Our recent joint event on ‘Building the Resilience and Prosperity of Pastoralists and Dryland Communities’ featured a session that explored capacity needs of key dryland stakeholders (communities, institutions, local and national governments, private sector, civil society) and actions to strengthen them. Here we provide a short report from the session and links for further information.
Moderated by Alan Duncan (University of Edinburgh), the session began with two framing presentations – by Rahma Hassan (Center for Research and Development in Drylands) and Bilach Jimala (on behalf of Jarso Mokku of the Drylands Learning and Capacity Building Initiative) – exploring the types of capacities demanded across dryland and pastoralist contexts, from community to political levels. Intended to help understand the nature of the ‘demand’, these were followed by a short introduction to the Dryland Futures Academy (DFA) by Geoff Simm (University of Ednburgh) and then by several short presentations illustrating different approaches to capacity development.
Rahma Hassan introduced a ‘building resilience from below’ project of the CRDD that aims to enhancing local knowledge and institutions for flexible, adaptive management, deploy diverse skills and practices, and fostering relations, connections, and networks. Bilach Jimale called for a conceptual shift from technical skills to leadership ecosystems, so that pastoralist leaders are empowered through leadership development, governance, and strategic vision, and leadership as change architects.
Reacting to these ‘demands’, Simm introduced the Dryland Futures Academy as a collaborative opportunity to enhance capacities in this area. He introduced its four learning pathways – dryland leadership, continuing education, academic and formal education, and community skills sharing – and how the subsequent presenters touched on these.
Amanda Grossi’s presentation showed how an extension curriculum has been adapted to meet the needs of dryland livestock keepers [more information]; Rashid Warsame introduced work to develop a ‘pastoralism and planetary health’ online course [more information]; Jackson Wachira reported on a drylands summer school for early career researchers held earlier in 2025 [more information]; and Tahira Mohamed shared her ideas for an early career/dryland scholars network.
Complementing these Academy-related initiatives, Rosie Herrington illustrated how veterinary paraprofessionals can be reached and their capacities enhanced through a co-created online course.
Following this session, and building on these discussions, the session organizers were pleased to announce a drylands capacity development agreement with the Kenya School of Government as well as the formation of an early career network.
More information – Speakers and presentations (with download links):
Framing presentations:
- Rahma Hassan: Building resilience from below: Exploring local constructs of ‘Resilience’ in the face of chronic uncertainty in the Drylands. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176920
- Jarso Mokku: Rethinking Pastoralist and Dryland Capacity Building: Resilience from Above. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176917
- Geoff Simm: Introducing the Dryland Futures Academy: Strengthening capacities for food security early action in East Africa. http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/6580
Learning pathway presentations:
- Amanda Grossi: Building enduring capacity for resilience in the drylands: Extension curricula for livestock systems. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176919
- Rosie Herrington: Collaborating to improve last-mile animal health service delivery through para-professionals. http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/6574
- Tahira Mohamed: Drylands and pastoralism scholar network. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176918
- Jackson Wachira: Learnings from the Drylands Summer School February 2025. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176916
- Rashid Warsame: Co-developing a short course on pastoralism and planetary health. http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/6575
