Event2014 CBA learning event notes

From ccsl ilriwikis

Community Based Adaptation and Resilience inEast and Southern Africa’s Drylands A Learning Event for practitioners, researchers and policy makers

All notes are here

Outputs of the meeting:

Community-based adaptation and resilience in East & Southern Africa Drylands (Fiona Percy, CARE) Climate information services for community adaptation and resilience (John Gathenya, University of Reading) ESA Drylands Climate Knowledge & Projections (Jasper Batureine Mwesigwa, ICPAC) Future horizons - Pastoralism and climate change in Ethiopia (Adrian Cullis, Tufts University) Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience (Emma Bowa, CARE)

Identifying a vision of integrated CBA and resilience

Day 1 Notes:

Reflection and expectation from introduction session

  • Co-production of climate information and timely dissemination of afro-advisory services to end users
  • Delivery adaptation knowledge for policies and practices
  • Strengthening planning and resource mobilization at local level
  • Ensure that climate change adaptation is integrated into Disaster risk adaptation
  • Learning from pastoralists about climate change adaptation


Fiona Percy (CARE-ALP Program) - Setting the scene for drylands, adaptation and climate change

  • Participants from 11 countries in ESA
  • What are drylands in ESA?
  • Pastoralists are at the center of drylands pursuing shifting livelihoods with a changing climate who are marginalized, vulnerable, and often excluded from “modern’ development and resource and boundary conflicts
  • Drylands and pastoralist need to build their resilience….to secure sustainable livelihoods, absorbing and adapting shocks, and managing risks
  • Climate change is impacting resilience in drylands… weather is volatile, unpredictable. therefore pastoralists need to increase their adaptive capacity
  • CBA, an evolving and participatory approach is one way that pastoralist and development agencies (multi-stakeholder action) can work together at local level
  • We need to combine CBA and Resilience in the drylands to empower communities and invest in long term investments to address vulnerability, provide safety nets etc

Jasper Mwesigwa - ESA Drylands Climate Knowledge & Projections

ESA Climate changing and aspects of climate that is changing are

  • Temperature (Between 1901 – 2012, surface temperature in ESA has been increasing)

Land, oceans (including snow & ice caps) & the atmosphere have warmed up Warmer & fewer cold days/nights More frequent hot days and night Increased frequency & duration of heat waves

  • Precipitation (rainfall amounts are declining and some areas of East Africa, rainfall is increasing)

Increased heavy precipitation events leading to floods Increase in frequency & intensity of heavy precipitation Increase in intensity and duration of drought Increase in intense tropical cyclone activity

Impacts of the Observed Changes

  • Impacts in all socio-economic sectors including Agriculture/livelihoods, Infrastructure, Environment/ecosystems/terrestrial/marine, tourism, Water sector/hydro-power
  • Huge economic losses due to impacts (e.g., Kenya loss in livestock sector was estimated at Ksh.699 billion between 2008-2012). The costs and time of recovery are increasing
  • At Community Level (Seasons are no longer predictable, Crop production is no longer predictable, Pastures and water are no longer predictable, Food security is no longer predictable and Communities’ livelihoods are not predictable)

Conclusion: Climate change is real; its impacts have the potential to undermine & even, undo progress made in improving the socio-economic well-being. We need to focus on reducing the risks associated with the current climate variability and extremes in order to be able to adapt to future changes in climate. We also need to strengthened inter-linkages between adaptation and development pathways and a focus on building resilience would help to counter the current adaptation deficit and reduce future maladaptation risk

Q&A of the two presentations from Fiona and Jasper Question 1: One of the challenges we have in Ethiopia is to downscale weather forecast available for end users especially for pastoralist… what experiences do other countries haveespecially we want to listen from kenya? Answer:

  • There is a lot of work done on down-scaling forecast and there is still gaps to fill especially on reliable information. Talk amongst the participants and they will share their experiences
  • Yes, in Kenya IPAC and Met services are piloting downs bailing forecast to community levels and age-advisory services and it went very well

Question 2: How do we blend the CBA and Mitigation strategies to deal with climate change? Answer:

  • There is an urgent need for the world to reduce emissions… and whatever happens in mitigation stratifies now and the need for adaptation, CC will still continue because we are already on the trajectory of change.
  • Its important that whatever adaptation we do, we need to consider mitigation strategies as well.

'Question 3': What does transformational actions mean in real terms? Answer:

  • It cannot be business as usual anymore… Transformational actions are already happening for example in communication channels… the key question is how do these action contribute to safeguarding the livelihoods of pastoralist? how do we tap into the transformational action to engage local communities in adaptation initiatives.

What conversations topics do we absolutely want to avoid? This includes topics that have been discussed deeply and frequently.

  • Science and politics of climate and climate change
  • Negative criticisms of individuals, organizations, countries, ethnic differences etc
  • Climate financing, Policy and land tenure
  • Use of terms such as climate and its impacts, mitigation, sustainability
  • Theoretical solutions
  • discussions on Climate smart agriculture, CBA approach, GMOs

What areas do we absolutely want to talk about? Where do we think there are gaps, areas that have been ignored and yet they are critical to adaptation?

  • Local knowledge and practical experience on adaptation, what has worked on CBA, practical scalable solutions for farmers in drylands. Also how to generate evidence for practical actions and approach.
  • How CBA can contribute to ecosystem functioning and resilience
  • Building resilience and resource mobilization (climate financing for communities) for local level adaptation
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement and involvement for adaptation
  • Harmonization of projects and programs on adaptation and mitigation
  • Networking locally and regionally
  • How to integrate local knowledge and experiences on adaptation with climate change information
  • How to reach and target the most vulnerable groups in drylands
  • How to keep adaptation momentum going
  • Implementation of policy that integrates development and adaptation
  • Enabling policy environment in the region and good governance
  • Common understanding of resilience
  • Empowering communities and sharing of experiences on good practices

Q1. What are the new challenges climate change is bringing to Drylands? (how do we work with uncertainty?) New challenges

  • Social tension from the house hold level to national level and to communities
  • New diseases and pests
  • Breeding for drought tolerance
  • Creation of new policy gaps
  • Challenge to other livelihood options
  • Traditional indicators becoming less reliable
  • Farming practices are affected pastoralists
  • Pest and diseases emerging
  • Information on CC not communicated because of quick changes
  • Changes in socio-cultural aspects
  • Change of gender roles
  • Conflict of resources
  • Develop sustainable innovational intervention/innervation
  • Migration – competition for resources
  • Increased demand for financial resources to address CC (resource constraints)
  • Human wildlife conflict escalating
  • Increase in migration, previously the massay community men and boy who use to keep animals
  • Now b/c of climate change the whole communities move
  • Unpredictable rainfall
  • Increasing rainfall variability
  • Food insecurity – decreasing livestock herds
  • Increasing conflicts over water and grazing resources
  • Pressure on women and children additional workload
  • Woman and children – increase vulnerability
  • Extreme climate event – drought , floods, etc intensity and frequency increasing human and animal
  • Increasing health challenges – ex. Malaria, cholera, RVF
  • Over structured traditional coping mechanism
  • Break down of family structures – women – headed households increasing, effects on cultural setup
  • Degradation of NR soils, vegetation, forests , water bodies
  • Slow development progress as resources are diverted to cope with CC impacts
  • Increased conflicts: Human vs wildlife, land conflicts/pasture
  • Increased floods/ droughts frequencies(drylands involves uplands and on sites)
  • Eruption of diseases to human and animals as well as pests
  • Environmental degradation as a result of maladaption i.e ecosystem damage , land degradation deforestation etc.
  • Social behavioural change
  • Traditional indicators becoming less reliable
  • Farming practices (and pastoralism) are affected
  • Pest & diseases emerging
  • Information on CC not communicated because of quick changes
  • Changes in sociocultural aspects

Change of gender roles Conflict of resources

  • Develop sustainable innovations/interventions
  • Migration – competition for resources
  • Increased demand for financial resources to address CC (resource constraint)
  • Human-wildlife conflict escalating
  • Resource (water, pasture) scarcity + slow regeneration of resources
  • Increased frequency of extreme event
  • Information gap – lack of access at right time
  • Low response capacity for early warning + DRR
  • Collapse of traditional rangeland system
  • Lack of trust / confidence between different knowledge sources – indigenous + scientific
  • Increased frequency and intensity of droughts
  • Unpredictable seasons, intense rainfall, unpredictable distribution, unknown impacts of higher temperatures on water and natural resources
  • Climate change impacts affect:

Grazing and rangelands, animal health, livestock and crop diseases Mobility, poor infrastructure destroyed in floods Move from cattle to goats and sheep to camels

  • Climate change, with other shocks – economic, global food security, conflict, is speeding up existing trends:

Social fabric breaking down, move towards fewer animals, sedenterisation, crops, New comers to drylands with new technology, irrigation , who marginalise locals Need for land and mobility is increasing while access is reducing Pastoralism is shrinking, fewer owners, contract labour for herding Cross border mobility issues

Dealing with uncertainty

  • Down scaling and timely, reliable, relative weather information – predictions with appropriate advisories
  • Improving climate smart infrastructure – institutions planning , technology development and transfer
  • Blending of scientific and indigenous knowledge
  • Early warning systems - strengthened
  • Community managed DRR (IK)
  • Introduction of climate smart livelihoods ( beekeeping , drought tolerance, disease resistant)
  • information Diversification of livelihoods
  • improvement of climate information services
  • promotion of access to markets and credit facilities
  • weather index insurance (IBLI, IBCI)
  • Improvement of social services
  • Improve exchange of information
  • Livelihood diversification that are sustainable environmental friendly including non climate depended strategies
  • Proper communication on uncertainties
  • Proper livestock insurance (risk spreading mechanism)
  • Downscaled and timely, reliable, relevant weather information – predictions with appropriate advisories (PSP)
  • Improving climate smart infrastructure – institutions, planning (tech dev and transfer)
  • Blending of scientific and indigenous knowledge
  • Strengthening & integrating traditional + scientific forecasting
  • Improve downscaling + timely forecasting

Q2: what are the gaps in the interface between CC adaptation and resilience?

