Powering Communities to Lead Climate Action

The Issue

Despite Kenya’s flagship Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program, communities in Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet counties face significant barriers to accessing and monitoring climate finance. Only a limited number of social audits are being conducted per year, indicating weak accountability structures at the grassroots level. Local community groups lacked sufficient knowledge of the FLLoCA funding mechanisms, including how to apply, manage finances, and report, leaving them unable to navigate climate finance processes effectively. Systemic gaps also existed in FLLoCA policy and legislation, and there was poor coordination between the two counties and between communities and government entities. This created a situation where climate funds were not reaching communities in a transparent or locally-driven manner, undermining sustainable climate interventions such as afforestation and water resource management.

The Project

Being implemented by the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the project addresses the above issues through five key pillars:

Community Awareness & Capacity Building — Targeted training campaigns in both counties to help individuals and groups understand and access FLLoCA funding, track implementation, and ensure accountability.
Government Collaboration — Bridging communities with national and county governments to streamline access to climate financing, supporting 8 locally-ideated projects and providing FLLoCA grants of up to KES 125,000 per community group.
Inter-County Collaboration — Facilitating 5 joint climate interventions between Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet, with shared best practices documented in a guide.
Institutional Strengthening — Building NCCK’s internal accountability through the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), establishing functional community feedback mechanisms across 8 FLLoCA projects, and updating NCCK’s Accountability Improvement Plan.
Policy Advocacy — Engaging duty bearers at the national level and producing 2 county-level policy briefs to address gaps in climate finance legislation.

Pupil enjoys clean water at a school in Elgeyo.

The Change

The project anticipates a 30% increase in community knowledge of FLLoCA mechanisms, alongside a significant rise in social audits from 50 to 400, conducted by CSOs and community members. Eight locally-ideated projects are being financed and monitored, with each of the eight community groups receiving FLLoCA grants of up to KES 125,000, totalling up to KES 1,000,000. Five joint climate interventions have been implemented between the two counties, generating two documented and shared best practices. Additionally, eight community feedback mechanisms will be established, supported by one national policy engagement and two county-level policy briefs to strengthen the broader climate finance governance framework.
The broader expected change is a scalable model for transparent, locally-led climate finance management, leading to increased afforestation, improved water resource management, stronger community resilience, and potential influence on national policy and practice.

The Results

So far, the project has reached 480 people directly and an estimated 4,800 indirectly, driving meaningful progress across its five key objectives. It has increased awareness and strengthened the capacity of individuals and local community groups to access climate financing, track project implementation, and enhance accountability. At the same time, it has fostered stronger collaboration with national and county governments to improve systems for accessing and evaluating climate finance. The initiative has also enhanced coordination between Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo counties on climate finance management, while advancing institutional strengthening through the Core Humanitarian Standard to support accountability.

The Partner

The project is implemented by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). NCCK is a collective of Christian communions and organisations. They work for a holistic transformation of lives for a just, resilient and sustainable society.