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

  • Multi-country analysis on how science-based Early warning systems (EWS) can be modified to better meet the needs of pastoralists

  • Supporting the development of new indices derived from Earth Observation data to improve EWS

  • Investigating why and how existing anticipatory action (AA) models need to be tailored to pastoral contexts

  • Advancing the articulation of AA for pastoralists and in recurrent crises

  • Co-publishing ‘Dangerous Delays 2’ report, which informed donor responses to the region’s 2022 drought

  • Joined ILRI and AU-IBAR and six countries using Earth Observation data to support livestock feed strategies

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Generating demand-led insights and lessons, through post-doctoral, PhD and master’s research

Our portfolio

 

Post-doctoral projects at ILRI (2023-2025)

Postgraduate research at the University of Edinburgh

Research ‘accelerator’ projects (2024-2025)

Observatory-commissioned research

Impact collaborations

External grant-funded research

For more information, contact Nathan Jensen

Read our research reports:

Weather and climate information services for pastoralists

With parthers, we reviewed evidence on weather and climate information services use by pastoralist communities.

Pastoral communities respond to drought – insights and lessons from northern Kenya

Sake Godana Duba’s thesis documents lessons of drought responses in pastoral communities in northern Kenya

Uncertainty, pastoral knowledge and drought early warning

Article exploring Kenya’s experience with early warning, early action and drought management