Building resilience to drought in Ethiopia, Kenya & Somalia

Since 2008, CARE International has been implementing a programme to build resilience to drought through cross-border collaboration between communities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The Regional Resilience Enhancement Against Drought (RREAD) Programme seeks to strengthen community capacity to deal with shocks by gradually improving innovation, diversification, governance and natural resource management. The 12-page briefing paper “Building resilience in a complex environment” in CARE’s Learning & Policy Series (October 2012) provides evidence of approaches that work in building community resilience to shocks and stresses in the Horn. In a context of high vulnerability and increasing risk, CARE has learnt that the options available to mitigate the risk of a severe crisis such as the 2011 drought must taken into consideration the capacities of communities and local authorities. Financial and physical insecurity and restrictive gender roles limit engagement in decision-making processes, and members of some communities – particularly the more marginal groups – lack the skills and knowledge to take part in local (let alone national) policy processes. In the face of such constraints, RREAD has sought to build resilience through promoting community capacity to manage uncertainty, local good governance, partnerships for collective action, integration of indigenous knowledge with science and innovation, and working across scales with a focus on socio-ecological systems. It has learnt that particular attention needs to be given to the role of women and girls in interventions intended to build community resilience to drought.

Posted on 3 March 2013 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Gender & Youth, Pastoralism, Policy & Power