Principal Secretary to the State Department of Irrigation, Mr. Ephantus Kimotho yesterday met with a delegation from UNDP Kenya where he appreciated the work that organization is doing in irrigation. This was after consultative discussion with a team from UNDP Kenya led by Ms. Evelyne Koech, Ms. Yvonne Nyokabi and Mr. Francis Matheka.

The party had discussions on areas for potential collaboration and partnership.

Principal Secretary , Mr. Kimotho highlighted the need to maximally utilize development partner such as UNDP to contribute to climate resilience (Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation) in food systems for food security, livelihood improvement and  reducing country carbon footprint by minimizing the carbon emissions from the Irrigation activities.

“It’s my sincere hope moving forward, that UNDP will be very helpful to the State Department for Irrigation on matters of climate resilience,” stated Mr. Kimotho at the meeting.

The UNDP team shared their Country Program Document 2022-2027 highlighting their contribution to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and potential areas of collaboration and partnership with State Department.

UNDP is an organization that seeks to address poverty, inequality and exclusion by supporting communities and government, through innovative sustainable interventions for inclusive human development and economic growth.

Some of the potential areas of collaboration and partnership that the two institutions need to examine for future project and programs include promotion of nature based solutions for food security, climate change mitigation and adaption, disaster risk reduction through mapping of Laggahs for water harvesting and storage during heavy rainy seasons, developing alternative livelihoods for smallholder farmers during droughts  and capacity building especially on climate change action plan for irrigation.

The Principal Secretary said that the Ministry of Water will continue working closely with like-minded development partners to ensure that the government achieves the food security agenda for this country.