  • Lack of relevant and reliable climate information to enable transitioning from adaptation to resilience
  • Lack of or limited knowledge sharing, no/limited collaboration and integration of activities among different actors
  • Lack of coordination and segmentation in policy and practice
  • Limited integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge
  • Lack of adaptive capacities for local communities to transition to resilience due to less resources, untrusted information givers e.g. met services
  • Lack of clear understanding and interpretation of adaptation and resilience terms
  • Absences of of holistic approach to adaptation that can build in to resilience
  • Resilience will never be a stable state but a factor of capacity to continually absorb, adapt and transform to a changing climate
  • Limited government commitment to invest (financial, infrastructure and policy formation and implementation) in adaptation plans and strategies that can build resilience
  • The natural resources are already highly regarded making climate change adaptation and resilience a big challenge.. natural and social systems are collapsing
  • Rigid/resistant community cultures and practices to change
  • Failure to identify appropriate adaptation and sustainable strategies that can lead to maladaptation
  • Different climate change drivers interact with others and we cannot predict impacts hence adaptation strategies might not lead to resilience
  • Lack of knowledge on climate impacts/prediction, adaptation options ( for different end users such as pastoralist, agro-pastoral, farmers) and new diseases and pests livestock, crops and humans
  • Lack of supportive policy and suitable governance structures (i.e. clear policy and enforcement mechanisms) to deal with climate change adaptation
  • Lack of documentation and sharing of best practices and lessons learned
  • Lack of integration of climate change adaptation and resilience to education curriculum across disciplines in the academic institutions
  • Lack of community-driven approaches to risk management (local community’s skills and knowledge not recognized because of topdown approaches)
  • Increasing demand for natural resources vs. decreasing natural regeneration capacity (ecosystem functionality)
  • Lack of clear climate and age advisory messages to end users and policy makers from climate scientists and other researchers
  • Confusion over what the two concepts are and their meaning changes over time.
  • Adaptation – about doing these differently, resilience about bouncing back to an existing state
  • Understanding when transitions and transformations are needed more than either CBA or resilience • Timescales matter
  • Without adaptation to climate change, resilience will not be possible
  • Climate change is uncertain and complex – different drivers interact with each other and impacts cannot be predicted. So:
  • Preparedness for uncertainty is important
  • Resilience cannot be a stable state given constant change and uncertainty – it must be about capacity to continuously absorb, adapt and transform lives in relation to situation. = same as adaptation/adaptive capacity?
  • Climate information gaps: Downscaling, data, access, long term projections
  • Lack of coordination between actors in disaster risk, emergency response and development
  • DRR/emergency actors less likely to take climate change and climate information into account
  • Need for joint planning and consider governance, NRM and peace/security


Q3: what are the Opportunities for Adaptation to contribute to resilience?

  • Increasing understanding of climate and its impact by various stakeholders including the endusers due to generated existing data and knowledge from different sources
  • Willingness and flexibility of different actors to invest in climate change adaptation in terms of finance, human capacity and infrastructure
  • Policy support driven by governments (e.g., CC policy formation and implementation) and embedding adaptation in national planning plans
  • Climate change has become a global agenda and every actor (including governments, donors and communities) is willing to work to address the impacts of climate change as well as adaptation strategies
  • Providing opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills of local communities to build resilience
  • Encouraging multi-sectoral approach with multi-stakeholder participation towards adaptation
  • Integrated and systems holistic approach i.e. interdependence between resources and production systems move towards mainstreaming
  • Identification and documentation of adaptation strategies and scaling up
  • Availability of technical experts on CC that can make linkages between adaptation and resilience
  • Downscaling of climate information, and its available on a timely basis - reliability
  • Community based adaptation can generate information that can lead to resilience or is a catalyst for resilience. It ensures that CBA approaches and success and failures of adaptation to build long term resilience by integrating localized solutions
  • Can be an innovative use of technologies e.g. biotechnology
  • Increased buy in by government to support policies and processes can lead to resilience
  • Capacity to sustainably manage natural resources and carry out ecological based adaptation to build resilience
  • Adaptation options increase livelihood and income diversification and strengths local adaptation knowledge and institution that can build resilience
  • Increased knowledge sharing by different stakeholders, making climate change a global issue, thus requiring global partnerships
  • Integration of and mainstreaming of adaptation in all sectors, encouraging continuity and ownership of approaches
  • Platforms for different actors (NGOs, governments, research) working together by developing a common approach to understanding adaptation
  • Opportunity for strengthening local and national level institutions and their capacities
  • Combined development plans which are incorporated with DRR/risk contingency plans
  • community based and managed from risk analysis to planning to weather information and decision making … which to shift to contingency
  • Interface with ITK with innovations and new knowledge and linking research and practice
  • Combine planning at local level (risk reduction) and build on community-based integration
  • The level of resources required for changes to achieve resilience requires a paradigm shift away from short term projectized approaches…
  • Knowledge and attitudinal practice of communities in terms of adaptation can help build resilience
  • Offers opportunity to Apply multi-sectoral approach to resilience
  • Combined development and disaster risk/contingency plans
  • Community based and managed processes – from risk analysis, planning, accessing climate forecasts, decision making and building adaptive capacity
  • Local knowledge and combining with new innovations
  • Short term to long term solutions and benefits
  • Technologies: ICTS, trees, renewable energy etc
  • Communication systems, climate information for decision making, multi-level action, linking local to national, platforms for all actors to work together across silos and disciplines
  • Need resources and coordination for longer term work – move away from short projects
  • Paradigm shift for development and humanitarian aid needed – long term strategies with flexible funding


Day 2 Notes:

Tuesday 2 September: Identifying success factors, challenges and good practices Plenary keynote: 3 guests to speak on key topics:

Climate Information Services for Community Adaptation and Resilience John Gathenya - University of Reading

  • Climate information is key to managing current climate risks
  • End users access, interpret and apply climate information for decision making
  • End users need location-specific climate information products
  • Communities should be trained and engaged in collecting rain data. Everyone has a role to play in providing climate information from local level (community with indigenous knowledge) to national level (national Meteorology services)
  • Communication of climate information services to reach farmers equitably…integrated in extension messages through use of ICT
  • Include support systems to help farmers act on climate information such as markets, input dealers, research and private sectors
  • Donor community is beginning to invest in climate information

Future Horizons: pastoralism and climate change in Ethiopia? Adrian Cullis - Tuts University

  • Pastoral areas occupy 60% of Ethiopia’s land area with 15 million people, exports about USD350 million to Middle East
  • Conflicting data/information on climate change for Ethiopia, therefore, there is no emerging consensus on what climate change might mean for Ethiopia
  • Challenges facing pastoralist are many and complex and intertwined
  • Social and economic differentiation affects how pastoralist cope with drought. Wealthy families accumulate more livestock, medial wealth families remain unchanged and those considered less wealthy loss livestock during drought.
  • Livelihood trends emerging in Pastoral areas is not new, but what has changed is numbers of livestock families hold.
  • National pastoral policies must strengthen pastoral systems to assist families in transition
  • Flexible donor funding that allows for innovative dryland resilience
  • Civil society is crucial in drylands and for pastoral communities to strengthen evidence-base

Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience Emma Bowa - CARE International

  • Different groups in society are affected differently to climate change and respond differently as well.
  • Everyone in the community have a role to play in addressing climate change through their own experiences and knowledge
  • Access to and use of climate information products is affected by gender, language, age and other social differential factors
  • Communal social protections and safety nets are collapsing as drought intensity and frequency increases in pastoral areas
  • Acknowledge and encourage vulnerable people as owners of knowledge and agents of change. Strengthen their capacity and empower them to adapt in different and complementary ways
  • Key question is “how do we include the most vulnerable group”? what opportunities exist for meaningful interaction and engagement of vulnerable groups?

