Beyond Nairobi

In the past 20 years, many African countries have established national laws and institutions for environmental management. But how and to what extent have these been implemented on the ground? And what has been the role of development cooperation in this?

This is the topic of a new Working Paper by DIIS researcher Mikkel Funder and Martin Marani from University of Nairobi. The Working Paper presents the findings from a case study of how Kenya’s Environmental Management Act has been locally implemented in a rural County in Kenya. The focus is on the everyday aspects of environmental management, including informal arrangements and local institutional competition.

The study finds that good progress has been made in developing the national frameworks, and that development cooperation has played a significant role in this. However, there is now a need to focus more on developing decentralized environmental management, and to engage more with Local Government structures.

The study is part of the Danida-funded ReCom research programme.