Investing in Climate-Resilient Communities

They have been affected by seasonal patterns of drought and famine and seasonal movements of armed pastoralists and livestock across the border. Enhancing climate resilience and developing a resource-sharing agreement (RSA) is crucial for the sustainability of these communities. According to a report by reliefweb, the situation is compounded by challenges associated with population increase and the spread of land uses that are incompatible with livestock production, which exerts pressure on the rangelands leading to overgrazing, depletion of the surface water table and degradation of rangeland resources, which undermine pastoral and agropastoral livelihoods.

The county government of Turkana has taken the lead in working with the Government of Uganda and the Karamoja leadership to develop a RSA that will result in peace between the two communities and also as a solution to the migration of the communities in search of pasture and water. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (the Alliance) in collaboration with the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) pledge to offer support in the RSA to enhance resilience and food security to empower vulnerable communities in Kenya focusing on Baringo, Kilifi, Narok, Turkana, and West Pokot counties These counties have been classified with medium evidence as having a stressed or crisis level of food insecurity based on the integrated food security phase classification (IPC).

This partnership complements the work of the CGIAR Climate Resilience Initiative ClimBeR, which focuses on enhancing the climate adaptability and resilience of food, water, and land systems in low and middle-income countries. This is achieved by reducing risks, strengthening climate security, providing technical support to policymakers, and facilitating ‘governance for resilience’ at all levels. AGNES on the other hand, provides scientific expertise and evidence to inform a common African position in climate change negotiations. AGNES seeks to facilitate the exchange of ideas between experts and negotiators at the international level, especially within the framework of the UNFCCC. They utilize scientific evidence as a major tool that can be employed to inform the unified common African position on matters of climate change.