Project Detail

Combating Climate Change through installation of biogas technologies in Northern Mt. Kenya

This project on mitigation of effects of climate change is being proposed by Laikipia Central Community Development Organisation (LAICCODO). The proposing organisation is a local NGO established in 2002 and registered in 2003. It operates within Northern Mount Kenya which covers part of Meru and Nyeri Counties and the entire Laikipia County. The project will however focus on areas of this counties neighbouring Nanyuki Town.

The proposed project will aim at addressing the effects of climate change which negatively have affected the livelihood and economic base of many households in the proposed project area. This is because majority of these households have agriculture as their main source of livelihood, which in turn is climate dependant. The project will aim at installation of 50 biogas units.

It is envisaged that once the project is fully implemented, less trees will be cut for firewood and that there will be increased carbon sequestering from the environment. Less green house gases such as methane and nitrogen dioxide from decomposing manure will also be released into the atmosphere. This will in turn contribute greatly towards mitigation of the effects of climate change and thus there will be reduction of poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability.

In order to achieve the project objectives, various stakeholders will be involved in the entire project cycle. Participatory approaches will be used as much as possible at all levels of the project life in order to promote ownership and sustainability of the project. The roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders are clearly elaborated.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Laikipia Central Community Development Organization

Country:

Kenya

Area Of Work:

Climate Change Mitigation

Operational Phase:

OP5 - Y2 (Jul 12 – Jun 13)

Grant Amount:

US$ 49,638.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 32,103.35

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 5,747.13

Project Number:

KEN/SGP/OP5/FSP/CC/12/020

Start Date:

12/2012

End Date:

11/2014

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Capacity - Building Component

Beneficiaries of the project will be taught to operate and maintain the proposed technology. The management structure of LAICCODO will furthermore be strengthened through capacity building in order to handle similar projects in the future more effectively. LAICCODO ensured that the direct beneficiaries were sensitized on basic operation and maintenance of biogas plants including how to feed the plants and monitoring of leakage which would be detrimental to the environment through releasing of green house gases.

Project sustainability

First, the organisation has ensured community participation in the project through cost sharing towards the project cost which has ensured complete ownership as the beneficiaries want to get maximum benefits from their investment. Secondly, frequent field visits to the beneficiaries? homes have ensured that the community is well appraised and sensitised on the key responsibility of taking care of the renewable energy technologies in their homes. Thirdly, the formation of an inclusive project implementation committee is also likely to contribute towards sustainability as the partners involved are likely to offer their support to the project even after the funding ends as this is in away also contributing towards achieving of their respective missions.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The project aims to improve the sustainability of livelihoods by increasing the resiliency of households to the effects of climate change, reducing the pressure on the local environment.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

This project activity was aimed at sensitizing the community to adopt biogas technology for their household energy needs. Towards this, LAICCODO produced Information, Education and Communication materials (IEC) which were said to have a multiplier effect as the information contained in these IEC materials is readily available to thousands of people. In addition to the biogas plants direct beneficiaries, the organization participated in the Nanyuki ASK show where thousands visited its stand and were educated on the importance of biogas as a form of renewable energy. A marketing meeting was also held at Kibirichia where 21 persons attended and were educated on importance of renewable energy in relation to environmental conservation. Furthermore the organization participated in one field day and exhibition to showcase and market the biogas project, an event that was attended by hundreds of community members.

Notable Community Participation

To begin with, LAICCODO is a membership organization where the board members are community representatives who have been appointed due to their contribution on community development activities in the project area. This means that community participation in the organization will not only be limited to this project alone but goes further to touch on management and governance of the organization. In regards to this project, the community members will be considered not just as beneficiaries of the project but also as owners of the project. This is because communities are the users of natural resources. This therefore justifies the importance of the community being involved at all levels of the project to enhance project ownership. Community mobilization will not just be an activity to recruit beneficiaries but it will be one that engages the community to take cognizance of the challenges of global worming and what individual members can do to contribute towards mitigation of the negative effects. Secondly, the beneficiaries of the projected are to come from the local community groups that the organization has been working with. During the project implementation, the community will be expected to contribute both in cash and in kind. In relation to contribution in kind, all the unskilled labour and any other skilled and semi skilled labour within the community will be taken advantage off. Thirdly, the organization intends to partner strongly with the ministry of agriculture during agricultural field days so that biogas technology can be part of the exhibitions in these field days. The idea will to engage more community members on the importance of adopting the technology for their own individual gain and the corporate benefit. As this will be more or less a continuation of past climate change initiatives, the community have continuously been engaged through public sensitization meetings where awareness have been created on the prevailing effects of climate change and on the role of the community and other stakeholders in mitigating these effects. Based on these past activities, the organization intends to use identified focal community leaders to continue with the sensitization.

Gender Focus

Women because of their reproductive roles are direct users of wood fuel. They spend much of their time undertaking activities meant for family upkeep such as fetching of firewood. The youths on the other hand are also an important part of the community considering that most of the charcoal burners and wood fuel venders are poor jobless youths. This project is going to ensure that there is access to alternative source of fuel and accessible water for the households. This means that the women and girls will have adequate time to get engaged in other economic activities.

Project Results

-Mitigation of effects of climate change through promotion of biogas technologies
On the effectiveness of the project in relation to mitigation of climate change, the 16 of the biogas units constructed are already in use and are ensuring that the methane that would have otherwise being released into the atmosphere, by the open dung, is being used as a fuel at the household level. Regarding release of carbon in the atmosphere, through use of wood fuel, the project has ensured that at least 16 households in this microclimate have significantly reduced the use of wood fuel and are no longer depending on forest products based fuel for their household needs. This has reduced that amount of tree usually cut down for wood fuel or charcoal and these trees are in turn absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. In addition, it is said that pure methane gas has an energy value of round 10 kilowatt hour per cubic meter (kWh/M3) and considering that biogas is made up of about 60% methane, with 40% being a combination of other gases, this means that biogas can produce around 6kWh/M3. This in turn means that since each household is having an 8m3 biogas unit, the 16 households that have already started using their biogas plants are able to produce about 48kWh of energy for own domestic use per each household. This translates to about 768 kWh for all the households that have benefited with this project phase funding.

-Promotion of project sustainability and biodiversity conservation

As regards to promotion of project sustainability and biodiversity conservation, there was no formal trainings conducted during this project implementation phase. However, as mentioned above, the implementing organisation ensured that during community mobilisation and sensitisation meetings, the community were informed on the importance of environmental conservation especially in relation to conservation of Mt Kenya ecosystem as a world heritage as well as the main water catchment in the region. The community members who attended such meetings were also informed on the importance of using renewable sources of energy to mitigate climate change. In this regard, LAICCODO has been working closely with SNV and solar companies to see how the community can integrate biogas with solar lighting to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere through the use of kerosene lanterns.

- Promotion of participatory monitoring and evaluation of the project

As a way of ensuring participatory monitoring and evaluation of the project, the organisation?s board and the project implementation committee worked hand in hand in ensuring that the project was implemented as planned and that all the planned activities were being implemented within the stipulated time and resources. During this implementation period, a monitoring meeting was held with the project beneficiaries where the UNDP area representative was in attendance and spear headed the feedback session. During this project implantation phase, the project implementer also hosted visitors form UNDP SGP headquarters who were on a monitoring visit to the field to validate activities that were being undertaken in the field. In

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