Institutional Sustainability Plan for the Climate Change Coordination Unit (CCCU)

The CCCU is located within the EAC Secretariat under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The overall goal of the CCCU is to strengthen the resiliency and sustainability of East African economies, transboundary freshwater ecosystems, and communities, targeting several key development challenges including climate change. The PREPARED Project, a five-year (2013-2018) program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided institutional and technical support to the CCCU. The PREPARED Project developed the Institutional Sustainability Plan (ISP) for the CCCU to guide its growth and development after the project closes. The ISP serves two purposes: to provide a simple, accessible guide to the CCCU itself and to serve as a tool to share with donors for potential support. The CCCU currently exists organizationally but is short-staffed and donor funding dependent. The unit has two staff members: a Climate Change Coordinator and a Climate Change Adaptation Specialist. However, the Climate Change Coordinator left the CCCU in 2016 and has not been replaced, and the Climate Change Adaptation Specialist has multiple other functions within the DENR and cannot exclusively dedicate time to building the capacity of the CCCU or providing services according to its mandate. The funding for the position will end in September 2018 with the completion of the PREPARED funding. The ISP discusses five organizational aspects of the CCCU: its mandate and duties, human resources, climate finance, information, communications and outreach, and broader institutional questions. Each section of the ISP summarizes the status of each organizational aspect, followed by findings and recommendations. The ISP aims to review PREPARED progress to date supporting the CCCU's organizational growth, the constraints and challenges facing the CCCU's functionality and operations, and opportunities to enhance and sustain the CCCU as a key climate change coordinator in the region. The EAC Climate Change Policy (2011) and the accompanying EAC Climate Change Strategy (2011) guide the implementation of the Policy for the five-year period from 2011 to 2015. The PREPARED Project supported the EAC in developing these documents and has provided institutional and technical support to the CCCU to enhance its capacity to implement the Climate Change Policy and its instruments. The ISP provides a comprehensive review of the CCCU's current status, challenges, and opportunities for growth and development. It aims to provide a simple, accessible guide to the CCCU itself and to serve as a tool to share with donors for potential support. The ISP is prepared from the perspective of the CCCU at a foundational stage, as opposed to from the perspective of a fully operational unit with staff and a dedicated budget.