Strengthening pastoralist livelihoods in the greater Horn of Africa through effective anticipatory action (PASSAGE)

 

Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa has caused 3.6 million livestock deaths while 28 million people are highly food-insecure and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. The extent of early actions triggered by climate forecasts and food security outlooks has been insufficient to save lives and livelihoods. This experience reveals shortcomings in drought monitoring, preparedness and implementation from transboundary to local scales.

This project will improve management of extreme climate events by local governments to support pastoral livelihoods and communities through improved modelling, forecasting and anticipatory action plans. This includes co-creation of an open-source database for hazard impacts, cascading risks and existing anticipatory action, development of new forecasting models, specifically for water and pasture management, and documenting and disseminating tools and initiatives to strengthen local capacity. The project particularly focuses on the transboundary areas within the region as these host the most vulnerable pastoral communities with acute malnutrition levels.

This project is part of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience initiative (CLARE) co-funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and IDRC. CLARE is a five-year, CAD120-million initiative that aims to enable inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards for people across Africa and the Asia-Pacific.