Kenya: Fortifying Institutional, Planning and Policy Frameworks to Manage Climate and Disaster Risk

Context and Objectives

In June 2018, the World Bank approved a US$200 million Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Development Policy Financing with a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat-DDO) for Kenya. A Cat-DDO is a contingent credit line that provides immediate liquidity to a country in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The Cat-DDO for Kenya marked the first time an IDA (International Development Association; the part of the World Bank that supports the world’s poorest countries) country received a Cat-DDO.

This ACP-EU NDRR project supported activities that promoted the achievement of targets linked to three of the seven Prior Actions that were defined for the Cat-DDO which were designed to strengthen Kenya's framework for DRM. 

Main Activities and Results

Activities implemented under each of the grant’s components achieved the following results: 

Component 1: A stakeholder forum was organized to collect information from government agencies, the European Union and World Bank, the private sector, civil society organizations, and academics, with the aim of updating the County Multi-Hazard Risk Profile methodology. This helped inform the production of more robust and technically rigorous information at the subnational level of government, as well as finalize the methodology for these risk profiles.

Component 2: The National Emergency Response Plan was revised, two main areas were identified as essential to this revision, namely:

• To be in tandem with the 2010 Constitution of Kenya and the 2017 National DRM policy, which emphasize the devolved nature of government services.
• To be aligned with the 2015 Sendai National Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

Component 3: The grant supported the advancement of a legal framework for DRM, known as the DRM Policy and Act, through the National Assembly. 

Component 4: As a result of the grant’s technical assistance, the government updated the “Built Environment Bill”, including adding provisions to ensure that disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and water and energy efficiency are including in building codes. The government also added provisions for the creation of safer housing guidelines.

Partnerships and Coordination

This project was implemented by the World Bank, in partnership with key national institutions including the National Disaster Operations Center and the National Drought Management Authority.