Kenya’s Monitoring and Evaluation of Adaptation: Simplified, integrated, multilevel

Kenya has demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing climate change challenges. The Climate Change Act 2016, the first legislation in Africa dedicated to climate change, sets out the legal basis for mainstreaming climate change considerations and actions into sector functions. The Climate Change Act, 2016, requires the development of a National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) every five years that sets out measures and mechanisms to guide the country toward the achievement of low-carbon, climate-resilient development.

NCCAP 2018–2022 sets out priority actions to deliver on the Kenya National Adaptation Plan 2015–2030 (NAP) for the five-year period. The NAP establishes high-level adaptation actions in 20 planning sectors over a 15-year time frame and provides guidance to national and country governments on priority actions in the short, medium and long terms. NAP sectors and actions are aligned with the adaptation priorities in Kenya’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which establishes adaptation as Kenya’s priority response to climate change.

Monitoring and evaluation systems to track adaptation outcomes are a crucial element of the NAP process. However, these systems are often complex to design and implement. Challenges include measuring results amid uncertainty, limited baseline information and data availability, and multiple scales of interventions, among others. Kenya is working to overcome these challenges by using a phased approach to develop and implement a doable and effective adaptation M&E system.

The first steps will establish a simple, cost-effective M&E system, with subsequent steps allowing the system to grow in complexity and reach over time. The next steps are:

Establish governance and coordination mechanisms for adaptation M&E
Identify measurable adaptation indicators and harmonize with existing M&E processes
Establish guidelines and build capacity for adaptation reporting
Build on established adaptation M&E systems at the county level
Consider linking the adaptation M&E system with national and county M&E systems