A 9-member County Climate Change Steering Committee that was appointed by Governor James Orengo received their appointment letters and were enlightened on the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) Program.
The steering committee included Governance CECM CS Agunda Ochanda, Health CECM Dr Martin K'Onyango, Environment Chief officer Judy Oyugi, Tabitha Ogutu (Youth representative), Private Sector Representative Jane Ohas, Ward Climate Change Planning Committee Representative Nam Oneko, Siaya County Climate Change Planning Committee Representative Milicent Oduor and Environment CECM Prof Jacqueline Oduol who is Chairing the Committee.
The FLLoCA program, funded at Ksh 7.3 billion, benefitting 45 counties with Siaya having an allocation of Sh 168 million for project implementation had the Government of Kenya receive facilitation support from World Bank, Danida, Sida and KFW towards the program.
The steering committee was introduced to the program that was themed on Agriculture, Water, Environment and Natural resources that took about 70 percent of the total. Notably, 20 percent of the money is dedicated for projects by people living with disability, women and indigenous people, youths and specialized emerging issues like disaster risks. In Siaya, for instance, already 22 of the 93 proposals for climate change mitigation projects have been approved by environmental experts who vetted and forwarded them to the program implementation unit at the National Treasury for further endorsement.
Prof Oduol said they settled on 22 after they met requirements of FLLoCA while the balance had gaps. "We analyzed every proposal during the vetting and made remarks as to why certain groups could not be funded in this financial year," said Prof Oduol. She added that the National FLLoCA Coordinators from the National Treasury will come to Siaya next week to ascertain the progress of the county in regards to the program.
Mr Ochanda, who termed the program a game changer, noted that the initiative also aims at enhancing livelihoods and mitigating effects of climate change. He further urged the county FLLoCA coordinating teams to craft a feedback mechanism to enable the groups that did not meet the threshold to know their gaps and strengthen with a view to benefit in the coming financial year. "We need to have ward climate change committees trained and sensitized to own the process," said Ochanda. Similar sentiments were echoed by Dr K'Onyango who said that capacity building is needed for them and other committees that run the program.
The meeting was also attended by FLLoCA Secretariat who is the County Director for Environment Mr.Gabriel Oduong.He was asked to prioritize implementation of the projects as that would help determine amount of money Siaya will receive in the next financial year. Each of the 30 wards in Siaya will benefit from the tree seedlings project and Sh 15 million has been set aside for it. Each ward has Sh 500,000 to run the tree seedling program.