Community resilience, livelihoods diversification and recovery, and mitigating climate change shocks in Turkana County

Climate change is a serious challenge in Kenya. In recent years, the country has increasingly experienced climate change and its impacts, such as intense drought, hotter temperatures and loss of livelihoods, and researchers predict that the country will continue to suffer from climate change in the coming years.

Arid and semi-arid regions in the country are most vulnerable to climate change, and as such the lives and economic activities of households are at risk.

In Kenya, the trend of increased and unpredictable drought frequency means that no one is safe from the impacts of climate change. Arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), such as Turkana County (located in Northwestern Kenya, sharing international borders with Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia), tend to suffer the most. The increased temperatures and evapotranspiration rate result in reduced outputs from rain-fed agriculture, worsening food insecurity, increasing malnutrition cases, frequent droughts, and more frequent water shortages.

Turkana County’s economy is highly dependent on its natural resource base, and the recent climate change and variability has threatened to wipe out the economic livelihoods of most households. Climate change has negatively affected the agriculture, livestock, fisheries, food security and health sectors.

Building and supporting community resilience

Just like any other global crisis, climate change has demonstrated the need for locally led responses, where global stakeholders provide support to local partners to provide locally led solutions in mitigating the negative effects of climate change within their respective communities.

In Turkana County, Sustainable Approaches for Community Empowerment (SAPCONE), a local civil society organisation, is partnering with DanChurchAid (DCA), an international non-governmental organisation, through the Support Community Resilience, Recovery and Realization of their Basic Rights (SCRRR) project.

In 2023, the SCRRR project focused on specific activities aimed at addressing the pertinent elements of cyclical droughts and climate change, which have affected Turkana County livelihoods, peaceful coexistence and resilience levels. Livelihoods and resilience would be strengthened via practical community engagements, capacity-building, and cross-border community dialogues.

To boost agricultural resilience, six demonstration farms were set up to help farmers learn new approaches to agriculture that are better adapted to climate change. Farmer groups located in the six demonstration farms benefitted from investment support in the areas of farm inputs, equipment and implements. Similarly, four apiculture groups were supplied with three-frame centrifugal honey extractors and digital refractometers. Alongside this extraction equipment, the apiarists were given training on their use and maintenance.

For those living along the Lake Turkana Basin, support came in the form of wooden boats, engines, and fishing gear such as hooks, twines, floaters and nets. This allowed people to rely less on rain-fed
agriculture and pastoralist activities, as droughts affected livestock numbers and grazing areas. Attention was paid to the location of markets and other practicalities, with groups being given motorbikes fitted with cooler boxes to ensure the fish delivered to the market is fresh, and hence sold at the highest price.

Material support was complemented by conflict-mitigation initiatives, and trainings targeting the fisherfolk communities – on conflict transformation through dialogue, resource-sharing agreements, and the sustainable use of resources, especially shared resources (for example, via sustainable fishing). Through the training, community leaders and households have strengthened mediation efforts at the community levels, by ensuring that conflicts – typically resource-based, for example, over grazing land and water access – are addressed through dialogues.

The activities chosen for the SCRRR project were based on the following parameters:

1. The ability of the activity to support the project aim of strengthening community drought mitigation and resilience-building through self-reliance and sustainable livelihoods, as well as supporting initiatives geared towards access to basic rights and services, as per the Core Humanitarian Standard.
2. The ability of the activity to address the frequent food and nutrition insecurity rampant within the project areas, caused by persistent drought and exacerbated by resource-based conflicts among neighbouring communities around the Ilemi Triangle region.
3. The ability of the activity to target the project participants, who were mostly vulnerable people in the host communities, including men, women, youth and differently abled persons relying on pastoralism, agropastoralism and fishing as their main livelihoods in Turkana County. The activities were intended to help target groups to ensure their wellbeing both in the short and long term.

The sustainability of the activities undertaken under the SCRRR project were carefully reviewed, with the activities designed in line with DCA Kenya’s overall country programme goal. This goal is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and founded on a rights-based approach in the humanitarian– development nexus, covering immediate needs assistance, food security, and the resilience, self-reliance and socioeconomic integration of the project participants. Moreover, the project participants such as farmers and fisherfolk groups were linked to relevant government departments to access services and other support beyond the project period.

Project success stories

Since 2017 to date, Turkana County (specifically the Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana West sub-counties) has received support from SAPCONE with funding from DCA on projects focusing on addressing the pertinent elements of cyclical droughts and climate change. Through past projects that have continually built on addressing the negative impact of climate change, positive milestones have been recorded through community members’ increased production levels, and the linkage of the fisherfolk community to markets that have led to increased income and therefore greater economic empowerment.

