Drought resilience in Kenya

Agency for Pastoralist Development (APaD) applied to the Brooke Innovation Fund in 2017 and was granted KES 1,883,800/14,331.88 GBP for a three-month project to increase the resilience of donkey owners in Turkana County through the use of drought resistant crops.

With emergency funding from Brooke East Africa, APaD had previously supported the adversely affected donkeys in Nanam through food provision, water and veterinary services. Their Innovation Fund proposal was born from this work which highlighted the need to build community resilience in a cost-effective manner.

The project built a water storage tower and storage tanks to ensure access to clean and safe water throughout the year for both households and their donkeys. The project also experimented with drought resistant crops which dried off due to the high salinity of the water. Whilst disappointing from a project perspective, this outcome provides a learning opportunity for Brooke about the need to plant fodder crop that can tolerate this.

The project also worked closely with women, utilising the link between women in the community and working donkeys to demonstrate how empowering women to care for their animals - integral to these families’ livelihoods - is key to building the resilience of the Turkana community.

This project provided learning opportunities for Brooke as well as giving tangible results.

The innovation fund is currently closed, but you can still find out more.