On 1 and 2 October, we joined the IGAD Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development (ICPALD) and the Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) programme to convene a dialogue on ‘Building the Resilience and Prosperity of Pastoralists and Dryland Communities.’
Involving 200 + participants from financial institutions, governments, civil society, pastoral associations, policy and research organizations, the dialogue brought together our community of practice and others for a sixth time to reframe narratives and policies around pastoralism; critically discuss emerging insights, evidence and lessons; facilitate collaboration and partnerships and strengthen the capacities of institutions and communities in dryland regions; and contribute to wider regional and global actions and debates on pastoralism, drought and early action.
Sessions
After an opening session on ‘new narratives, new impetus for drylands and pastoralism’, sessions explored evidence around dryland and pastoralist systems, with strong emphasis on anticipatory action, risk, early warning systems and community-led resilience (follow links for short reports from Observatory-convened sessions):
- Rethinking early and anticipatory actions to better manage shocks and risks in drylands [session report]
- Risks and their impacts on pastoralist livelihoods [session report]
- Advancing locally led early and anticipatory actions in drylands [session report]
- Enhancing forecasting and earth observation data and applications for drylands [session report]
- Capacitating dryland resilience and early action [session report]
- Supporting successful adaptation: Addressing the evolving roles of women and youth in fragile and conflict-affected situations, convened by SPARC
- Maintaining pastoralist mobility in a context of tenure insecurity, land use change and conflict, convened by ICPALD
- Approaches and innovations to reduce risks in fragile and conflict-affected situations, convened by SPARC
- Higher food prices in low-income Africa since 2020: Causes, impacts, responses, convened by SPARC and AERC
- Predictive tools for rangeland health, livestock feed security and rangeland restoration in the Horn of Africa, convened by ICPALD
- Climate finance in conflict and fragile settings: Insights from country case studies, convened by SPARC
- Collective tenure rights: A roadmap for the greater Horn of Africa, convened by RECONCILE
Red threads, take-aways and insights across the discussions
At the closing session, Jameel Observatory PhD Student Susan Njambi-Szlapka shared key points and threads on behalf of the session reporting team provided by the Observatory:
Listen, act and listen some more
- Make sure to listen to what people need and want when designing interventions.
- Be mindful that not all people are the same – women bear a disproportionate share of the burden of shocks.
- Prioritize the needs of communities and co-create with them.
- Focus on ease of use for products and services.
- Be flexible so you can adapt to how people respond.
- Design flexibility into programs.
Look around
- What’s already there: Better communicate and build on each other’s work – pay more attention to what’s already been done so have interconnected work rather than isolated silo’d efforts.
- What can we combine: Harness different types of data like earth observations, community voices, both quantitative and qualitative.
- Where the gaps are: Contextual development and implementation of research – don’t do pocket research and generalize.
Try new things – talk to strange people
- Engage with the private sector.
- Engage more with local and traditional leaders and invite them to dialogues. But communicate with these leaders in their language not scientific jargon.
- Change accountability frameworks so we are not just collecting data for donor reporting but for true accountability to the communities we serve.
- Explore ways to tap into local financing mechanisms and resources instead of solely relying on external (foreign) assistance.
Below: the Jameel Observatory team at the ‘Building the Resilience and Prosperity of Pastoralists and Dryland Communities’ event in Nairobi, 1 and 2 October 2025