Group 1: Climate information - a new resource for adaptation, risk reduction, early warning and resilience? Issues challenges

  • Climate information particularly in drylands are completely weak
  • We don’t’ have timely and accurate information/data,
  • lack of relevant technology for data collection
  • Most of climate information are supply driven not focused to users need
  • Resources for continuous product development based on user needs – need to use private sector finance to sustain
  • Absence of climate information (they are few station and they are full of interruption) this factor the quality of information
  • Language barriers (most of scientific jargons so local communities can’t understand it easily and also it is not user friendly), interpretation and translation problem
  • Limited networks,limited number of equipment’s,insufficient funding for maintenance
  • No incentives for meteorological observers
  • There is no hazard database to monitor the data collected
  • Forecasts neglecting historical data
  • There is no user interface
  • Limitation of modern data
  • Forecasting capacity is very low
  • Lack of good documentation
  • lack of farmers trust and confidence in Met. information
  • lack of private sector engagement for sustainability
  • Timescales – most focus on seasonal , short term is starting, longer term forecasts and use not yet addressed, except local observations. Long term future forcasts are still problematic for climate science. Rainfall hard to predict

Success factors

  • Wider range of information to improve seasonal forecasts
  • Collective interpretation to produce advisories
  • Combining local and scientific knowledge at local level
  • Communication of advisories and uncertainty with forecasts
  • Building capacity of local community of early Waring systems
  • Historical information for farmer decision making
  • Goo service and information
  • Information for decision making
  • Valid range of communication channels
  • Tools available for improvement in satellite data
  • Dissemination of content in local language
  • Availability of reliable data from international/global weather forecast
  • Use of community monitors
  • various national project in installing weather station improving network

Good practices

  • Participatory scenario planning
  • Language barriers to understand information
  • Community radios
  • Text messaging using mobile phones
  • Flexible forward decision making approach
  • Down scaling workshop where climate science meet with other actors
  • National seasonal farmer planners with advisories
  • Regional seasonal climate outlook forums eg. GHACOF
  • Participatory scenario planning
  • Community rain-gavges for community and met use
  • Capacity building for multi-stakeholders
  • End of season review
  • Integrating indigenous and scientific local information (increase indigenous forecasters)
  • Strengthening linkages with producers users and intermediaries
  • Multi-stakeholder approach
  • Inclusion of climate information into agriculture extension services

Group 2: The future of pastoralism in an uncertain climate (Adrian Cullis)

What are the key challenges facing pastoralism and pastoral areas?

  • There is diversity within pastoralism and pastoral systems, each having different challenges and dynamism that we should recognize instead of offering blanket adaptation strategies - localized adaptive approach is appropriate
  • Inappropriate policies that support large ranches and negatively affecting smallholder farmers (experience from Botswana). (Thus making the wealthy livestock keeper become more wealthy). In Uganda, policies are encouraging pastoral communities to transition to agro-pastoralism. Existing policies are not compatible with pastoralism.
  • NGOs are not involved in policy engagement and they should be involved in informing policy processes.
  • Pastoralism is in transition and many pastoralist dropped out, challenge is what are these pastoralist engaged in? What livelihood options/alternative do transition families have? Pastoralism does not have alternative livelihoods but complementary livelihoods
  • Pastoralism relies on natural resource base, which is facing degradation and encroachment by increasing population/settlement… how do we make pastoralism sustainable?
  • Lack of livestock breeding programs that are suitable for pastoral areas
  • Pastoral areas are hotspots for poverty
  • Pastoral systems and pastoralism offers intricate and complex interplay of different factors that challenge adaptation (social, natural, political, economic, cultural etc)
  • Pastoralism is not guided by physical boundaries (.e.g, Kenya-Uganda, Kenya-Ethiopia, Kenya-Tanzania) and hence poses challenges to policy implementation. Pastoralism is mobile and does not respect boundary/borders.
  • Donor community is not flexible with regards to funding for pastoralism
  • Top-down approaches that target poor pastoralism conflicts with how the community wants to solve/address their own problems
  • Traditional governance is weakened and the government ‘modern” governance system is very weak and in some cases destroying traditional governance systems. its very complicated and lack evidence base.
  • The natural resource available is reducing for pastoralism. Challenge is working out the optimum use of land and its resources in drylands.
  • There is lack of evidence to support that pastoralism is the best practices for drylands.
  • Conflicts with other economy sectors e.g., Tourism is encroaching on pastoral lands and with its great contribution to the economy, majority of the lands in National parks were originally pastoral lands. Revenues gained from tourism are not shared with pastoral communities.
  • Pastoral lands are communally owned without security of tenure. hence land grabbing is rampart and pastoral communities do not have a voice to advocate for their land rights
  • NGOs are slow in responding to the needs of the pastoral communities. They also work in isolation, doing work by themselves. They should operate in a sphere whereby all stakeholders are involved included governments, private sectors, research etc. They should provide learning spaces whereby all stakeholders come together.
  • NGOs are not adaptive to the governments structures in each country that have completely different operating systems for engagement, coordination etc e.g., Ethiopia has Federal system, Kenya has County Government etc.
  • Researchers/NGOs are not treated pastoralism as a system. there are no structures to support it such as markets, credit. Pastoralism is isolated and often neglected except for a few NGOs who operate in the drylands.
  • Conflict with agro-pastoralism for pasture land.
  • Crop production (agro-pastoralism) is introducing invasive weeds/plants that are not palatable to livestock. These will have a serious productivity on milk and meat yield as well as the taste of the milk and meat. What is the future of pastoralism with invasive plants?
  • Refugees are putting pressure on natural resources and seriously degrading the land, areas that were pastoral lands. A lot of land is lost due to refugees.
  • Emerging extractive industries that are conflicting with pastoralism and destroying the land. Government is investing in these extractive industries.

What are good practices and success factors that we can build on?

  • Understanding dynamics of pastoral systems - give chance to pastoral communities to discuss, analyze and provide solutions. Work in partnership with local community, identify challenges in the local areas.
  • Complementary livelihoods to Pastoralism - Tanzania - community owned ASALs are designated as wildlife conservation areas, and everyone identified the boundary and maintained the areas for wildlife. This attracted tourism, created employment, lodges (by AWF) and during drought livestock are allowed into the areas for grazing and water. This is working well, coz its conserve the environment. Policy and legislation in TZ is supporting this complementary livelihoods
  • The future of pastoralism is dependent on the ecosystem their derive their livelihoods, we need to reduce the herd size (carrying capacity). Policies should address how to reduce livelihood herd size to restore the ecosystem that is degraded.
  • There exists traditional institutions that govern grazing rules e.g., Borana of Kenya that have been quite successful in managing their pastoral systems. Borana in Ethiopia have successful governance on on range management, water management. But this systems of governance are in danger from government structures that are in conflict with the traditional Borana ones. Boundaries conflicts are emerging. The future of pastoralism should a) Keep the traditional structures b) the areas should be open and communal, c) encourage the youth to
  • NGOs being adaptive to local governance processes and government structures. NGOs should work together with other stakeholders especially the government. CARE-Kenya using participatory Learning (Participatory scenario planning) whereby it engages local governance systems. The success of the program has enabled the MoA has taken up the program/strategy once CARE exits. This is a pilot case.
  • Livestock mobility is key to pastoralism.
  • Markets for livestock products dur Herd size management
  • Strategies to manage droughts and other extreme weather to enable pastoralist get rid of some of the herds during adversity periods. Governments/private sector can buy livestock during such periods
  • Strategies to manage droughts e.g. Botswana whereby feed prices drop during droughts. every year government undertakes a drought assessment… if its declared drought, government develops packages to assist communities to survive drought. One option is subsidies for animal feed, through the Livestock advisory centers(LAC) who give a list of the feeds that are subsidized and the percentage. During the drought period, farmers pay the subsidized rate and when drought is over, prices return to normal prices. Subsidized feeds are drought pellets, salt, Dicalcium phosphate, vaccines….Dr. Olaotswe Kgosikoma. Botswana
  • in Kenya, pastoral communities were ignored but with the devolution process, the counties are now getting infrastructure and ICT e.g., use of mobile phone is increasing which can be used to share climate information.
  • Relate historical trends of pastoralism setting with climate scenario modeling., Invest in scientific research towards pastoral programs.
  • There are smart donors who invest heavily in Africa and we are not tapping into this resources and NGOs should try to get these donors for drought focus initiatives. We should be much more robust with acquiring more donor funding.
  • The community should not be docile, and humble. we should strengthen them to articulate ether issues. Awaken the traditional governance structures to fight for their communities, engage with local governments, be involved in planning and budgeting.
  • Flexible funding


Group 3: Pathways out of resilience for the most vulnerable to climate change in drylands

Factors that influence vulnerability:

  • Asset base
  • Power
  • Traditions/norms/culture
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Disability/health
  • Geographic locations
  • Economic capital
  • Literacy levels
  • Ecological health (quality of natural resources)
  • Social health (e.g. impact of humanitarian response on indigenous economic systems)
  • Infrastructure (transport, communications etc)

Q: How to work with the most vulnerable without singling them out and make the problem worse?

