| dc.description.abstract | Climate change is a global reality that has made communities vulnerable. The international community and Kenya’s national government have responded to climate change by fostering adaptation and mitigation at multiple levels. Adaptation is critical in the immediate present because it provides for adjustment to suit the changing environmental conditions and establish resilience. The global and national institutional landscape for adaptation is well defined with clear mandate and capacity. However at the local level where adaptation action is implemented there are questions raised about the ability of the local institutions to effectively carry out adaptation since these local institutions were established for other reasons and not adaptation. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which local institution in the Mara river basin can carry out adaptation. The main objective of the study was to establish the capacity of local institutions to foster climate adaptation responses in the Mara River Basin. The specific objectives were 1) to assess local institutional practices that promote climate change adaptation in the Mara river basin, 2) to evaluate the internal institutional structures that enable or hinder climate change adaptation in the Mara river basin, 3) to analyze the opportunities in the institutional landscape that enhance community involvement in climate change adaptation in the Mara river basin. The systems theory was applied to examine the institutional framework as a complex system with boundaries that allow input and output for maximum efficiency and delivery thus enabling understanding of the relationship between different variables. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and a sample of 137 institutions drawn from government, NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and private sector were interviewed. The study developed an Institutional Effectiveness Tool for data collection and analysis. The study established that local institutions implement 81% of the adaptation practise interrogated by this study. It also established all scores on the institutional effectiveness tool were above 60% meaning the internal institutional structures of local institutions promote adaptation. Finally it established that the institutional landscape had 44 linkages of which 55% were vertical and 45% horizontal creating a network with opportunities for adaptation. The study concluded that local institutions in the Mara river basin have adequate capacity to foster adaptation despite not having it in their mandate. It recommends that stakeholder engagement in adaptation be institutionalised so as to better engage the local institutions and also explore the opportunities present in the linkages | en_US |
