Abstract
The aim of this study is to assess the extent to which scientific information has been used to inform climate change adaptation policies, plans and strategies in Kenya; and also to assess the effectiveness of existing platforms for sharing climate change information in the country. Two major policy documents guiding climate change adaptation planning in Kenya, the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) and the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), were analysed for use of scientific information in their formulation through literature review; and interviewing policy makers using an open-ended questionnaire to determine the extent to which they accessed and applied scientific-based evidence of climate change impacts in development planning. Both documents, the NCCRS and NCCAP, made fairly good use of evidence contained in technical reports, especially the UNFCC, World Bank and FAO reports. However, they made very minimal, less than 20 %, reference to the hard scientific facts offered by journals, books and workshop proceedings. Similarly, only about 6 % of the respondents used the climate change information to develop mitigation and adaptation plans, training curricula, and Research and Development programs. The rest, over 76 %, rarely used it for planning purposes. This could be attributed to limited knowledge of appropriate methodology to distil relevant decision-relevant information from the spectrum of available information on climate change projections, availability of the information in user-unfriendly formats, and lack of information sharing protocols. There is need to reverse this trend. Most respondents (42 %) preferred the agricultural extension system in delivering climate change information. This was followed by stakeholders meetings with 29 % of the respondents’ preference, conferences and workshops with 5 %, media (4 %), and climate change networks and internet with less than 1 % each. However, the national agricultural system is severely constrained by staff and facilities, and is therefore very limited in its reach. There is therefore need to strengthen it and also take full advantage of recent advances in ICT if the war against climate change is to be won. Meanwhile, majority of the respondents (50 %) were ignorant of the existence of any climate change databases. But about 17 % of the respondents were aware of and accessed databases hosted by Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and other international research centres. Another 10 % of the respondents relied on databases managed by donor agencies whilst about 8 % of the respondents each accessed databases established by Government Departments and National Agricultural Research Institutions (NARIs). Finally, about 7 % of the respondents relied solely on the FAO-based databases. The preference by respondents for databases managed by CGIAR centres may be attributed to the richness and accessibility of these databases due to very active participation of these centres in climate change research. There is need to enrich NARIs databases and those of Government Departments and make them more accessible to enhance sharing and application of climate change information by policy makers and other stakeholders.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Government of Kenya (GoK) (2004) Strategy for revitalizing agriculture, 2004–2014. Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Nairobi, Kenya
Government of Kenya (GoK) (2007) Kenya vision 2030. Ministry of Planning and National Development, Kenya
Government of Kenya (GoK) (2009) Economic review of agriculture. Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya
Government of Kenya (GoK) (2010) The agriculture sector development strategy (ASDS). Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya
Hassan RM, Murithi FM, Kamau G (1998) Determinants of fertilizer use and the gap between farmers’ maize yields and potential yields in Kenya. In: Hassan RM (ed) Maize technology development and transfer. CAB International, pp 137–161
Herrero M, Ringler C, van de Steeg J, Thornton P, Zhu T, Bryan E, Omolo A, Koo J, Notenbaert A (2010) Climate variability and climate change and their impacts on Kenya’s agricultural sector. ILRI, Kenya
Thornton PK, Jones PG, Alagarswamy G, Andresen J (2009) Spatial variation of crop yield response to climate change in East Africa. Glob Environ Change 19:54–65
WRI (World Resources Institute) (2007) Nature’s benefits in Kenya, an atlas of ecosystems and human well-being. WRI Department Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing, Washington, DC, USA; Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Nairobi, Kenya; Central Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and National Development Kenya; and ILRI, Kenya. Available at http://www.wri.org/
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to IDRC through the project “Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture and Water Resources in the Greater Horn of Africa (ECAW)” for funding this study. We are also grateful to our numerous respondents for their cooperation and willingness to participate in this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kwena, K. et al. (2015). Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Kenya: Do Scientific Evidences Really Count?. In: Leal Filho, W., Esilaba, A., Rao, K., Sridhar, G. (eds) Adapting African Agriculture to Climate Change. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13000-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13000-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12999-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13000-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)