Kenya unveils Disaster Financing Strategy to boost preparedness against climate shocks

Kenya has launched a new five-year Disaster Risk Financing (DRF) Strategy aimed at strengthening the country's financial preparedness for disasters, shifting from emergency response to proactive planning as climate-related crises become more frequent and severe.

The Disaster Risk Financing Strategy 2026–2030, unveiled by the National Treasury with technical support from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), seeks to enhance the financial resilience of both national and county governments by ensuring resources are available before disasters strike rather than after they occur.

The strategy is designed to protect lives, livelihoods and economic development by embedding disaster preparedness into public financial planning through to 2030.

Speaking on behalf of the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Director of Financial and Sectoral Affairs Ronald Inyangala said the initiative represents a fundamental shift in how Kenya manages disaster risks.

"The true test of resilience is not how we respond after a disaster occurs, but how well we prepare before it happens," Inyangala said.

"This Strategy provides Kenya with a robust financial framework to anticipate, absorb and recover from disasters while protecting the most vulnerable members of our society and sustaining our economic progress," he added.

The launch comes as Kenya continues to grapple with increasingly frequent climate-related disasters, particularly droughts and floods that have devastated communities in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs).

According to the strategy document, the devastating March-April-May floods of 2024 affected about 410,000 people, claimed 315 lives, and caused an estimated Sh187 billion in damages, highlighting the urgent need for stronger disaster preparedness mechanisms.

Building on lessons from the previous Disaster Risk Financing Strategy (2018–2022), the new framework expands beyond traditional approaches such as risk retention and risk transfer to include investments in disaster risk reduction.

The strategy adopts a multi-hazard, multi-sector approach while incorporating gender equality and social inclusion. It also complements the Disaster Risk Management Strategy 2025–2030, which provides a broader framework for strengthening resilience across the country.

UNDRR supported the National Treasury throughout the strategy's development by providing technical expertise, including disaster risk financing tools and guidance on establishing national financing systems for disaster risk reduction.

The agency also assisted Kenya in developing a disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation budget-tagging system to improve the tracking and allocation of resources for resilience-building initiatives.

The strategy was developed through an extensive consultative process involving an inter-agency task force, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, construction professionals, the private sector and development partners between 2025 and 2026.

Among the partners supporting the initiative were the European Union, the United Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Government of Italy, the World Bank Group and the World Food Programme.

UNDRR Regional Office for Africa Chief Amjad Abbashar said robust data would be essential in ensuring the strategy achieves its objectives.

"We must strengthen risk data and analytics to guide financial planning. Good financing decisions depend on good information, on understanding where risks lie, how they evolve, and what they will cost," Abbashar said.

The strategy's launch coincides with significant legislative reforms in disaster management. In May, President William Ruto signed the National Disaster Risk Management Act, 2026, establishing the National Disaster Risk Management Authority and County Disaster Risk Management Committees to coordinate emergency response, issue early warnings and ensure timely delivery of assistance to affected communities.

The recently enacted Division of Revenue Act, 2026 also provides counties with resources to finance critical disaster risk management services.

Officials said the combined policy and legislative reforms position Kenya as a regional leader in disaster risk management by promoting resilience, fiscal stability and evidence-based planning while enabling governments to anticipate and respond to disasters before they escalate into humanitarian crises.