  • Adaptive social protection – opportunities for pathways out of vulnerability:
  • Continuum: safety nets àspringboards à transformation
  • Safety nets (social protection) = food aid, cash transfer, public works (school, road, health centre)
  • Springboards (livelihood diversification + risk management) = new income generating activities, skills, information, technologies, social/micro insurance schemes, traditional social protection mechanisms (e.g. merry go rounds, zakat)
  • Transformation = transforming institutions , policies, livelihoods (e.g. institutional social welfare structures)

Q: Has adaptation in practice been a bit short sighted, focusing on quick fixes rather than longer term solutions? Plenary discussion re: group work above:

  • Explanation re: chiefs grainery – how does this ensure equitability? Recommendation of most vulnerable by chief heads that are given priority of allocations.
  • Working with the most vulnerable quite often about working with those who are NOT the most vulnerable in order to address social structures/norms which prevail and perpetuate vulnerability. E.G. same applies to gender and working with women.
  • Drylands – problem with absence of government – resources not available for social adaptive capacity but existing community structures such as community based and traditional natural resource management could be strengthened in absence of government.
  • Necessary to revitalise cross-boundary/traditional structures?
  • Strengthening linkages/interactions between vulnerable groups and government/elite as not just about having access to resources and information, access to formal institutions etc.
  • Community mapping – identification of different groups within community – target the support differently. Engage people as groups not individuals to participate in collective action.
  • Community representatives nominated from within communities – important to have trust in these people (CBT’s – community based trainers or community monitors)
  • Necessary to have dialogue between donor community and practitioners to try and educate, inform and change approach to funding and achieving change.
  • Programme approach – working with communities over the long term (15 yrs) across all of the sectors.

Success factors:

  • Safety nets

Culturally acceptable practice Graduation of vulnerable people facilitated to become empowered Good support from government structures

  • Springboards

Building on existing local structures (e.g. traditional governance structures, women’s groups, youth groups) Strengthening linkages and relationships Inclusivity – ages, gender, vulnerable groups Extension support Access to information – market, climate, technologies

  • Transformation

Focusing on; information, governance, education, markets and ICTs with ‘out of the box’ approaches in order to result in transformation. Not focusing only on technological solutions but on transformation of institutional and governance structures.


Good practices:

  • Safety nets

Quick responses to the needs of vulnerable people Contributes to NRM and reduces Government expenditure (budgets) Creates an opportunity to introduce new technologies to vulnerable communities

  • Springboards

Improved crops and livestock practices and livestock diversification Grain banks (chiefs grainery) GSLA/VSLA Domesticating value addition practices Building capacity and extension support

  • Transformation

Understanding existing potential and building on this Not assuming we understand social differentiation but instead delving in and researching the social context – particularly norms and rules which could constrain transformation.

Barriers and Challenges:

  • Safety nets

Misuse of resources Dependency syndrome Creates social tensions

  • Springboards

Social and cultural norms Resistance and politics Conflicts Loan risks (non-repayment) Lack/limited stakeholder engagement Managing uncertainty and other risks

  • Transformation

Resistance to change – soft skills needed to address fear, culture and protection of the status quo. Limitations of funding structure, soft skills necessary to advocate change to more flexible and long term funding. Limitations of reporting structure which focuses on superficial numbers rather than measures of real transformation.

Summary

  • Relationships – often more needed than money or technologies, trust and confidence, programme approach, access to formal institutions
  • Going the ‘last mile’ – no transformation without safety nets and social springboards, we cannot leap frog these steps.
  • Valuing traditional indigenous mechanisms – governance, land use arrangements, traditional safety nets
  • Transformation for the most vulnerable – often means starting by working with the more powerful/better off in order to change the barriers/conditions which are impacting on people’s vulnerability

What are the connections to the whole discussions, other plenary sessions/wider picture?

  • Climate information is not reliable/adequate - improve information to farmers to enable them know when to sell. Communication between the farmer and weather info providers is poor. Make the met data user friendly
  • We need to undertake vulnerability studies, identify who is the most vulnerable and tailor adaptation strategies to each vulnerable group
  • Pastoralism with climate info…climate info should be tailored towards pastoralism.
  • Invest in community structures and leaders - we must undertake evidence base on community structures, etc

Product development:

  • Seasonal climate outlook forums
  • Improved seasonal forecast with more types info – start and end date, dry spells etc
  • Tailored end products and packages for agric. Demand side important – met and agric and agric research training on generating products for end users
  • National seasonal farm planner - interpretation and seasonal advisory development for downscaling to agro-ecological zones regional
  • Seasonal advisories developed from climate and other info from multi-stakeholder groups
  • Collective interpretation and generation of relevant info and advice
  • Participatory Scenario Planning (PSP) – seasonal collective interpretation combining local and science knowledge with review of past season to create advisories – all over ESA now, including Sudan
  • Tailored product development
  • Combining local knowledge and scientific knowledge
  • Using historical data and local knowledge for downscaling
  • Capacity building important and needed – should be multi-stakeholder

Communication:

  • Use a variety of Communication channels – ICTs/mobile phones, radios, social networks,
  • Communication - using advisories with action options not only forecast dissemination
  • Information communicated should feed decisions for actions

Local info and knowledge combination

  • Raingauges at community level – and mobile phones for sending info to HQ and back. Potential for producing local data and analysis by met services to support short range and seasonal forecasts – but still in early days

Points emerged from sharing from group: NMA producer Ethiopia

  • All timescales of forecasts produced BUT Info gaps - regional level, agric sectors do not involve actively to get to ground level
  • Website is good – maps and info available BUT How many people use the website?
  • Different task forces – eg national DRR working group with all actors in the sector – receive info monthly for action, prepare alerts and contingency plans – system for dissemination
  • Historical data – pastoralist areas have few stations, supported by WFP now have automatic stations so accuracy of data increasing now, processing the data to produce forecasts – cover gap on info data. Interpolation where no weather centres – eg in drylands – use satellite data
  • Downscaling forecast – NMA national and regional, projects working on this for agriculture – 10 daily and monthly forecasts

Intermediary and user issues

  • Dissemination is the focus. How is climate data useful to users?
  • Seasonal problems – famers don’t access info and timeliness is a problem
  • Weather forecast information, receive from NMS, via cell phones, pass it on to farmers
  • Info on short term – 1 day, 1 week, 1 month only, useful for planting dates,
  • Seasonal info is not accessible, structures for dissemination are not in place for everyone to receive the info
  • CIS western Kenya Nyando – baseline to understand end user needs, want info which is reliable accurate and timely and locally relevant – do not find radio announcements useful
  • Want advice on crop management
  • Relying on social networks to get info - use these for dissemination – not only ICTs. Barazas, village meetings
  • Receive info and pass to farmers: challenges, uncertainty and probability. Farmers need to be trained about the uncertainties, without this as intermediary feel it will back fire . also advice on how to use the info to make decisions on what to do, Info is generalised not region specific
  • Forecasts not available – only get seasonal forecasts not the short range forecasts
  • KMS and another programme are now scaling down – training on the info and how to receive and use – still not yet created capacity of farmers
  • Private sector engagement is too low – need for commercialising CIS to ensure sustainability?


Market Place – sharing and learning from others on practical tools, approaches and more

Organizations displaying

  • CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security
  • Beyond Assistance
  • Building Resilient Communities in Somalia (BRiCS)
  • Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
  • Judith Chikonde Foundation
  • ACCRA - Oxfam UK
  • CARE-Ethiopia
  • CARE-Global
  • Center for Environment Policy and Advocacy
  • Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems Services and Food Security in Eastern Africa (CHIESA)
  • Pastoralist Farmer Schools
  • Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource Management College
  • CAFOD-SCIAF-Trocaire
  • ADA Consortium
  • Ecological Christian Organization
  • Ministry of Devolution and Planning - Kenya

Day 3 Notes:

Plenary keynote Fishbowl: Taking stock of our journey, realising the limitations of our work and understanding synergies, complementarities and the added value of CBA for resilience in drylands – towards a vision for future work

Fish Bowl Discussion Points

  • Focus on Pastoralist… how they lives might be looking in the future under uncertain climate conditions…transitioning livelihoods
  • Roles of the different stakeholders… how to engage with them… what innovations and technologies are out there in the drylands…policy makers can assist us in developing strategic policy frameworks for drylands
  • How to support pastoralist towards more resilient livelihoods…. towards a quality of life and in the context of CC, explore what risks and how they can manage the risks, what systems can provide information e.g. early warning. Not only focus on productive livelihoods… but resilient livelihoods.
  • Adaptive capacity…pathways out of vulnerability to climate change for drylands…
  • There exist complex information about CC, how do we synthesize all this information to address adaptive capacity for pastoralist. issues of donor flexibility to invest in dryland livelihoods
  • Understanding Climate change terminologies is essential to enable us grasp what is expected to build adaptive capacity and enhanced resilience of pastoralists… but not during this 4-day learning event
  • PME and impact assessment should also be emphasized because how do we measure progress towards building resilience. This will enable us draw learning experience and improve on livelihoods.
  • How do we measure behavioral change in drylands? can we measure resilience or its something that we will always keep striving for like happiness??? We have not discussed how to measure resilience in drylands
  • We need to think about economics for drylands… how can the poor and marginalized people benefits from all the projects that being implemented in drylands… What social development projects are suitable for poor and vulnerable people….We need to think about BIG INVESTMENTS for poor people that can act as springboard to development. The current investments that governments are planning for drylands in eastern Africa (Kenya, Uganda) is extractive and hardly address or benefit the poor people.
  • What role do development workers/agents/donor community play in undermining traditional coping mechanisms that have always existed for thousands of years? we need to reflect on this to ensure that we are not contributing to vulnerability of pastoral communities. our interventions can and have interfered with community coping strategies
  • We need sustainable platform for stakeholders to share experiences and success stories so that we all learn what other pastoral communities are doing out there.

