Research
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