How Climate Worx Will Create Jobs for Kenyan Youth

The government has rolled out the Climate Resilience Service Program (CRSP) initiative dubbed Climate WorX.

The initiative rolled out on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, is an employment transition program for youth in Kenya aimed at fostering climate resilience and economic recovery by addressing critical needs across the roads and infrastructure, environmental and housing and urban development sectors.

Climate WorX seeks to leverage sustainable Extended Public Works Projects (EPWPs) to provide employment and daily wages to low-income earners reliant on daily wages from casual work, particularly those in informal settlements.

The initiative will utilize labour-intensive approaches to create sustainable public goods while promoting economic recovery by stimulating funds circulation within various locales.

200,000 job opportunities

The program will be implemented across all 47 counties with cohorts being recruited for each iteration.

The proposed recruitment is for 200,000 youth across the counties with a minimum of 1,500 youth per county.

Each cohort would be engaged in Climate WorX for a minimum duration of one year. Each subsequent year will lead to the recruitment of a different set of beneficiaries. The duration has been set to one year to give the youth sufficient time to work and plan their next life step.

During this year, the youth will not only be engaged in a works program but will also receive life skills training that will ensure that they transition into employment, further education, and/or entrepreneurship successfully.

The key activities to be undertaken in the Climate WorX initiative will be organized across three major workstreams including roads and infrastructure, environment and housing and urban development.

In roads and infrastructure, youths engaged in the exercise will undertake activities such as road construction, greening of highways and roadways and maintenance and clean up of highways and roadways.

Those engaged in environmental matters will undertake exercises such as seedling tubing, nursery development and stewardship.

In housing and urban development, Climate WorX employees will engage in rural housing and ISSB manufacturing, affordable housing Jua Kali manufacturing, solid waste management and the Nairobi River Commission rehàbilitation of riparian areas.

Elements of Climate WorX

Climate WorX will be anchored in the following elements;

• Climate resilience

The program will be anchored on the need to cultivate resilience among youth and the communities in which they live – from ensuring adaptation due to the impact of climate change on their normal way of living to improving economic prospects and mitigating the impact of poverty.

• Labor intensive approaches

The program aims to employ as many workers possible as allowed by available funding for projects.

• Equal opportunities

The program provides opportunities for citizens above the age of 18 of all genders and seeks to engage workers across all 47 counties.

• Pivot approach

The program has an aim to provide daily wages for workers who play a critical role in spurring economic activity while providing a transition to opportunities that provide sustainable income streams for participants.

In this way, the program will seek to actively prepare youth to pivot to their next ideal prospect in work or education. Therefore, the program will require participants to undertake both the skill building and cash-for-work portions of the program.

• Utilization of existing or redirected funding

Given the constraints in Government’s resource envelope, the program will utilize existing or redirected funding from ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) as well as suitable donor-funded programs to support exécution of projects that will improve income generation prospects for youth.

• Impact in the livelihoods of youth in Kenya

The program aims to improve the livelihoods of youth through a social safeguards approach that creates sustainable public good while generating income/wealth creation opportunities for youth in the long term.

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