Research
our research, learning and innovation agenda
Research for action
To advance our agenda and mobilise evidence under each of our challenge questions, we research and identify solutions to wicked problems facing dryland communities by co-creating evidence on bottlenecks to effective early action, devising and testing solutions that can bring change.
Our research is based on co-creation and facilitation of open innovation ‘labs’ where observatory partners, collaborators and a wider community of practice identify critical challenges and bottlenecks and, together, devise and test solutions. This research is delivered through doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers, commissioned research, research calls and through collaborations.
Focused on shocks and risks facing drylands and pastoralist communities, our research is clustered around four themes:
- Building resilience of drylands and pastoralists to shocks and risks
- Improving forecasting data and its use
- Advancing locally led early action against shocks and risks in drylands
- Rethinking early action to better manage shocks and risks facing pastoralists
Some achievements
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Multi-country analysis on how science-based Early warning systems (EWS) can be modified to better meet the needs of pastoralists
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Supporting the development of new indices derived from Earth Observation data to improve EWS
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Investigating why and how existing anticipatory action (AA) models need to be tailored to pastoral contexts
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Advancing the articulation of AA for pastoralists and in recurrent crises
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Co-publishing ‘Dangerous Delays 2’ report, which informed donor responses to the region’s 2022 drought
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Joined ILRI and AU-IBAR and six countries using Earth Observation data to support livestock feed strategies
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With Utrecht University, World Bank and ZEP-RE, assessing impact of ‘De-risking, inclusion and value enhancement of pastoral economies in the Horn of Africa’ program’s support for pastoralist resilience
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Ran two impact collaborations, sponsored by UNICEF and FAO, to improve malnutrition data monitoring globally and early warning data uptake at community level in the Horn of Africa.
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Generating demand-led insights and lessons, through post-doctoral, PhD and master’s research
Our portfolio
Post-doctoral projects at ILRI (2023-2025)
- Samuel Derbyshire: triggers for anticipatory action (with ILRI and SPARC project)
- Tahira Mohamed: linking short-term humanitarian response with long-term resilience building in pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa (with ILRI and SPARC project)
Postgraduate research at the University of Edinburgh
- John Mutua: evaluating livestock diets using earth observation approaches in East Africa
- George Tsitati: locally led anticipatory measures to mitigate, adapt and respond to humanitarian crises
- Puff Mukwaya: economic evaluation of forecast based action
- Sirimon Thomas: operationalising one health for early warning of food insecurity and socio-ecological system breakdown in northern Kenya
- Susan Njambi-Szlapka: anticipating food crises in agro-pastoral communities – how can we provide effective early action
- Abdishakur Diriye: drought index triggered takaful insurance for Somali pastoral livelihood resiliency
- Reason Mlambo: spatio-temporal poverty mapping using earth observation data and deep learning in Africa
- Rosie Herrington: refugee camps and livestock: child malnutrition and health implications in Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya
Research ‘accelerator’ projects (2024-2025)
- Next-generation earth observation for anticipatory drought risk management in East African pastoral drylands (with University of Milan)
- Improved early warning of food insecurity: Integrating forecasts based on machine learning and anthropometric data into Kenya’s National Drought Monitoring Authority (with University of California)
- Strengthening proactive adaptation and early action systems to enhance food security and resilience to multiple hazards among pastoralists in the Borana Zone, Ethiopia. (with ADRA Denmark)
Observatory-commissioned research
- Anticipatory action in protracted crises – research insights from East Africa: By Save the Children
- Looking ahead in a crisis – roles for anticipatory action in protracted droughts: By Save the Children
- Dangerous delay 2 – the cost of inaction: By Save the Children
- Anticipatory action to mitigate drought-induced crises – Learning from Kenya and Somalia: By Centre for Humanitarian Change
Impact collaborations
- Harvesting resilience: Enhancing community early warning systems in the Horn of Africa
- Producing a time series of childhood wasting estimates, accounting for climate impacts
External grant-funded research
- From climate change to conflict: Mitigation through insurance? (with Utrecht University and partners)
- Impact evaluation of DRIVE Program financial services component (with ZEP-RE and partners)
- When it rains, it pours: Compounding shocks and food security in rural Malawi (with Cornell University and partners)
- Co-creation of a research agenda for localized anticipatory action in Somalia (with Save the Children)
For more information, contact Nathan Jensen
Read our research reports: