Strengthening drought resilience in northern Kenya

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The Drought Resilience in Northern Kenya (DRPNK) program, which is financed from two sources, aims to sustainably strengthen the drought resilience and climate change adaptability of pastoral and agro-pastoral production and livelihoods by developing suitable infrastructure, thereby increasing the food security of the target group. The activities financed with IGAD funds are intended to achieve cross-border effects with Uganda. The project is part of the old development cooperation program Food Security and Drought Resilience in Kenya and is being carried out in the neighboring districts of Turkana and Marsabit. The FC measure will finance various infrastructure measures in already identified priority areas on the basis of participatory and democratically legitimized district development plans that increase the drought and climate change resilience of the target population. These include measures for water extraction, storage and supply, feed production, pasture management and the rehabilitation of rural markets and paths. An innovative implementation model uses catalogues of measures from which the districts select the most suitable measures for them through participatory, local and at the same time structured decision-making processes. The core problem of drought and food insecurity is highly topical and has become even more acute with the absence of five consecutive rainy seasons (Oct. 2020 - Dec. 2022). In addition to long periods of drought, heavy rainfall and flooding also threaten the livelihoods of the local pastoral and agropastoral population and worsen their nutritional situation. Due to the high financing requirements for measures to strengthen drought resilience, an increase of the project by EUR 9 million is planned in order to expand investments and reach more people. This means that a total of EUR 30 million is available.