Group work: Co-creating new knowledge towards achieving climate resilient development in East and Southern Africa drylands

Group 1: Pastoralist - Managing Risks (v.dry)

Our vision statement for 2050 will be - Resilient pastoralist with more productive herd on secure lands Components of the vision entail-

  • Resilient pastoralist (by choice)
  • Peaceful, safe and secure families
  • Well educated/informed
  • Fewer pastoralist
  • Access to solid climate information networks
  • Large land sizes
  • Excellent extension services (e.g., vet drugs, breeds, fodder mgt., AI)
  • Reliable markets
  • Good infrastructure (e.g., abattoirs)
  • Access to fodder
  • Access to credit and finance
  • Access to human health facilities
  • Living in well managed and conserved ecosystems
  • Strategic resources (pasture, water, mineral, ) shared equitably
  • Secure land tenure
  • Government driven sedentarization
  • Privatization
  • Leading community driven/responsive change

Goog Principles:

  • Transboundary approach
  • Building of existing structures and strengthens and capacities
  • Multi-stakeholder coordination approach (including integrated policy development)
  • Guided by coordinated framework (e.g., IDDRISSI)
  • Equity (fairness) in processes and outcomes
  • Good governance
  • Flexible decision-making e.g., in budgets whereby priorities can change
  • Community driven planning and strategies
  • Evidence based policy planning

Building block activities

Top 3 Building Blocks

  1. Climate Information for Decision Making
  2. Buffer resources and risk spreading
  3. Linking Relief and development (holistic risk management)

Other include:

  • Establishment of community driven early warning systems/structures…involved in identification and monitoring of risks,
  • Downscaling climate information services…. sharing with pastoralist in a way their can understand and utilize the information (inform their actions-enable them make decisions) (Participatory scenario planning)
  • Recognize indigenous knowledge and blend with the scientific knowledge on forecasting of weather
  • Risks go beyond climate and include conflicts for scarce and degraded resources, loss of customary institutions. Therefore we need conflict management through existing traditional structure and government
  • Equitable sharing of resources
  • Index based livestock insurance
  • Establishment of Meteorological observatory
  • Complementary livelihoods,
  • Applying Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) e.g., destocking and off take, feed resource banks
  • EDE - Ending drought emergency
  • IDRISSI - Drought Emergency (regional Horn of Africa project)
  • Improving livestock services (Import/export facilitation, commercialization)
  • Strategic establishment of Buffer resources to manage drought e.g., Water conservation for managing water stress, range lands, feeds/fodder, capacity and skill, at community level
  • Equalization funds?????
  • Enabling policy environment and institutional frameworks (e.g., specific policies for drylands)
  • Flexible planning and funding (e.g.,budgeting)
  • Linking Relief, Recovery with long term Development

Reactions from Policy specialists

  • Vision requires more information
  • Linking relief with development will perpetuate dependence. At 2050, do we still want to link with relief? Risk management should be a continuum
  • Principles are broad and devoid of the reality of the intensity and frequency of climate change impacts
  • The issue of pastoralist totally not dependent on safety nets by 2050 may not be practical due to uncertainty of climate change… but maybe reduction in number of pastoralist using safety nets is achievable. Occurrence of uncertainty will be there in 2050… pastoralist dependent on safety nets will be minimal

Group 2: Pastoralist - productive (v.dry)

Our vision statement for 2050 will be: XXXXXXXXXXX


Principles

  • Policies, research and services for pastoralists should be more demand driven
  • pastoralists have access to knowledge and have a voice in (flexible) decision making and choices
  • Increased opportunities for multi stakeholder engagement which combines knowledge sources
  • More equitable wealth distribution /incentives for different groups, including government/public – private sector regulations,
  • More coherent and large scale planning in pastoral areas (e.g. IGAD/regional) including NRM, socio-political systems, value chains and governance

Building Blocks:

  • ICT and communication technologies supporting social networking and access to integrated knowledge
  • Improve linkages rural/urban, poor/rich, to support dropouts in livelihood options.

Favorable pastoralism policies – aklog

Policies, research and services should be more demand d are demand driven and voice of dryland people is heard and incorporated in policies

  • Policies to strengthen pastoral systems
  • IGAD regional policies – e.g. transhumance protocol
  • communal owned – land use policies
  • cross-border polices on regional trade and movements

Communications systems – Fiona

  • ICT+ regular interaction between stakeholders and strategize
  • Definition of roles between stakeholders, value of working together, facilitated by ICT
  • GP: accessible ICT systems
  • Language – translation services available, and internet everywhere
  • Solar energy

principles:

  1. Pastoralists will have voice and access to information
  2. More access to information for livelihood choices and NRM planning
  3. More access to capacity building and education
  4. Monitoring range and vulnerabilities and communication outwards
  5. Combining external and local knowledge

Wildlife / NRM – Ester

  • Future of past – ecosystems, supportive policies
  • Integrated, working with communities

Education, research support services – Jurjen

  • Education

Governments will invest more in formal education systems in pastoral areas

  • More dynamic/relevant
  • Government investments in better education systems
  • Research

Pastoral demand driven research is adopted by research agencies and results are being used be pastoralists / development practitioners

  • New livestock disease?
  • Sustainable innovation?
  • On effect of CC on vegetation/range – is there any?
  • Support services

More investments in livestock support services by private sector, government and development actors

  • Flexible veterinary services vs changing demands on types of diseases
  • Investment in relevant extensions services, e.g. PFS with support of traditional governance structures
  • Finance – flexible funding, also by private sector, livestock as collateral, reaching out in remote areas
  • Information – through ICT, extension services, market information
  • Market
  • Input supply – fodder production in selected areas

Social structures – Martin

  • continued pastoralists: provider of services, laborers
  • More equal distribution of wealth for e.g. trade, and more transparency in wealth distribution

Dropouts:

  • Labour markets, rights, salary levels and distribution
  • No alternative livelihoods: safety nets, social protection, toward improved livelihoods
  • Traditional governance systems: are they eroding / vs government structures
  • Integration of traditional and government structures and strengthening traditional systems and a clearer role and responsibilities of those

Healthy lands – Shaka, water resources

  • Environmental friendly, resources should be protected, appropriate breeds (policies?), recognizing traditional systems, coordinated baseline information systems to monitor growth, flexible governance policies to manage.

Markets

  • Integration of information meteo + market, needs to be incorporated in common sources (see communication)
  • Inequalities, market related, access, control, benefits, - transformative approach to pastoral participation and benefits for equal distribution of benefits.
  • Need for downscaling of information
  • Less linear approach to information, more thinking in information networks / webs. to give more opportunities.

Reactions from Policy specialists

  • Drylands are now being considered for green energy…. and this should be added to the vision diagram
  • use of terms - Equality vs. Equity. Equality is not easy to achieve but equity is fairness in resources distribution and participation
  • The group approached a resilient pastoral using the term “Healthy”…. but considering a changing climate… what does healthy imply? -
  • Consider a policy environment that can perpetuate a ‘healthy environment’
  • We should appreciate stresses and pressure that might come from outside the drylands?
  • How do we address the issue of education since they are migratory communities?
  • Gender equality should be incorporated in all three main complement, i.e., governance, lands and societies.

Group 3: Dryland farming risk management (Group work)

Our vision statement for 2050 will be - Resilience dryland community through better risk and disaster management by 2050

  • Food security , economic empowerment
  • Sustainable agriculture with good infrastructure
  • Good governance
  • More resilience community through risk and disaster management by 2015
  • What do we mean by resilience? We are looking for the capacity of managing risk and which is sustainable in a long term/
  • Definition of Resilience: being able to manage risks for improved livelihood and better resource management

Goog Principles:

  • Enabling policy environment and implementation frame works
  • Equitable access to the resources
  • Access to information and technologies
  • Building and aligning and with existing policies strategies
  • Sustainable natural resource management, eco system based approach
  • Integration and collaboration with stakeholders
  • Building on existing local knowledge, skills and good practices
  • Evidence based approach
  • Flexibility in decision making
  • Capacity enhancement

Building block activities

  • A policy review and identification of gaps to inform planning at national and implementation at local level
  • Operationalize priority actions for climate risk management
  • Synthesizing information on vulnerability
  • Engaging the social groups (youth and women, etc..)
  • Participatory M&D and learning
  • Strengthening multi stakeholder forums to deliver climate services at national and sub-national level
  • Balanced approach that integrate climate risk management with good agricultural practice
  • Knowledge sharing and management
  • Community participation in scenario planning
  • Strengthen social support network and economic linkages
  • Participatory community climate and environmental monitoring
  • Harnessing opportunities arising form climate change

Reactions from Policy specialists

  • The group did not consider downscaling climate services in the building blocks
  • The vision sounding like a Mission
  • Strengthening Multi-stakeholder involvement
  • The group should have addressed resources (e.g., for infrastructure) from the community, government, donors and collaboration
  • The group mentioned that the community will be self-sustainable, what about integration into the global economy?
  • Risk reduction in drylands should stress on livelihood diversification

Group 4: Dryland farming - productive (semi-arid)

Our vision statement for 2050 will be: Communities who are economically empowered, highly productive and realizing their aspirations in the face of a changing climate with equitable access to and utilization of social economic and natural resources and services in semi-arid drylands.

