County Departments of Environment, Natural Resources, Energy & Climate Change together with Public Service, Administration and Disaster Risk Management in collaboration with WFP through a funding from the Australian Government, have concluded a three-day workshop to sensitize and train county-level task force on Anticipatory Actions (AA) and Forecast -based Financing (FbF).
The project aims at scaling up drought anticipatory actions for food security in Turkana County.
During his opening remarks, the County Director for Environment and Climate Change, Clement Nadio who represented the County Executive Dr. Iris Mariao stated that Turkana County is prone to many predictable extreme events such as drought and floods, which result in disasters and suffering.
“The drought and floods in Turkana are aggravated by frequent and severe climate shocks and stresses; upheavals, anthropogenic activities and conflict. Said Director Nadio.
He stated that the impact of these events can be reduced or avoided if weather and climate forecasts are systematically used for early action to prepare and manage climate disasters.
Nadio further divulged that, the hazards can be prevented through innovative a pre-defined Anticipatory Action (AA) approaches through a robust climate information services and Early Warning Systems.
The Assistant Director for Disaster Management Benjamin Namuya thanked WFP for building the capacity of Turkana County Government officials and partners on AA and FbF, an initiative which will facilitate timely identification and prioritization of climate hazard impacts leading to development of Anticipatory Actions (AAs).
The various funding sources like the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Adaptation Fund and FLLoCA funds whose focus are climate change adaptation, resilience and mitigation were discussed at length.
The generous contribution from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) will support Turkana County efforts to operationalize County forecast based and anticipatory actions through the establishment of a technical working group to spearhead the implementation of forecast based financing and drought Anticipatory actions in the County.
The funds will also be used to support the County Government to conduct a participatory climate risk vulnerability assessments (PCRVA) in 10 wards in Loima and Turkana West sub-counties that will lead to the development of ward climate change action plans and funding proposals for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Present were James Lokwale (Director Trade ), Hebrew Idoka (Acting Director Social Protection), Daniel Esimit (Deputy Director Public Health) among other senior County officials from Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Administration and Environment.
Other key stakeholders involved included; WFP, NEMA, KMD, Caritas Lodwar, Practical Action, Kenya Red-Cross, GIZ and IFC.
