Under the SDG6 IWRM Support Programme (under the guidance of UNEP and coordinated by GWP in collaboration with UNEP-DHI Centre and UNDP Cap-Net), Kenya developed an IWRM Action Plan in 2019 including six priority actions. One of them focused on “Developing an incentive-based mechanism for Private Sector support to IWRM”. Under the Funding Matchmaking Initiative, this action was selected with a view to matching country-defined priorities for water management improvements which were lacking financing or only had partial funding, with local funding sources, donors and other funding agencies with available financing.

The main objective was to integrate key stakeholders and partners in order to establish a multi-stakeholder platform in the Upper Athi catchment to develop shared priorities and work towards cost-effective solutions. For this purpose, four bankable investment packages were developed, which include a number of catchment conservation priority actions and they were used to prepare pitches to identify possible partnerships, for a total of 15.45 million USD. To present the investment packages to potential partners, two private sector fora were organised, in which the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation offered to match the funds from the private sector partners.