Components of the vision

  • Economically empowered, self-sufficient ……
  • Prosperous communities in a healthy environment
  • Farming systems Resilient , highly productive, food secure communities with equitable access to and utilization of social, economic, natural resources
  • Economically empowered, highly productive, with full access to social services including health, education and justice in the dry lands
  • Better lives in dry land farming areas
  • Reliable water sources
  • Able to grow sufficient crops for both income and food security
  • Organized communities so able to address their problems themselves. More stable communities
  • Women and women equally benefiting from …………………
  • Not trial and error farming (planting some old traditional crops) but
  • Evergreen agriculture
  • Engaging in practices that can increase rainfall
  • Moved from subsistence farming to farming which is geared towards economic advancement
  • A change of perception about farming
  • Commercialization + value addition, innovation
  • Localized innovative adaptation approaches + a community able to cope with extreme shocks – communities owning and championing approaches
  • Generate as wel as access climate information services
  • Agriculture linked to vibrant markets
  • Equitable exploitation of resources
  • Production based on ecological production system/ climate smart agriculture
  • Access to higher education + skills based training at all levels through communities
  • Communities recognize own their potential + run into income streams
  • Communities have access to social infrastructure communication, schools, justice systems

Good Principles

  • To understand the local and national context (social, economic environment)
  • Give equal opportunity for participation in decision making, planning, resource allocation
  • Forster synergies (good coordination, linkages)
  • Integration of indigenous knowledge with scientific knowledge
  • Long term focus rather than short term focus
  • Flexible approaches

Realistic expectations which are the expectations of the community not of the change agents\Remain ecologically conscious and work towards sustainability and community ownership

Building block activities

Prioritized Building blocks/Activities

  • Integration of indigenous innovations with scientific knowledge and technology
  • Value chain development and market linkages
  • Community driven natural resource management with emphasis on water
  • Strengthened socio-economic services and infrastructure such as health, education, and roads etc

Others include

  • Advocate for conducive policy and finances
  • Establish baseline/situational context +vulnerability assessment
  • Effective climate change information services tailored to the local level context
  • Strengthening linkages with service providers
  • Capacity for improved and integrated livestock and crop practices/ technologies
  • Diversification of livelihoods
  • Capacity for value chain development
  • Capacity for financial management, literacy, entrepreneurship
  • Improved knowledge + information sharing through various platforms and documentation
  • Village seed /grain systems
  • Community based managed natural natural resources (water, land, soils)
  • Linkages to scientific + social research, and scaling up research recommendations
  • Control of pests and diseases in crops, livestock
  • Promotion of local innovative practices across all sectors
  • Strengthening rural institutions/organizations + government structures at all levels
  • Mainstreaming gender, HIV AIDS, disability (emerging issues)
  • Up-scaling best practices
  • Biodiversity conservation in the drylands ecosystems
  • Village savings and loans + micro finance
  • Facilitate/embrace infrastructure development
  • Universal access to education at all levels + skills based training

Reactions from Policy specialists

  • Ecosystem based adaptation approaches and principles should be integrated into the vision
  • The vision is too wordy… should be shortened. Its a mission than a vision
  • Fostering synergies is mentioned… this is something lacking in most countries
  • Measure of high productive might be a challenge in drylands as it contributes to the vision above… Measure of productivity can be done in M&E.
  • What is the possibility of governments to work with various stakeholders in delivering the vision… (In Zambia, the govt. already involves stakeholders…in Kenya the constitution demands for a participatory approach in development plans including CSOs, NGOs and the local communities)
  • What opportunities come with CC in terms of dryland farming? e.g., crop varieties that can thrive in drylands.


Synergies, complementaries, overlaps, similarities and differences mentioned by all groups

  • Climate information sharing and communicating to end users
  • Multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement
  • Building on local knowledge and integrating with scientific
  • Ecosystem or environmental approaches
  • Linking relief, rehabilitation and development
  • Strengthening of various policies that can lead to development at local level.
  • Knowledge management from different sources that can lead to evidence based decision making
  • Productive livelihoods and risk management
  • Consideration of pastoralist as part of the global community - still to be unpackaged
  • Livelihood diversification and complementary livelihoods beyond pastoralism and farming
  • Gender Equity
  • Value chain - this still needs to be unpackaged
  • Flexible decision making - still to be unpackaged on how to make this happen
  • Policy dimension
  • Include different people with diverging disciplines e.g., inviting relief organizations, Insurance programs, financial institutions

Youth Not Addressed… how can we ensure that Youth are retained in pastoralism?

Day 4 Notes:

Coming to a Consensus

Plenary keynote: Live commentary on the knowledge wall: recommendations for policy and practice

Knowledge Wall Theme 1: Changing Face of the Drylands

  • Question - what is different for drylands? Its a fragile and challenging environment to pursue a livelihood and its the ecosystem that will face more damage than any other ecosystem. The drylands are marginalized in terms of investment and policies, Climates are extremes. Drylands are multifunctional environments where demands on natural resources (land, water, food) with different endusers (pastoralists, farmers, conservationists (fauna and flora), energy, business, infrastructure)
  • Challenges of Drylands (climate driven and non-climate driven). Farmers and pastoralist across ESA face similar challenges

Climate change impacts exacerbate already difficult life and livelihoods. Environmental/range lands degradation Disrupted social and ecological fabric Invasive species population growth leading to increase in GHG emissions Social dynamics- breakdown of family structures, disruption of extended families, pastoral dropouts esp. the young generation who are looking for alternative livelihood at peri-urban and urban center

  • Conflicting land uses in the drylands
  • What can be done about this? Complementary livelihoods, facilitation of mobilization when resources are less and degraded, practical new innovate scalable solutions to address future adaptation for climate change in drylands

Knowledge Wall Theme 2: Multi-stakeholder interactions

  • The need to mainstream climate change information across all sectors and projects
  • Need for multi-stakeholder interpretation to provide advisories e.g., PSP
  • Taking advantage of existing regional structures, programs and frameworks e.g., IGAD-IDDRISI, AU Policy framework
  • NGOs should work with government at all levels of interventions to ensure sustainability as well as lesson sharing
  • All actors in climate change adaptation and resilience should come together, share lessons and avoid duplication. Working in isolation is not effective.

Knowledge Wall Theme 3: Integrating knowledge source

  • Integrate the IT and scientific with special focus on climate info to help communities make decision for adaptation
  • Need for joint knowledge generation (scientists and communities and other stakeholders)
  • Networking - building on networks
  • Joint shared learning
  • Access to information by endusers
  • Communicating the knowledge… how effectively are we communicating it to the endusers… is the info readily accessible?
  • There is still gaps in downscaling the info to endusers
  • What do we need to do different in order to trigger change?????


Knowledge Wall Theme 4: Community based Focus

  • Community participation (community led-action planning, participation at all levels, working with the better off families as agents of change if empowered, involvement of community in design and implementation of actions, participatory scenario planning
  • Policy (community driven, community involvement in decision making, use of existing… equitable access to resources)
  • Capacity building

Build the capacity of community on climate change adaptation Empower communities on learning and sharing experiences and practices Engaging communities on generating info information Ensure sustainability and ownership Encourage collective action plans Invest in local leaders promote local governance

  • Climate

Combine IT and scientific at all levels Participatory community climate and environment monitoring building local capacity on early warning systems, community forecast Pilot CIS in different countries Bring rain gauges and climate information to the community

  • What does the community want?????

Knowledge Wall Theme 5: Decision making during uncertainty

  • Climate data, climate info and products

Recording climate data in drylands involving communities Downscaling the info to local level including uncertainties Have climate info products that are responsive to changing needs of endusers and demands Timescales (short term (DRR and EW), long term (chnaging risks, uncertainty, development)

  • Approaches (Can communities be resilient in uncertain future?)

