Publication: Kenya Country Environmental Analysis
Loading...
Published
2019-10
ISSN
Date
2020-06-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Kenya Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) presents recent findings and trends on key environmental challenges and opportunities. The CEA identifies a set of recommendations that are necessary to both strengthen the country’s environmental management capabilities and ensure that environmental issues are adequately incorporated into broader development initiatives and investments. The core of Kenya’s poverty and environmental problems lies at the nexus of population growth, inequality, and high dependence on natural resource–based incomes. A rapidly rising population increases the numbers of people seeking natural resource–based livelihood opportunities placing further pressures on already fragile ecosystems. Climate change is accelerating the impact of existing vulnerabilities to environmental shocks such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. Kenya’s economy has always depended heavily on environmental goods and services. Kenya’s economic growth is intensifying, and it is crucial that environmentally sustainable approaches are part of this process. In addition, Kenya’s diverse regional landscapes create the necessity for versatile environmental regulatory policies which can be adapted to suit local environmental conditions, challenges, and opportunities. Kenya has a wide range of progressive environmental policies, but implementation remains a challenge. Implementationis often characterized by weak technical and managerial capacity, poor coordination, and inadequate funding. Political commitment does not always match the urgency of policy rhetoric. This is partly because the benefits to improved environmental management are often slow to mature and do not match short-term election cycles. Devolution has added to the challenge. While the responsibility for implementing environmental policies has moved to counties, there is not necessarily a parallel transfer of appropriate technical expertise. While institutional coordination remains weak, inadequate budget allocations and slow budgetary transfers are common. This is a problem for the county administrations and hampers the implementation of environmental (and other) policies and plans.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2019. Kenya Country Environmental Analysis. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33949 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Investing in a More Sustainable Indonesia : Country Environmental Analysis 2009 - Main Report(World Bank, 2009-10-01)The objective of this Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to highlight the underlying challenges and opportunities for Indonesia's environment and management of its natural resources in order to guide the World Bank support to Indonesian institutions for more sustainable development. Rather, the CEA sets the broader context (chapter one) and economic costs of environmental degradation (chapter two) in order to identify underlying challenges and opportunities. These are divided into two sets of priorities those related to environmental governance and those that are more sectoral in nature. Environmental governance encompasses the decentralized framework for environmental management (chapter three), enabling policies for greater environment and resource sustainability (chapter four) and building environmental constituencies (chapter five). The sectoral challenges that are most important for Indonesian development are vulnerability to climate change (chapter six), land use and climate change (chapter seven) and energy and climate change (chapter eight). The report concludes with options for a more sustainable Indonesia, including recommendations for how the World Bank can more effectively invest in light of the CEA findings (chapter nine).Publication Environmental Priorities and Poverty Reduction : A Country Environmental Analysis for Colombia(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The analysis of the cost of environmental degradation conducted as part of the country environmental analysis (CEA) shows that the most costly problems associated with environmental degradation are urban and indoor air pollution; inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene; natural disasters (such as flooding and landslides); and land degradation. The burden of these costs falls most heavily on vulnerable segments of the population. To address these problems, this report identifies a number of cost-effective policy interventions that could be adopted in the short and medium terms to support sustainable development goals. In recent decades, considerable progress has been made in addressing the water and the forestry environmental agendas. The impact of environmental degradation on the most vulnerable groups suggests the need to increase emphasis on environmental health issues. However, the environmental management agenda has yet to catch up with this shift in priorities from watershed and forestry to environmental health problems because mechanisms in the current institutional structure to signal these changes are not yet in place. Improved monitoring and dissemination of information on environmental outcomes, assignment of accountability for environmental actions and outcomes, and involvement of a broad range of stakeholders are three important mechanisms to allow these signals to be picked up.Publication The Philippines : Country Environmental Analysis(World Bank, 2009-12-01)The objectives of this Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) were to assess the environmental quality in the Philippines with a focus on how this affects human welfare and sustainability, measure and analyze the biophysical significance and monetary cost of environmental degradation and derive priority areas of action, assess the Philippines government's capacity to manage the environmental challenges identified, and identify opportunities for reform and interventions. The Philippines has sound and comprehensive environmental laws and policies. However, it suffers from weak implementation because of inadequate capacity and financial constraints both at the national and local levels. A shift in strategy toward more devolution to local levels of government, enhanced resource mobilization for environmental management, better prioritization, and retooling of human resources are urgently needed to accommodate new priorities. The CEA also recommends improvements in environmental information systems and public access to such information.Publication Monitoring Environmental Sustainability(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-12-09)This report presents a concise review of the major environmental and natural resources issues at the global and national level over the coming two decades. The environmental issues reviewed include air pollution and deterioration of air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, water quality, scarcity and access, land and soil degradation, deforestation and forest degradation, natural disaster, loss of biodiversity and protected areas, and governance and institutions for environmental and natural resource management. Besides providing an environment outlook, the report tackles the issue of monitoring also from the supply side. It identifies the relevant data and indicator sets available at the global level and country level to capture the global and locally relevant environmental issues with the underlying objective of pinpointing at data gaps. It concludes with a set of recommendations for moving forward on the monitoring agenda. Overall, the threats from climate change caused by Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss, water pollution and scarcity as well as pressure on land as well as worsening ocean's state and biodiversity have to be taken under close observation in the period over the next 20 years. The environment challenges that the world faces are not trivial and some of them require immediate action. Action, in turn, requires reliable and accurate information. The second part of the report looks at information from the supply side. It identifies the relevant data and indicator sets available at the global level and country level to capture the global and locally relevant environmental issues with the underlying objective of informing and advising decision making and to identify the data gaps.Publication Uganda : Country Environmental Analysis(Washington, DC, 2012-04)A Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is a World Bank analytical tool used to integrate environmental issues into development assistance strategies, programs, and projects. To that end, the CEA synthesizes environmental issues, highlights the environmental and economic implications of development policies, and evaluates the country's environmental management capacity. It is composed of three analytical building blocks: the identification of environment-development priority issues, a general analysis of environmental institutions and governance, and detailed analyses of the priority issues or sectors identified in the first analytical building block. It then examines the findings of this diagnostic process in light of the engagement of the Bank and other development partners (DPs) in the country's environment and natural resources (ENR) sectors. At this stage, potential Bank ENR interventions can be identified. This CEA for Uganda adheres to the CEA analytical framework so described. Section I begins by setting the general economic and environment context in Uganda. It then looks more closely at the economic value of Uganda's natural resources, in terms of both stock (asset) values, and flow (income) values. Section two is dedicated to an analysis of environmental management institutions and environmental governance. Environmental management in Uganda is decentralized, consequently much of the analysis focuses on the functionality of local institutions. Section three is composed of the three focus natural resource sectors: forestry, wetlands, and fisheries. Basic data and information for each of the sectors were obtained from the respective responsible ministries and agencies. In the case of forestry and wetlands, recent and ongoing work provided additional insights into management issues. Finally, section four is about Uganda moving forward to improve ENR governance. It summarizes the challenges and constraints to environmental management and governance that were identified in section three, and proposes actions to start improving governance.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23)Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.