- FAO, through the support of the Government of Japan implemented the project to mitigate the impact of drought.
- The project sought to support the most vulnerable pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations last year provided cash and livestock support to 70,000 agro-pastoralists in Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.
The move, through the support of the Government of Japan, seeks to curb impacts of drought in the Eastern African sub-region.
The Eastern African sub-region experienced its fifth failed rainy season and faced one of the worst droughts in 2023.
In Kenya, the project reached 2,000 households with unconditional cash transfers, livestock feed, and health interventions for livestock belonging to 2,900 households.
The health interventions included the deworming, vaccination and treatment of 55,000 cattle, 336,000 sheep and goats, and 380 camels.
Baringo Deputy Governor Felix Maiyo conveyed his gratitude to FAO and the people of Japan for providing technical expertise, resources, and global experience to help address food security challenges in Baringo and other counties in Kenya.
He spoke during the close-out workshop in Nanyuki where representatives from the Government of Kenya, project beneficiaries, FAO technical staff and partner organisations were in attendance.
Maiyo underscored the need to strengthen such initiatives and the critical role of partnerships in such intervention.
“Building community resilience and successful implementation of community empowerment programmes require a multifaceted approach and collaboration with key stakeholders,” he said.
Assistant FAO Representative in Kenya Hamisi Williams said the project came in March 2023, a time when more than two million people were facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 and above), many of them in the Arid and Semi-arid Lands such as Baringo and Samburu counties.
Williams said despite the successes of this programme, there is still a significant need to support vulnerable populations and build their resilience through strengthening early warning systems and anticipatory actions, investing in water infrastructure, and promoting climate-smart crop and livestock production.
Williams further stressed FAO’s commitment to improving the livelihoods of herders and agro-pastoral communities.
The experience-sharing and lessons learned from implementing partners provided recommendations for future design and implementation of similar projects, emphasising the need to scale up and have a comprehensive approach that includes livestock health.
He said the Government of Japan supported FAO with $2 million to implement the sub-regional project on mitigating the impact of drought for the most vulnerable pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in Djibouti, Kenya, and Uganda.
The programme supported households to rebuild their productive assets through cash and other valuable inputs (CASH+), such as animals, to meet their immediate food, nutrition, and health needs.
“Following its launch on April 19, 2023, the project succeeded in alleviating the vulnerability of more than 70,000 beneficiaries in three countries. Some 11,700 are from five regions of Djibouti, 17,200 people in two regions of Kenya, and 45,000 people in two districts of Karamoja in Uganda,” Williams said.
In Uganda, the project provided 7,500 pastoralist families with multi-nutrient blocks for their livestock and made cash transfers to 2,500 beneficiaries. Beneficiaries also received training on nutrition and the use of livestock feed.
In Djibouti, the project distributed livestock feed to 1,700 households. It also made cash distributions to 1,500 households and procured 10 solar water pumps that benefited 250 households.