Project Summary

The ‘Resilience from Below’ project is an action research that aims to identify and explore emerging alternative narratives towards resilience and climate adaptation in drought-affected rangelands and pastoralist areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. The project does this through a grounded, locally relevant perspective centred on the support of ‘high-reliability professionals’ and their networks in pastoral settings, focusing on the processes through which adaptation and resilience can be achieved. In this context and drawing from Emery Roe’s ‘high-reliability professionals’ concept, the project looks at the actions of various actors (pastoralists men, women and youth, state and non-state) who play a critical role in managing the high variability characterizing the drylands and how acting in a network the actors contribute towards preventing a catastrophic failure of the pastoral systems during severe shocks.

Specific Project Objectives

The ‘Resilience from Below’ Action Research aims to achieve the following specific objectives;

Develop a deeper understanding of ‘high-reliability’ management processes in pastoral settings, leading to suggestions for a new framework for resilience and development in pastoral areas.
Establish the qualities and capacities of ‘high-reliability’ professionals and networks, leading to the building of a ‘community of resilience practice’ within and between the study areas.
Enhance the sharing of experiences between ‘high-reliability’ professionals within and across project sites.
Engage with government, NGO and donor stakeholders involved in ‘resilience’ programming to develop a practical framework for rethinking approaches in such programmes.
Enhance the capacity of the next generation of researchers in new thinking about resilience in pastoral areas through summer schools.
Enhance the capacity of CRDD as a locally based action-research organisation.

Project Location

The project covers two counties in Kenya (Marsabit and Isiolo) as well as parts of Southern Ethiopia.

Implementation partners

Merti Integrated Development Programme (MIDP)
Community Initiative Facilitation and Assistance-Kenya (CIFA Kenya)
Community Initiative Facilitation and Assistance-Ethiopia (CIFA Ethiopia)

Selected outputs

A news item on drylands policy disconnects and their effects on pastoralists in Eastern Africa published online by the Jameel Observatory: https://jameelobservatory.org/pastoralist-disconnects/. This news item was republished by CRDD: https://www.crdd-kenya.org/blog/post/addressing-dryland-policy-disconnects-and-their-effects-on-pastoralists-in-eastern-africa
A blog post on why irrigation needs to think smaller to save Kenyan pastoralism published by The New Humanitarian: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2024/02/28/why-irrigation-needs-think-smaller-save-kenyan-pastoralism
The keynote address by the project advisor Prof Ian Scoones during the project inception meeting/policy dialogue in Nairobi: https://www.crdd-kenya.org/blog/post/key-note-address-prof-ian-scoones-during-policy-convening-held-8th-february-ilri-campus-nairobi
A blog on emerging findings from this research project on pastoralists’ high-reliability networks and professionals: https://www.crdd-kenya.org/blog/post/pastoralists-high-reliability-networks-are-critical-building-resilience
An opinion piece urging development and humanitarian partners to genuinely integrate the knowledge, assets, and networks of pastoralists in the design of development, resilience, humanitarian and early warning intervention published by Democracy in Africa: https://democracyinafrica.org/explaining-unsuccessful-development-interventions-in-kenyas-drylands/. This blog was republished by The Saturday Standard: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001493990/why-growth-interventions-in-kenyas-drylands-fail
A blog post on the experiences of a CRDD affiliated-PhD student conducting research in Northern Kenya: https://www.crawfordfund.org/news/pastoralist-communities-in-northern-kenya/

Summer School Concept

In partnership with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Jameel Observatory Food Security and Early Action, and the Feinstein International Centre, Tufts University, CRDD has been engaging with alternative, locally relevant and grounded perspectives to promote effective early warning, response and adaptation (resilience from below). Part of this work involves organizing a Summer School that brings together Master’s and PhD students in the fields of Natural Resource Management, rangelands, livestock systems, political/social/economic aspects of dryland areas etc to examine how resilience has been understood and applied in drylands based on locally relevant and grounded perspectives. The aim is to prepare the next generation of practitioners with the necessary skills to engage with pastoral contexts more appropriately