The impact of the SCRRR project in ensuring that the livelihoods of the Turkana communities are shielded from climate change calamity cannot be underestimated. By identifying and supporting farmer, fisherfolk and beekeeper groups, the project has helped communities generate food for local consumption and extra income, ensuring that households and communities are food secure.

Improved production for better livelihoods

In total, 185 farmers got the chance to improve their production capacity using modern farm equipment and inputs that could withstand the harsh climatic conditions of the area. As a result, farmers in Naotin can now furnish themselves with some basic farm inputs without external support.

Naotin and Kalobeyei farms managed to break even. For example, Naotin farm had a sales income of Ksh. 1,377, 990 ($10,564), with an initial input cost of around 7% (Ksh. 96,459/$740) of the total sales. However, in both cases the total human labour has not yet been quantified and taken into account.

Additionally, other farms in the project are yet to break even.

Increased economic returns among fisherfolk groups

As climatic conditions worsen, the Turkana communities have learnt to diversify their livelihoods through phased migration from the nomadic way of life, and by adopting sedentary or semi-sedentary lifestyles that incorporate fishing and/or agriculture. Through fishing along Lake Turkana, most households now have a constant livelihood and, generally, increased household income.

Community conflict mitigation initiative support

Climate change indirectly affects peaceful coexistence between communities, as both social and economic conditions are impacted.

The disruption of Turkana communities’ economic activities caused by climate change has necessitated a shift from pastoralism to fishing as the key economic activity, leading to reignited territorial conflicts in Lake Turkana over the fishing areas. With fisherfolk groups from neighbouring Marsabit County laying claim to territorial waters, venturing into said waters leads to conflict, especially during seasons when the fish catch declines due to reduced water levels.

To address this, SAPCONE, with support from DCA, has trained local government officials, community leaders and security agents on conflict analysis, early warning, and alternative dispute resolution methodologies.

Through these trainings, community leaders and households have strengthened mediation efforts at the community levels, by ensuring that conflicts are addressed through dialogues, understanding,
collaborative efforts and avenues to address grievances. Such approaches have led to the formation of peace committees that monitor risks and advise communities on alternative ways of dispute resolution.

Organisations looking to emulate projects like SCRRR should create community dialogue initiatives based on understanding and collaborative efforts, to help communities come to a consensus to resolve resource-based conflicts. Resource-sharing agreements can be incorporated into a project as a way to support the cross-border sustainable management of resources.

Setbacks suffered

The major problem facing ASALs is access to water for sustainable livelihoods and food production, with climate fluctuations aggravating water shortages in places like Turkana County.

Hence, projects with livelihood components face a major issue in trying to map out areas of implementation to ensure project sustainability. Under the project, demonstration farms such as Naipa and Kareedome faced continuous water-supply challenges for agricultural use. This forced farmers to look for alternative methods, one of which was walking over long distances to get water.

To ensure that the efforts made in establishing demonstration farms such as Naipa and Kareedome are not eroded due to water-supply challenges, subsequent projects to be undertaken will be centred on the mobilisation of resources for drilling boreholes and the installation of solar panels to ensure a constant supply of water. Additionally, future projects will adopt Family Drip System kits, as an alternative avenue for effective irrigation and water conservation.

Lessons learned

Despite the steps taken to address climate changes in Turkana County through the adoption of climate- resilient agriculture, Turkana County suffers from limited water resources, which hinders large-scale climate-resilient projects.

One way to help mitigate the negative impacts of climate change is to develop multistakeholder initiatives ( governments, non-governmental organisations and so on) and policies to provide continued resource support to affected communities. Similarly, ongoing training should be provided to communities, on climate-smart agriculture techniques, livelihoods diversification, mitigation strategies from climate shocks, and economic empowerment. This will inform them on various aspects of climate change adaptation, disaster risk mitigation strategies, and anticipatory and response actions. Climate- smart agriculture on-site training, with demonstrations and practical lessons, is effective for ASAL communities. The communities acquire knowledge and skills faster than with theoretical training.

However, in other projects, the topic of climate change is discussed directly with community members, resulting in an increase in knowledge. The discussion focuses on the definition of climate change and its context in Turkana County; the causes of climate change; and its effects. The Turkana communities are aware of climate change because they have experienced first-hand the effects on their livelihoods. To ensure the message of climate change is disseminated to the community, local radio stations are brought on board to spread the message (through the local language), and climate mitigation strategies are shared.

Last but not least, we have learned that sustainable climate-resilience initiatives within Turkana County require that projects focus on helping communities in their adaptive choices. Communities must be allowed to lead the way when it comes to building their futures.

Kevin Kairu was formerly Project Assistant, DanChurchAid Kenya.

Ferguson Olemarampa is Communication Assistant, DanChurchAid Kenya.

Dan Ekal is Livelihood Project Officer, Sustainable Approaches for Community Empowerment (SAPCONE).

Patrick Kibuku is the Head of Program, DanChurchAid Kenya.