Practical Action - Eastern Africa

Regional Workshop All African Conference of Churches, Nairobi

23 – 25 June 2010

Enhancing Adaptative Capacity of Pastoralists to

Climate Change in Northern Kenya

Eric Kisiangani

Practical Action

Practical Action - Eastern Africa

Introduction

• Two year research project

• Purpose: Inform adaptation to climate change among pastoralist communities in northern Kenya

• Launched in January 2008

• Funded under the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa programme of DFID/IDRC

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Project partners

• Maseno University

• Kenyatta University

• Practical Action

• National Environment Management Authority

• FoodLink Resources Institute

FoodLink

Resources

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Project Area

Turkana & Mandera

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Challenges Addressed by the Project

• Underlying structural constraints to adaptation to climate change

• Gender dimensions of vulnerability to climate change

• Loss of food Security and Livelihoods to climate stressors

• Access challenges to resilience enhancing services/options

• Institutional and policy constraints to adaptation to climate change

Practical Action - Eastern Africa

Project Objectives

• Determine the factors contributing to vulnerability of pastoralist communities to climate change

• Identify and evaluate gender dimensions of vulnerability to climate change among pastoralist communities.

• Undertake participatory identification of traditional and emerging climate change adaptation options and strategies at household and community level for better understanding of climate change.

• Determine the factors constraining pastoralists’ access to and use of climate change adaptation options and strategies.

• Identify and analyse institutional barriers to and opportunities for incorporating climate change adaptation measures into national development policies.

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Methodology: Participatory Action Research Approach

• Community experience sharing and analysis meetings of drought and flood trends and the role of climate information

• Community planning on utilization of water and pasture resources

• Community dissemination of experiences and practices in water and pasture management,

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Participatory Action Research Methodology

• Regular briefing visits to offices of government and other agencies in districts

• Experiences sharing workshops with agencies at district level

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Results

• Regular visits by local leaders to local meteorological stations for information,

• Grazing committees actively regulating grazing patterns,

• Development practitioners disseminating experiences from the project.

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Potential Indicators for Monitoring Intervention

• Number of organizations/networks implementing resilience building projects, - electronic surveys

• Articulation of Smart approach in National policy statements and statutes

• Number of development practitioners trained on Smart approach through regular baseline surveys

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Conclusion

• Supporting local communities to analyze their climate experiences/trends and local solutions contributes to DRM.

• Regularly briefing of government and other agencies at district level promotes DRM approaches

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Thank You