1. 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

2. 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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3. Project partners
• Maseno University
• Kenyatta University
• Practical Action
• National Environment Management Authority
• FoodLink
FoodLink Resources Institute
Resources
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4. Project Area
Turkana & Mandera
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5. 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
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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. Thank You
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