agenda
Registration & light lunch reception

Words of Welcome

• Klaus Liebig, Director, KfW Office Kenya

Welcome & Introduction

• Cosmas Ochieng (ACTS)
• Steffen Bauer(DIE)

Presentation of research findings
“Climate policy integration and sustainable urban development: insights from Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru”

DIE postgraduate research team

• Oliver Ditthardt
• Janin Fischer
• Thea Guettler
• Mona Heiss
• Hannah Schmelzer
• Freya von Negenborn

Q&A
Facilitator

• Cosmas Ochieng

Roundtable discussion
Implications for Kenyan policy and development cooperation

• Pacifica Ogola, Director Climate Change, Ministry of Environment & Mineral Resources, Kenya (tbc)
• Hildegard Lingnau, Head of Development Cooperation, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to Kenya
• Jane Mutune, Acting Deputy Director, Wangari Maathai Institute, University of Nairobi
• Susy Wandera, SusWatch-Kenya, Nairobi

Facilitator

• Steffen Bauer (DIE)

Wrap up & closing remarks

• Winnie Khaemba (ACTS)

Tea & coffee reception

Hinweis

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