Integrated climate-smart livestock solutions for resilient pastoralist communities in Kenya

Livestock farming in Taita Taveta County, Kenya, is crucial to livelihoods yet faces persistent challenges due to climate change, disease outbreaks and limited access to essential livestock services. Women, who play a central role in livestock management, often lack decision-making power, market access and veterinary support. This project aims to enhance livestock productivity, climate resilience and gender equity through an integrated, technology-driven approach that consolidates breeding, animal health and farm management services into a single digital platform.

The project will implement a bundled service model, providing farmers — especially women and youth — access to improved genetics, vaccination and advisory support. It will provide multi-channel access, including mobile applications and service data that allow for real-time communication, while leveraging a partnership integration module to engage local stakeholders and scale service delivery.

This initiative will engage 5,000 farmers, at least 50% of whom will be women, and foster sustainable market linkages to improve economic opportunities. The project will inform future innovations for resilient and productive farming, ensuring the model can be adapted to similar regions across Africa and beyond.

This project is part of the Climate-Resilient Animal Fund initiative (RECAF), co-funded by the Gates Foundation and IDRC. RECAF is a six-year initiative aimed at developing new climate-smart livestock technologies and business models to improve animal productivity and lower emissions for smallholder livestock farmers in climatic hotspots in Africa.