Kenyan pastoralists’ high-reliability networks critical for resilience

As part of an action-research project ‘Resilience from Below’ funded by the Australian Centre for International and Agricultural Research and the Tufts University Feinstein International Center’s research on early warning and humanitarian response, the Centre for Research and Development in the Drylands (CRDD) is looking into how pastoralist communities in Kenya organise themselves in daily decision-making and longer-term planning to deal with the constant uncertainties in the drylands and to take advantage of opportunities. They are exploring local networks and the repertoire of knowledge and practices that are critical for mobile pastoralism in drought-prone areas. In this blog “Pastoralists’ high reliability networks are critical for building resilience”, Rahma Hassan and her colleagues highlight their emerging findings on the importance of “high-reliability professionals” among the pastoralists in contributing to the resilience of pastoral systems.