Strengthening the national restoration monitoring technical working group and promoting land restoration

• More than 30% of Kenya’s landmass is estimated to be severely degraded, impacting livelihoods and costing the country’s economy an estimated 3% of GDP annually
• FLR methods could be used to tackle this, however FLR efforts among different agencies so far have largely been uncoordinated
• This has created the need for a more collaborative, aligned and operationalised monitoring and reporting framework on government commitments
• Additionally, most restoration initiatives do not consider context and gender aspects
• Inclusive FLR efforts that are responsive to specific contexts can be used to address escalating land degradation and climate change-related shocks that will otherwise continue to negatively impact the environment and livelihoods

The project carried out an analysis of Options by Context (OxC) based on collation and analyses of datasets under the past IFAD-EC Dryland Restoration Project to identify an initial set of restoration options, with specific attention to their gender and social dimensions. Insights from the analysis were presented and validated through a co-design workshop, informing the development of OxC matrices on restoration practices. Key outputs included:

• The formation of the national landscape restoration monitoring TWG with membership from state and non-state actors by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The TWG supported the finalisation of the Forest and Landscape Restoration Implementation plan 2022-2026 (FOLAREP) and FLR monitoring framework for Kenya
• The TWG held a series of meetings to develop and propose restoration monitoring indicators for Kenya which, alongside the draft FOLAREP, were subjected to county engagement workshops in seven regions covering all 47 counties in the country. These workshops aimed to obtain counties’ perspectives on land restoration, including stakeholder mapping and monitoring indicators, receiving feedback on the proposed FOLAREP, and building stakeholders’ capacity on restoration monitoring tools
• The project also promoted GTA and OxC analysis to ensure that gender and social inclusion priorities are recognised and catered for in future restoration efforts, and to create lessons for sustainability and wider scaling

The project promoted the GTA to ensure that GESI priorities are embedded in future restoration efforts, alongside lessons for long-term sustainability and wider scaling of results. This was delivered through a series of multi-stakeholder workshops reaching over 300 counterparts across Mbooni East and Kibwezi East sub-counties, with outputs including:

• Creative ways of identifying imbalances in workloads and decision-making power within households, reflecting on how such inequalities present potential challenges for land restoration, and discussing the changes men and women want to see
• Households reached through these workshops have since started embracing joint decision-making and equitable benefit sharing for land restoration
• The ToTs at reflection workshops also reported increased gender participation in community public meetings where more women and young voices are now being heard

The project also encouraged ToTs to organise into groups, adapt activities and design their own training events. For example, groups of ToTs in Kalawa/Mako, Mbooni East held training events with minimal support from the project, reaching 56 community members. The lessons learnt, particularly from the OxC and reflective workshop on GTA, significantly contributed to the production of a wide range of knowledge products aimed at increasing awareness, capacity, and scaling of context-appropriate and gender-transformative restoration approaches in Makueni County and beyond. These include an OxC approach field guide in English and Kiswahili, a Gender InfoBrief, and two videos.

The project identified key recommendations for stakeholders involved in land restoration:

• The TWG requires support to operationalise FOLAREP and capacity strengthening on FLR monitoring and reporting at the county and national levels
• The monitoring and reporting framework should be cascaded to the sub-national level and County Environment Committee where FLR is domiciled
• Scale up activities through existing administrative structures and groups, and engage with administrators to ensure support and buy-in
• Work closely with local government officers across various departments, including those related to gender, youth, and social services to embed GESI strategies
• Conduct reflection workshops to capture lessons and act on key recommendations
• Having dedicated GESI work packages as well as mainstreaming GESI across project activities is critical when matching restoration options to local context
• Initiating open community dialogue and raising awareness of gender inequality is key to changing narratives and achieving equitable and sustainable restoration outcomes