From 8-10 December, the 4th Pastoralist Leadership Summit in Wajir brought together key stakeholders to address critical issues facing Kenya’s dryland regions. Aiming to unlock policy and financing bottlenecks to pastoralism in Kenya, participants agreed a set of landmark resolutions, with sector development and peace and security emerging as top priorities.
We were pleased to contribute to the summit planning and communications and, with our partners at the Center for Research and Development in the Drylands and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, to reporting the key summit discussions and decisions.
The summit was closed by the President of Kenya. In his closing remarks, he identifed key areas calling for strategic attention to include “ending drought emergencies, scaling up fodder production, formulating a camel value chain strategy, privatising livestock vaccines, and improving the overall livestock sector.”
Committing to translate the summit resolutions into collaborative action, he said that operationalisation of the “newly established Livestock and Livestock Products Marketing Board” will be expedited, that cooperatives will be strengthened in Northern Kenya, and he referred to plans to complete the Horn of Africa Gateway Development Project that integrates road infrastructure, fibre optic connectivity, and community development.
Resolutions crafted during the summit covered:
Peace and security: There’s an urgent need to localize peacebuilding initiatives, with a focus on grassroots-driven strategies to address the root causes of conflict.
Livestock development: Actions include allocating at least 10 per cent of county development budgets to livestock sector development, operationalization of the Pastoralist Livestock and Livestock Products Marketing Board, establishment of a Camel Center of Excellence, and support for pastoralist livestock cooperative development.
Community land registration: The summit called for funds to implement the Community Land Act 2016 that aims to identify, recognize, protect, and secure community land rights that are vital to unlock economic growth, foster inter-community collaboration, and facilitate sustainable rangeland use.
Infrastructure: The summit highlighted the need for accelerated infrastructure development, particularly roads and transport links connecting pastoralist regions.
Inclusion: The summit advocated for gender inclusivity and youth development in pastoralist communities.
In the Jameel Observatory, we were pleased to be able to work closely with the Drylands Learning and Capacity Building Initiative and other partners in devising and delivering a successful summit.
From the Observatory, Guyo Malicha Roba served on the organizing group and was a panelist in the plenary session on ending drought emergencies.
With our colleagues from CRDD and Tufts University, we provided a team of researchers to report and help synthesize the key discussion and decision points in the various working groups, contributing to the overall set of resolutions anf their communication online.
This collaboration was extended to a joint booth and poster exhibition – that included a specially prepared set of posters from a community photovoice project.
We look forward to contributing to planned summit followup activities in 2025 and beyond.
