In Kenya and
Somalia, drought decimates livestock and hits incomes. NORKENYA will be
embarking on a livestock production program in the Kenya-Somalia Border. This
will be done in close collaboration with the District Veterinary Officers(DVO's) ,
Provincial Administration, ALLPRO(ASAL Based Livestock and Rural Livelihoods Support Project), NALEP(National agriculture and livestock extension Programme) and will include, Disease surveillance
and Mass Vaccination and treatment. This program is intended
to contribute to poverty alleviation (Kenya Rural Development Strategy and the
Poverty Reduction Strategy)
Drought
/Famine
A
severe drought ravaging the arid and semi-arid parts of the Horn of Africa
region is threatening the livelihoods of pastoral communities, with massive
livestock deaths recorded amid an increase in deadly conflict over resources.
Pastoralists depend on livestock for all their basic needs and any losses
undermine their economic and food security. Livestock sales are often used to
buy grain and lack of milk and meat contribute to high malnutrition levels.
"The
value of livestock - people's main assets in many of the worst affected areas -
has plummeted and livestock markets have collapsed, so people have much less
purchasing power than before. People's livelihoods have already been decimated,
but there is now also a real risk of large-scale loss of life," warns
Oxfam in a 1 July statement, adding that in some parts of Kenya and Ethiopia,
at least 60 percent of the herds have perished.
The
perception that emergency relief often does not appreciate the importance of
saving livestock assets in emergencies has prompted the development of
initiatives such as the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS),
the equivalent of SPHERE in humanitarian circles. LEGS aims at
improving relief programming with communities that rely heavily on livestock for
their social and economic well-being. According
to a December 2010 International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) report,
interventions to support livestock, such as supplementary feeding and
commercial destocking (among recommended actions in LEGS), should be
implemented before livestock are so weak they die. In the 2008-2009
Kenyan droughts, truckloads of dead and dying heads of livestock were common.
"Supplementary
feeding needs to target breeding stocks with sufficient time so that they stay
healthy," states the ILRI report. "Conflict resolution to enable
pastoralists to move to key grazing areas needs to be done in advance, before
large numbers of animals need pasture. Late interventions are costly and
unhelpful."
Falling
prices
The
weak condition of livestock has meant that the surviving cattle, for instance,
have a far lower market value than normal up to 40 percent less in parts of
Kenya, says Oxfam, adding that "pastoralists in Somalia have also reported
that their animals are now worth less than half of their value in late
2010".
An
oversupply of cattle in parts of Somalia due to destocking and restocking of
small ruminants through cattle selling in Garissa, Kenya, meant that cattle
prices were still 21 percent less in Somalia than in 2010, stated a 20 June
Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit - Somalia (FSNAU) brief. Increased
camel exports - 7 percent of total livestock from January to May compared with
2 percent over the same period in 2010 at the Bossaso port - is an additional indicator
of stress selling in drought-affected pastoral areas, notes FSNAU.
Northern
Kenya, Somalia and southern Ethiopia, which are predominantly pastoral regions,
are among the areas most affected by the drought. In Somalia, at least 65
percent of the population depends on the livestock sector; because of the
effects of the drought, more people are sliding into food hunger and poverty. FSNAU
estimates that at least 2.85 million people are facing food insecurity in
Somalia, a 19 percent increase from January. In Kenya, the food-insecure
population is estimated at 3.5 million. Large
livestock migration from northeastern Kenya and Somalia's arid areas of
southern Gedo to Juba and Bay regions in southern Somalia may lead to early
depletion of pasture and water in these regions, according to FSNAU.
Destocking
According
to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Kenya),
subsidizing livestock markets, commercial livestock destocking and destocking
for meat sales remain priority concerns in northern Kenya. A government-run
buy-back programme has been halted in some parts due to a lack of funds.
"The
amount of money allocated was small considering the large population of
livestock in Isiolo, Marsabit and Moyale," Zachary Nyanga, the Upper
Eastern director of livestock, told IRIN.
Nyanga
said KSh37.7 million (about US$419,000) allocated in April had been used to buy
13,000 goats and sheep from herders but the funds ran out in May. He said the
programme would resume once additional funding, which has since been allocated,
was received.
According
to a local aid worker, who requested anonymity, government and aid
organization's activities in livestock emergency response had to be
coordinated. "The whole [off-take] programme was a failure from the
beginning; the government was buying animals at a higher price than us, the
aid worker said. The government was offering about KSh3,000 ($34) for a
goat/sheep, while NGOs were offering half that.
In
addition, the programme did not target cattle, which are worst affected by the
drought.
"My
intention was to sell my 40 [head of] cattle, save the money in a bank and then
buy livestock [with the money] after it rains," said Peter Lepertet from
the Wamba area of Samburu in the north. "I was also only allowed to sell
four goats but I have more than 150 [sheep and goats]; it is meaningless."
Wario Jirma, a resident from Marsabit district, northern Kenya, said: "We
are losing livestock, [our] source of livelihood. The issue is very
serious."
In
some areas, pasture, grazing land and migration routes that have traditionally
been used in emergencies are no longer available, having been sold off, or
allocated for tourism and large-scale agriculture. This has undermined
pastoralists ability to cope with recurrent drought, notes Oxfam.
Clashes
and displacement
In
Kenya, at least 113 people were killed in clashes over resources between
January and end-May, against 106 deaths in the same period in 2008, 138 in
2009, and 68 in 2010. According to OCHA Kenya, the high 2008 and 2009 killings
occurred during above-normal dry conditions, similar to the present situation.
Conflict- and drought-related displacement has also affected education. At
least 10 schools in Isiolo, Samburu and Turkana areas in the north have been
closed.
"Hundreds
of children have quit learning, many have moved with their parents to look for
pasture, some have been displaced by a lack of water," said Dade Boru, the
Isiolo Teachers Union Executive Secretary. Livestock deaths and the resultant
financial losses have meant parents are unable to raise school fees.
A
local leader from the Oldonyiro area of Isiolo, Nicholas Lesokoye, said
insecurity had affected business activities too and there were fears of more
conflict. "We have received reports that a large number of armed herders
have arrived and are still streaming in towards Isiolo," he said.
With drought known to be an ever-present hazard in the dry lands of East and Central Africa, relief programming should focus on the whole drought cycle, including normal and recovery periods, rather than just alert and emergency, states the ILRI report. This is because "any given area or community is... always in some phase related to current, recent or impending drought".