Scenario planning for climate information and other factors influencing the future Communicating uncertainty to make informed decisions Better linkage amongst adaptation, humanitarian, DRR etc

  • Flexible decision making and funding (will adaptation and resilience NOW hold in the future)

Managing risk and an uncertain future Informing alternative livelihoods (options)

  • Multi-stakeholder interactions

Knowledge Wall Theme 6: Policy, Agency and Rights

  • Governance and policy that enable flexible DM
  • Evidence based policy planning
  • Integrated policy development process
  • Continuous knowledge development to support policy development
  • Enabling policy for CBA or community driven actions plans
  • Need for effective legal frameworks e.g., IBLIS
  • Policy to address CBA financing
  • Good governance
  • Agency and rights not addressed at all

Knowledge Wall Theme 7: Timescales

  • Time scales matter (e.g., seasonal forecasts matter and also looking forward to more than a season to future forecasts. in terms of funding, long-term is essential to make fundamental change and build resilience

Knowledge Wall Theme 8: Measuring Resilience

  • This is an evolving science and its is difficult to measure due to its multi-disciplinary, multi-sector and the involvement of diverse groups who should all be included for Resilience measurement to be meaningful
  • Need for new innovate tools to help us better understand and measure resilience e.g., PMERL is a new tool that will help us develop framework for measurement.
  • We focus on numbers instead of behavioral change-real transformational change that is occurring within the community
  • Understand the resilience vision… what are we striving towards?
  • Integrate qualitative and quantitative to gather evidence towards resilience
  • Kenya is using a tool 3 building blocks to measure resilience (check Kenya website - Isiolo District for more information) as way of they planning
  • Resilience is a vision we strive to achieve but we might never get there.

Audience Commentary on Knowledge wall themes

  • So many points are being repeated across the themes
  • Information for knowledge wall was gathered throughout the learning event.

Insights on Knowledge wall experience

  • New methods of gathering data
  • It offers culmination of all discussions to enable us reflect and move forward…how to really measure resilience
  • As a climate scientists, we are overwhelmed as we work with community. And multi-stakeholder involvement is critical to generate info
  • It was excellent opportunity for participants who didn't have a chance to talk during session to put down their thoughts

Open Space - tool for informal discussions/talks/insights Space for talking issues that are emerging.

Justice and rights in Community Based Adaptation Key insights and issues

  • Right to refuse project interventions (on the pact of communities)
  • Empowerment” can result in unfair burdens on valuable communities
  • Issues around justification for site selection
  • Accountability and transparencies
  • Pre-determined goals v, community preferences
  • Dealing with heterogeneous groups
  • • Respect of recognition of cultural

Recommendation

  • Bottom – up approach (adequate consultation)
  • Inclusion and meaningful participation
  • Adequate feedbacks and information dissemination
  • Institutional mechanisms to address governances (injustices and human right violations)
  • Commitments
  • Strengthening – bottom up approaches responsiveness)

CMDRR/CBDRR And Climate change adaptation Key insights and issues

  • Establish CMDRR committee (Gov, NGO, community)
  • PDRA (participatory Disaster risk)
  • Assessments , community resource mapping
  • Develop community action plan (Development and contingency plans)
  • Subcommittees

Early warning Water rangeland mgt PA Emergency response committee

  • Capacity building

Recommendations:

  • Climate info exchange and disseminations to the grass root level not satisfactory
  • Strive to long term resilience building
  • Additional capacity building on CC adaptation
  • Integrate approaches, methods and tools

Commitments

  • Scale – up the CMDRR approaches and methods

Community ownership and aspirations Key insights and issues

  • Build community trust , relationship (support localized knowledge and build on existing knowledge)
  • Too many actor / tools confusing to commute
  • Inc-corporate the rich knowledge and learning
  • Motivation to be part of the community
  • Transparency (recognize city diversity and geographical scale)
  • Community driven kenning (downward accountability)
  • Respect to the social and cultural structure
  • Allow community to protect what they won 'agriculture' corporate
  • Informal and formal education to drylands

Recommendation

  • Build on programs the social and cultural structure knowledge (5)
  • Communities are heterogeneous hence community driven planning should take this into cons (6)
  • Coordination, multi-sectoral, common entry (3)
  • Inclusion of community at higher level planning meeting (4)
  • Facilitate inclusive community visioning to all for new ideas and aspirations. Then use climate information to plan how to move towards vision (24)
  • Understand Community and government institutional structure , trends, engage sensitively to enable change to exclusive norms /systems (4)

Policy protection of community rights to land resources , kowledge and information (4)

Commitments

  • STD CBA
  • tool(sharing)
  • Best practices

Decision-making under uncertainty (Aldwin) Issues and insights:

  • Gender considerations under uncertainty at household levels
  • Availability of resources (optimize resource use / not all eggs in one basket)
  • Decision-makers are mindful of potential for failure of the desired event
  • Long term data on CC projection less reliable and limited
  • What does flexible decision-making mean?
  • Decision makers must have the capacity
  • Uncoordinated stakeholders
  • Speed & quality of information & two-way communication
  • Local structures ignored + lack of trust

Recommendations:

  • (18) Ensure reliable information informs the decision in uncertainty (level of probability)
  • (15) Diversify/flexible options to avoid/circumvent uncertainty;
  • (13) Strengthen and recognize local structures to support decision-making in uncertainty;
  • (10) Build the capacity of the decision-makers to implement the different options with the flexibility
  • (3) Create an enabling environment for two-way communications among different decision-makers (for rapid and sound information)
  • (0) Multi stakeholder integration with government (to coordinate)

Commitments: Examples: Now that we are certain of CC (shocks), decisions can be made under measurable uncertainty (85%).

Equity and vulnerability (Chris Jost) Issues & insights:

  • People are different, we can’t assume we ‘know’ as ‘experts’ and differences are not static
  • Transitioning out of a livelihood is part of adaptive capacity, making working with the most vulnerable sometimes technically unfeasible, so sometimes working with power structures is necessary
  • Transformation requires social safety nets + springboards to be in place. Interventions in the past (humanitarian) have often increased vulnerability by destroying them.

Recommendations:

  • Invest in analysis and assessment of social differentiation before intervening in planning processes etc.
  • Stop ‘women’s and other special’ programs as the automatic intervention for gender. Address norms, rules etc. driving social differentiation;
  • Understand and work with exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to address vulnerability
  • Have grievance mechanisms + accountability structures in place
  • Include transitioning out in adaptation programs
  • Target transformation making sure social safety nets and spring boards are healthy

Commitments:

  • CGIAR gender IDO
  • CGIAR gender strategy and plan
  • NIE/NEMA social risk management plan for NIE Kenya

Holistic Land and livestock management Communities practicing HLLM are growing in numbers (kenya, ethiopia, Nambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burkina faso, Niger) and the attention of decision makers is growing) Ideas and Insights

  • People are increasingly recognizing that land degradation due to overgrazing is a problem or TIME not cattle numbers, and that the solution is good grazing management and not herd reduction
  • Communities can and have made the decision together to rehabilitate their land but broken traditional practices must be overcome
  • When communities come together to manage their resources/assets it must be clear to all how benefits will be shared
  • Pastoral to pastoral visits to communities practicing HLLM are important for helping people see how other communities have hashed out their differences and come together
  • policy institutional support are critical but will not happen unless driven by communities practicing HLLM
  • Land and decision making rights are different in difficult countries, so success with the above needs knowledge and national aware advocates

Recommendations

  • Build the body of national advocates
  • Give communities time to come together (overcome short project cycles)
  • Provide M&E to grow the body of evidence - the learning documentation is just as important as the data

Commitments

  • ICRAF decision hub will try to bring people together to develop proposal for HLLM in EA.

Integrating knowledge sources When one is regarded more important than the other

  • Recording (man) of IT
  • Make it a policy requirement
  • Understanding capacities and limitations of each
  • Merging theory with practices (action research)
  • Verification of IK through science and acknowledge non-verifiable
  • Acknowledgment of IK sources
  • Valuing the context in diverse communities and recommend similarities
  • Need for documentation and profiling of the knowledge dorm different sources

HIV AIDS amongst amidst Climate change A continuing challenge - what do we do?

Issues and insights

  • Impacts of CC are heavier in communities affected by HIV because availability if food is challenged. healthy status is weak and not well supported options
  • Are affected by opportunities of HIV/AID cos of increased mobility and increased vulnerability as people look for survival
  • pastoral communities move to towns and
  • Environmental scan
  • Merge issues of HIV in environmental developmental issues

Recommendations

  • Strategic focus and effort to address the affected communities
  • Need to network with health services providers
  • Multi-sectoral approach - PHE
  • integrate awareness, VCT, ART/T support positive living behavior
  • Diversified livelihoods options especially for women and youth
  • HIV remains a cross-cutting issue in the face of CC. If ignored it will be difficult to build resilience towards CC

Commitments

  • Mainstreaming HIV
  • Look for communication champions
  • Do research linking HIV and CC
  • Justify case for action-joint HIV policy


Climate Information What is it and is a forecast enough?

