In Kenya, four arid and semi arid counties (Isiolo, Garissa, Kitui, and Wajir) are at an advanced stage of approving their County Climate Change Fund (CCCF) legislation. These new measures are providing local communities with access to climate finance and greater say in how it is spent. 

Makueni County was the first county in Kenya to enact CCCF regulations which will allow them to access climate finance from their own budget, as well as from national and international sources. 

CCCF legislation commits counties to contribute a minimum percentage of their development budget to local adaptation finance, empowering residents through their elected Ward Adaptation Planning Committees (WAPCs) to set priorities on how the 70 per cent of the funds set aside for adaptation will be used.

The CCCF approach, initially piloted in Isiolo and now being replicated in Makueni, Garissa, Kitui and Wajir, makes use of funding from the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID). Communities through the elected Ward Adaptation Planning Committees draw down from the constituted pot to finance investments that builds their resilience to climate change. 

Following Isiolo's example on resilience building

In Isiolo, where the project was first piloted, the fund has helped community members build their resilience to climate change through investing in infrastructure, such as sand dams to trap rainwater, providing a clean and reliable source of water during droughts. 

The fund has also helped strengthen customary resource management institutions – for example "dedhas" among the Borana community – to manage the variable resources, and has been used to renovate a veterinary laboratory to help in faster diagnosing and treatment of livestock diseases, as well as to rehabilitate and fence water pans, which are important wet season water sources

Local climate information is used to inform the nature of investments to ensure they build resilience not only for today's climate variability and shocks, but also for future climate change.  

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