The corridor interconnects Kenya and South Sudan across the Rift Valley, Kenya’s most populated province and the country’s food basket. The investment project supported by GCA focused on the Lesseru–Kitale (55km) and Morpus–Lokichar (138km) sections of this corridor. Through greater connectivity, the project will promote uninterrupted trade and communication between Kenya and South Sudan, boost export-oriented agricultural development, and contribute to the economic and social empowerment of the local population.

GCA delivered a detailed prioritization of green and grey adaptation options focusing on operations and maintenance interventions. The potential value added by the set of prioritized solutions that GCA highlighted ranges from $1.3 to $8.7 for every dollar invested. These adaptation solutions include design options to increase the resilience of assets and operations to climate hazards, as the analysis quantified associated risks to planned transport assets would amount to approximately $71.5 million per year in 2050 under the high-emissions global warming scenario. These costs include repair costs because of direct damages to the assets, and indirect economic costs caused by traffic disruptions and downtime of the assets (including food trade interruptions and potential losses of trade products).

The final results were discussed during climate risks dialogues held in Nairobi in August with multiple project stakeholders including the African Development Bank, KeNHA, Kenya Meteorological Department, Kenya Forest Service, and the Universities of Nairobi, Eldoret, and Oxford. GCA’s project activities were delivered in August 2023.

GCA is now following up with KenHA to support the integration of selected adaptation and resilience technical options for asset design and maintenance. KenHA is at the forefront of developing its adaptation and resilience strategy and using the results, in line with KeNHA’s strategy on climate adaptation, within their technical standards for design and assets management guidelines at the national scale. KeNHA has also taken the lead on cross-sectorial coordination, collaborating with the Kenya Forest Service to strengthen forestry initiatives related to road network resilience, including those that mitigate soil erosion and flood and landslide risks. GCA’s road corridor analysis provided quantitative financial analysis supporting this transversal collaboration, with maximal adaptation and resilience benefits for road networks and livelihoods.