Our fourth annual report covers our activities between July 2024 and June 2025 and reports on a busy year in which we:
- Researched and identified solutions by co-creating evidence on bottlenecks to effective early action, devising and testing solutions that can bring change.
- Informed and influenced practitioners and policymakers by convening inclusive dialogues, fostering partnerships and building consensus on necessary policies and interventions.
- Developed the capacities of dryland stakeholders to manage environmental shocks through the Dryland Futures Academy.
It further reports on a busy year of communication and engagement in which we convened or co-convened 15 events with partners, involving 233 participants from 91 organisations; we disseminated 117 knowledge products and videos and 62 web updates; and our social channels and Dgroup platform grew.
Here we introduce some highlights from our work and the ways we approach it.
Dialogue and Convening highlights
A key event was our close support to the 4th Pastoralist Leadership Summit in Kenya in December 2024. Researchers from the Observatory and partners, including post- doctoral scientists and PhD students, were heavily involved in documenting the discussions and drafting a series of Resolutions from the Summit. The invitation for the Observatory to support the Summit recognized the increasing regard for its demand-led research and inclusive convening. In April 2025, we re-visited key issues from the Summit in a breakfast dialogue with parliamentarians, policy makers and investors.
Also in April, we launched the Pastoralism and Drylands Development seminar series in Nairobi. This aims to catalyze conversations across research, policy and practice and provoke a rethink of approaches to policy and practice in the drylands of the Horn of Africa.
Research and Evidence highlights
This year, we launched three ‘Research Accelerator Projects’ funded by the Observatory. Implemented with key regional partners, these aim to accelerate the impacts of existing cutting- edge research by turning research into action.
A University of Milan-led project is assessing and recommending next-generation earth observation systems for anticipatory drought risk management in East African pastoral drylands. It aims to overcome an urgent challenge – the looming lack of reliable long- term earth observation datasets to assess drought impacts on rangeland production.
A University of California-led project is improving early warning of food insecurity by integrating child malnutrition forecasts based on machine learning and anthropometric data into the services of Kenya’s National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).
The third, ADRA Denmark-led project, is enhancing community resilience and empowering pastoralist households to better prepare for and respond to multiple hazards.
From the academic portfolio, we celebrate the mainstreaming by the African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) of research by Observatory PhD student John Mutua on the use of earth observation to estimate livestock feed stocks at national level. The research to streamline livestock feed estimates has been taken up by six countries across the continent.
Capacity Sharing highlights
Summer school hosts – Hussain Tadicha, Rahma Hassan and Guyo Roba
A second highlight was our co-convening of a drylands Summer School in Isiolo in northern Kenya. It brought together thirty-three PhD and Master’s students from across the Horn of Africa to ‘explore local constructs of resilience in the face of shocks and uncertainties in the drylands.’ Co-organized with the Center for Research and Development in the Drylands (CRDD) and the Feinstein International Center of Tufts University, students examined how resilience has been understood and applied in drylands, developing insights and skills to engage with pastoral contexts.
Emerging insights
In an earlier post, we identified some key messages and insights emerging from our research. Here we highlight a first set of insights about the ways we tackle early action and food security challenges.
First, we observe the benefits to researching ‘out loud’ and in the open. Our mixed ecosystem brings together academics, scholars, applied researchers as well as practitioners, local communities and policy shapers. Early in their research, our PhD students are asked to focus on outcomes and to actively engage potential consumers of their work. We ask them and our research partners to engage early, often before the data are collected, before analysis is complete, and before problems are fully defined. Working outside comfort zones, with unfamiliar people and disciplines and opening themselves to early inputs makes the research more relevant, better connected and it provides richer academic experiences than usual.
Second, as a small team operating in a busy space, we combine different approaches and modes of operation. We invest in longer term academic study alongside shorter term applied research. We base evidence collection on challenges refined through engagement and listening processes. We employ dialogue to validate and shape research outputs and focus, drawing in policy and practitioner perspectives and looking to enhance capacities through practice as well as teaching. The explicit focus on dialogue and evidence and capacities, applied together, seems to ‘add up’ and produce more informed and effective ways to carry out research for action with change in mind.
Third, regular, repeated and facilitated face to face interactions and information sharing through our CoP seem to be valued. Involving diverse partners, with conversations followed up over time seems offers opportunities to debate critical questions, find realistic answers, and build momentum and collaboration. Linking these interactions with policy and research processes helps to ground conversations, so they connect and build on each other.
The image below shows a snapshot of the institutions we engaged through various co-organized and convened events in early 2025. It shows a core network of diverse organizations regularly interacting in research, policy and capacity development workshops together with our community of practice meetings.
