Assessing the effectiveness of climate financing through Kenya’s climate change diplomacy

Abstract

Kenya has been a proactive participant in the global climate regimes to mobilise climate financing for adaptation, mitigation, and green development. However, the effectiveness of these resources remains disproportionate. This paper investigates why long-term climate diplomacy and extensive domestic institutional structures have not always been translated into coherent, country-owned, and transformative climate finance deliverables. In examining the effectiveness of climate financing through Kenya’s climate change diplomacy, this study adopts the Rational Actor Model, which conceptualizes Kenya as a purposive actor seeking to maximize access to external finance and policy space within a fragmented international climate finance architecture. The study research question examines the extent to which Kenya’s climate diplomacy has improved access to climate finance, how effectively the financial flows are coordinated and governed domestically, and whether existing arrangements translate into equitable and measurable climate outcomes. The study employs a qualitative approach, combining document analysis of policy frameworks, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and climate finance reports, with a review of peer‑reviewed literature and official United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] submissions to assess project outcomes, institutional capacity, and alignment with national priorities. The discussion reveals that although Kenya’s diplomatic engagements have expanded in access to multilateral and bilateral funding and influenced national climate finance systems, these successes are mediated by institutional fragmentation, competing bureaucratic mandates, and asymmetric donor-recipient power relations. Consequently, this has resulted in a disparity in climate finance performance in terms of sector and governance level performance, with localized successes coexisting alongside coordination failures and limited distributive equity. The article argues that technocratic models of climate finance coordination ignore the competing interests and power struggles over who controls the resources and who benefits from them. This paper recommends that Kenya, through climate change diplomacy, should prioritize securing grant-based and devolved climate finance and enhanced transparent national-county coordination mechanisms, to ensure that climate finance has a meaningful impact on the most vulnerable and climate-affected populations. The study moves beyond formal policy evaluation to demonstrate how political economy dynamics shape the real effectiveness of climate finance, offering a nuanced account of country ownership as a negotiated and contested process rather than a technical design outcome.