Unlocking public finance for clean energy investment through integrated planning and budgeting in Makueni County, Kenya
This paper discusses how Kenya's county governments can integrate their energy planning into development budgets to unlock financing for clean energy access. Examining Makueni County's planning processes, it reveals how departmental planning approach informs investment in renewable energy infrastructure needed for agriculture, health, and economic development. The research identifies coordination barriers between subnational and national governments and provides practical frameworks for mainstreaming energy considerations across sector budgets to achieve universal energy access goals.
Kenya's devolved governance system offers significant potential to accelerate clean energy access at the subnational level, but siloed planning approaches across county departments hinders the full realization of clean energy investment opportunities. This research examines Makueni County's experience to understand how integrated planning and budgeting can unlock public finance for clean energy investments.
This study reveals how fragmented approaches to planning and budgeting undermine development across multiple sectors. Without an integrated approach to planning and budgeting, agricultural processing facilities will lack power for equipment, health facilities will operate without reliable electricity for medical devices, and water systems will continue to depend on expensive diesel generators. These gaps reduce productivity, increase operational costs, and prevent achievement of development goals.
Through extensive interviews with county officials and analysis of national and subnational planning documents, the research identified five core barriers to mainstreaming integrated planning and budgeting: Capacity gaps across departments, limited access to data and evidence to inform opportunities for integration, poor coordination between departments within the county government and with the national government, resource competition between sectors and departments, and lack of recognition of energy as an enabler for development priorities
This paper recommends solutions to mainstreaming an integrated approach to planning and budgeting, particularly at the nexus of energy and development priorities. This includes:
- Strengthen the capacity of county-level planners from all departments and relevant county assembly committees.
- Bolster the use of data and evidence to promote integrated planning and budgeting.
- Align the plans and budgets of the county administration, national government, and development partners.
- Integrate energy priorities (as captured under the County Energy Plan) into the County Integrated Development Plan.
- Develop, adopt, and use a guiding framework and tools to steer the mainstreaming of integrated planning and budgeting.
