This brief summarizes key takeaways from a recent study “Climate Smart Research on Drought Response in Turkana County, Kenya”, carried out under the Resilience Learning Activity (RLA), a USAID/Kenya and East Africa-funded Activity under the Feed the Future Kenya Livestock Market Systems Leader with Associates (LWA), led by ACDI/VOCA.

Climate change has made marginalized areas more vulnerable to droughts, which has led to an
increase in poverty due to loss of livelihoods in arid and semi-arid areas like Turkana County. To
mitigate these effects, it is important to improve preparedness, response and communities’ adaptive capacity to cope with the changing climatic patterns. Since devolution, the Turkana County Government has worked with the national government, local communities, non-governmental organizations and private sector entities to implement measures and mechanisms that promote resilience to the ever increasing drought shocks. These efforts have helped to save lives, protect livelihoods, social systems, and the environment.

This research aimed to study the trends and impacts of drought in Turkana County over recent years to understand how drought affects the livelihoods of the Turkana people, document the adaptation and coping mechanisms employed by communities to address the effects of drought, document the impact of drought on the peaceful coexistence of cross-border communities, highlight the policy and legislative frameworks instituted to sustain pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods, and highlight integration of traditional and modern drought early warning systems.