Key issues and insights

  • Timeliness - when do the endusers need the forecast. It should be timely to enable people make decisions on a timely manner.
  • Poor availability of tools and HR to inexpert forecast to usable information for endusers
  • Capacity building on what is available and its application
  • Accessibility of information (communication)
  • There are existing initiatives to produce information for longer timescales climate change e.g. HELIX and C-Adapt projects
  • Forecast is not total information. Its a basis to generate further/additional information/impacts/consequences that are useful

Recommendation

  • More training for intermediaries and communities/ database more accurate
  • Including climate issues right from the owes level of education (curriculum development)
  • Link up with the HELIX and C-ADapt projects for this ewho need such information in the region

Commitments

  • NGOs
  • Universities
  • Government
  • ICPAC/WFP

Ending Drought Emergencies

issues and insights

  • More frequent extreme climates events resulting in emergencies
  • There is delayed and uncoordinated response to the risk leading to large losses in livelihoods
  • Recurring of natural resource based conflicts
  • Social problems resulting from loss of livelihoods leading to dependency

Recommendation

  • Mainstream climate information into planning at all levels
  • Strengthen and create institution to coordinate intervention in short time
  • Strengthen traditional peace/conflict resolution processes
  • Drought monitoring integrated into all sectoral and programs

Commitments

  • Government to coordinate
  • Government, partners. donors
  • pastoralist and donors

Measuring resilience Universal resilience equation/indicators of resilience

Issues and insights

  • Resilience for who and what?
  • Unpacking the components of resilience
  • Indicators of resilience at various level of the results
  • How do you measure that which is dynamic like resilience
  • Resilience is not about wealth/material but knowledge and understanding with a spiritual context

Recommendations

  • Work with resilience analysis unit
  • Use of TOC to facilitate measurement
  • Resilience is context specific and dynamic - long term
  • Indicators to measure resilience from its components i.e., livelihoods CCA, DRR, DRR, Policy and enabling environment
  • Resilience is a process and need benchmarking

Commitments

  • IGAD/UN-FAO/UNDP

Climate Change What is the community’s perspective?

Issues and insights

  • Not aware
  • Communities are saving their contribution to CC e.g., cutting trees, exhausted soils, reduced production (cyclic), overgrazing, reduced/loss of biodiversity, wood fuel, charcoal)
  • changing nature of communities
  • Conflict over resources
  • Resistance to change
  • We have interfered with environment, particulate in drylands - no longer possible to keep dryland fallow
  • for many its only about rainfall
  • Erratic weather ‘a curse”
  • Bot aware of causes of change
  • God is angry
  • A way of life - that’s just how things are
  • its government - jargon confusing
  • Changing seasons/rainfall patterns
  • Communities want to be heard
  • Communities want to be drivers of changer - not driven
  • It is the effects of CC the communities experience

Recommendation

  • Let communities define CC in their own way
  • Organize communities into groups
  • Facilitate processes to analyze the problem of CC
  • Let them exploit their inherent capabilities
  • Work with the community to communities - 2 way

Commitment

  • Strive to understand the communities perspectives and involve them\Let us diversify sources of livelihoods
  • Integrate development

Measuring Resilience

Issues and insights

  • Resilience for who and what needs to be unpacked
  • Clarity on measurements of resilience (indicators)
  • Tools and methodologies to apply in measuring

Recommendations

  • (4) Work with resilience analysis unit step up by IGAD/UNFAO/UNDP to borrow learning
  • (27) Establish baseline against which to measure change on resilience
  • (20) Develop innovate tools/approaches for measuring resilience (TOC, PMERIl etc)

Commitments

  • IGAD to provide resources
  • Participants to take lessons from this learning event to inform projects

Multi-sectoral interactions

Issues and insights

  • Community are key stakeholders
  • Institutional structures which reach to community levels linked to budgets allow for participation and sustainable/regular meeting
  • Non-hierarchical. cross-sectoral platforms allow collective interpretation, trust building, new ideas emerge and network/communication enhanced
  • Allows for bringing flexibility and dynamism into longer terms plans, based on regular feedback and interactions and planning/decision
  • Improves coordination, efficiency and avoids duplications
  • Platforms gives a voice of ownership and access to knowledge which is iocally meaningful
  • Risks - community gate keepers are not inclusive as representative as should be. How does information get back to end users)

Recommendations

  • (20) Mainstream MSH platforms into local government level review and planning systems
  • (5) Use seasonal forecast (once/twice a year) as trigger for calling for MSH meetings or other triggers/champions
  • (6) Ensure platforms do foster dialogue which leads to locally relevant action responding to needs
  • (4) Use existing structures to facilitate establishment of MSH forums
  • (7) MSH forums should include storing of nest practices, case studies, reports etc and dissemination for replication

Governance and Policy

Problem statement and insights

  • Traditional governance structures have been continuously undermined to the point that they are unable to support long term resilience
  • Weak cohesion around existing policies around interventions which are being promoted leading to fragmentation and weak efforts, resources impact
  • Disconnect between commitment and reality
  • Lack of good governance

Recommendations

  • (19) Strengthen political leadership and buy in and commitment of resources for climate change adaptation at local level
  • (11) Increase community participation and voice in governance structures and policy processes
  • (2) Promote evidence based policy planning/development
  • (6) Need integrated approach to policy development across sectors e.g., coordinating mechanism frameworks
  • (16) Recognize value of tradition governance structures and integrate into forma governance and policies
  • (7) Proper range lands planning and use which takes into account the consent of the pastoralist

Commitments

  • Explore in country policy dialogues and integrate contribute issues coming out of the matter
  • Use opportunities to strengthen political leadership using ambassadors
  • Share outcomes of conference with others constituents to build alliances to influence policy makers

Risk Management

Issues and insights

  • Top down approach of risk management
  • Sidelining of risk management to DRR only
  • Understand risk profiling and projections
  • Omission of traditional coping strategies

Recommendations

  • (8) Community led risk management
  • (29) Mainstreaming risk management into all sectors
  • (3) Risk identification, profiling projection
  • (2) Risk reduction - CI, complementary livelihoods, eco-tourism
  • (8) Risk spreading - insurance, diversification of livestock options
  • (3) Risk compliant policies/governance e.g., ASAL policy

Commitments

  • Government/partners/community

Integrating knowledge Sources

Issues and insights

  • Language of interpretation
  • Validity and applicability - contextual (local specific)
  • IK facilitates downscaling of infer to be locally relevant and useful

Recommendations

  • (4) Co-generation of knowledge with recognize value of local sources
  • (2) Acknowledgement of all knowledge generators (sources)
  • (7) Leveraging on existing technologies (mobile phones)
  • (18) Inventory and review of IK practices and knowledge generators (inventory of all forms related to CC and facilitating knowledge access and use generated knowledge for local decision making
  • (7) Framework for IK recognition in policy

Countries Uganda

  • Form an in-county working group (follow up on action form conference, joint proposal)
  • Engage local , private sectors, CSO's , central governments to priorities, issues of CCA
  • Strategic alliances for effective policy advocacy (passing and implementation) draft climate change policy
  • Networking , learning and linking

Tanzania

  • Integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge
  • Multi sectoral approach in community based adaptation initiatives
  • And evidence based policy making
  • Reliable climate information and disseminated to grassroot with which it is easily understood and used by community
  • Strengthen bottom-up approaches in CBA initiatives as well as resilience

Sudan

  • Climate information service
  • Short , medium - long term forecasts historical data
  • Enhancement of the climate products following GFCS (wmo)
  • Guidelines - down scaling of the products to the local communities
  • Integrating these information with stakeholder in climate change adaptation programmers with participation of the communicate at all level
  • The issue of users need and demands -- tailor products enhance means of communications between products producers and the end users
  • participation of stakeholders communities (pastorals, agree pastoral farmers) in the national climate outbook

Kenya

  • Collaborate with KMS to mainstream CIS into project management
  • PSP-to be upscaled - ASDSP
  • Short rains (OND) ASSP_KMS disseminate advisories
  • MSH approach
  • Support counties in mainstreaming CCAS into CIDPs
  • Explore ACPC ClimDev to develop infrastructure
  • Build networks and social capital
  • Borrow learning from CIS baseline planned by WAC in Nyando

Malawi

  • Integration of local and scientific information
  • Downscaling of climate information services
  • Support policy development, reviews and implement at all levels
  • MSH interaction for information sharing and best practices
  • Strengthen ecosystem management
  • Community participation in decision making (integrating communities plans into district/sector plans)

Ethiopia

  • The need for integration and collaboration of stakeholders with government
  • Climate information to downscaled to community
  • Community based planning and intervention, CBA
  • Networking and collaboration among all stakeholders to share best practices
  • Good environmental policies and strategy - collocate with government to implement
  • Natural resource management
  • Genuine political government commitment in the policy issues

Somalia

What we are communicating

  • For 20 years CBA as the coping mechanism for Somalia
  • Traditional systems of NRM
  • Traditional safety nets and risk management mechanism (Zakat, remittance, self support

Our communique

  • Build on the weakened nets due to conflicts
  • Telecommunication and technology (radio, TV and phones)
  • Linkages to markets - global markets. Exports sesame, livestock lemon
  • Private sector development - education, health, ICT
  • Consortium work - MSH

What we have adopted from others

  • Trickle down the climate info to community level
  • Good governance - policy formulation
  • Academic researches/scientists knowledge

What weakened the systems

  • Conflict undermined the risk management
  • Interdependency of farmers and pastoralist
  • Cash crop production - humanitarian interventions

Forums

  • Flexible and dynamic strategic planning that accommodate stakeholder communities, development plans
  • Direct engagement with all end users, understanding their need and changing demands
  • Also aware these communities how to deal with the uncertainty of climate outlook
  • Collaborate with national IDRISI (IGAD initiative)
  • Regional cooperation to reduce drought impacts
  • Collaborate with national adaptation program
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