The Denmark-Kenya Green Growth and Employment programme will see Denmark provide financial and technical support to Kenya worth approximately KSH 7 billion.
The Green Growth and Employment Thematic Programme objective is “Inclusive greener growth with higher employment” and will be achieved by focusing support on two intervention areas:
- Sustainable growth and jobs from investment and trade;
- Sustainable use of natural resources and community resilience.
Under these two intervention areas, activities will be implemented around trade facilitation, value chains, renewable and non-renewable energy, investment in natural capital, resource efficiency and cleaner technology, climate change mitigation and adaptation, competitiveness, productivity, advocacy and market access. A cross-cutting theme will be strengthening of the implementation of the normative framework.
The Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen, the Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu for Environment and Natural Resources and the Danish Ambassador Mette Knudsen with CEOs and Chairpersons from all the partners in the Green Growth and Employment Programme at the launch of the Programme on 18 December 2015
Under the first intervention area, the Thematic Programme (TP) will, first and foremost, seek to stimulate growth, based on green solutions, and to generate employment. Employment is an important transmission mechanism between growth and poverty reduction, and there are opportunities for generating sustainable employment in the ‘greening’ of growth. Danida will continue to help Kenya achieve its green growth agenda through reducing poverty and improving livelihoods, through climate mitigation and adaptation of green technologies. Targeted innovative enterprises, both start-ups and existing enterprises will be supported in efforts to uptake green technologies and innovative businesses in agribusiness, water management and renewable energy. This will be done by leveraging funds for investments in clean energy through proof-of-concept funds, seed funds and commercial funds. In this respect, the expected medium term outcomes are sustainable utilisation of natural resources and employment creation.
Support will be provided to partners working with both the normative framework and the private sector. This is in recognition of the fact that on the one hand, the public sector alone cannot drive a transition towards a green economy, and on the other hand, the private sector needs a conducive business environment (including the right incentives) from the public sector to consider green investments. The focus will be on working with partners offering innovative solutions and a willingness to meet the challenges of promoting a greener economy and creating employment.
The support to the normative framework will emphasise implementation of the existing framework rather than the formulation of new policies and strategies. Focus will be on capacity development for implementation (including awareness raising, development and promotion of incentives and enforcement) as well as on interventions to create partnerships and trust between public institutions/authorities and the private sector. This will include support to better integrate sustainable environmental management principles into sector strategies within Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and budget processes in MDAs and at county level.
The private sector support will, with limited funds and a limited number of strategic partners, concentrate on activities that can generate immediate and medium term results as well as stimulate catalytic effects, in areas such as green technology, ecosystems management, and creation of green employment opportunities. Capacity development/knowledge sharing will also be central. Interventions should, to the extent possible, be able to generate immediate, visible results while simultaneously encouraging continuity beyond the life of the programme, thus ensuring more significant longer-term impacts.
Under the second intervention area (sustainable use of natural resources and community resilience) the focus will be on sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change, where investment in natural capital and sustainable use of natural resources plays a key role, and where opportunities for fostering green growth and creating employment are significant. To address the daunting challenge of inequality in Kenya, geographical areas with notable poverty due in part to marginalisation, and where people are most prone to suffer from natural resource degradation, climate change effects, and the ensuing conflicts over natural resources and livestock, have been selected.
The specific Development Engagement Documents that describes the engagements in detail, can be found by pressing the name of the engagements in the left column.