Communiqué: A Turning Point for Development and Humanitarian Action in Drylands is Overdue
Introduction
We, practitioners (NGOs, Government, media, and funders), convened in Isiolo, Kenya, from 12–16 April 2026 to reflect on the future of development and humanitarian engagement in the pastoral dryland. Through a structured process of reflection, analysis, and synthesis, participants engaged deeply with lived experience, research evidence, and operational realities from across Kenya’s drylands.
Development in dryland regions has long been misaligned, prioritizing sedentary, crop-based systems over pastoral economy. Interventions are disconnected, lack understanding of local context and often undermine local realities The central challenge is not pastoralism itself, but the failure of policies, investments, and support systems designed around it. A decisive shift in approach that promotes pastoral economy is urgently needed.
Core Message
Key Insights
Pastoralist systems are inherently adaptive and resilient: Mobility is not merely a coping mechanism, but a productive asset that underpins sustainable resource use in variable environments. Variability is a defining feature of drylands and must be embraced rather than managed as a constraint.Local actors and networks remain central to the functioning of these systems: Pastoral communities rely on local knowledge, networks, and governance arrangements that often outperform formal systems. However, current development approaches fall short: resilience programmes frequently assume stability, humanitarian responses prioritise life-saving interventions without safeguarding livelihoods, and many interventions often address symptoms rather than underlying system dynamics. Embedding development within high-reliability networks is crucial for building resilience from below.
Structural Challenges
Progress is constrained by persistent structural barriers, including:
- Policy bias in favour of sedentary production systems
- Fragmented and short-term financing approaches
- Limited recognition of indigenous knowledge, adaptive practices, and mobility as critical infrastructure
- Underdeveloped pastoral economies
- Misalignment in national and devolved governance systems
Pathway to change
A coherent, system-based approach is required – one that integrates land, livestock, water, environment, and security. Central to this is the development of an integrated policy framework that anchors mobility, aligns governance systems, and unifies planning across sectors.This approach must be inclusive, linking community-level realities with national policy, financing, and implementation mechanisms.
Recommendations
Transformative change requires coordinated action across stakeholders, and that:
- Governments should prioritize drylands and pastoralism within national and county development agendas, secure mobility corridors, and embed dryland systems thinking in planning
- Funders should shift towards long-term, flexible financing and invest in livestock systems, dryland economies, and mobility infrastructure.
- NGOs should transition from direct implementation to facilitation roles, strengthening coordination and alignment with local systems.
- Local actors should lead system change through coordination, evidence generation, and policy engagement.
- Research institutions should deepen the participatory evidence base on pastoral economies, governance, and financing.
- Private sector actors should pursue responsible investment in livestock value chains and market infrastructure.
- Media should prioritize positive hopeful stories from the drylands and report pastoralism as a critical infrastructure comprising of high reliability networks that support and sustain a resilient pastoral system
Accountability and Urgency
Failure to act now will deepen vulnerability and increase humanitarian needs, undermining local transformation. Transformation requires shared accountability, including system-level reviews and stronger alignment between planning, financing, implementation, and reporting.
Conclusion
The knowledge and evidence required to transform dryland systems already exist. While acknowledging existing gaps in practice, the urgent task ahead is not to transform pastoralists, but to enhance the system to support them.
The 2026 Practitioners’ Summer School on drylands and pastoralism was organized by the Center for Research and Development in Drylands (CRDD) in collaboration with the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)
Download the full communique here
