Status Update
Status Update – November 2021
The program is in its ninth and last year of implementation, after being granted some extensions by the bank. The program team continues with preparation of tender documents and raising bids for the few remaining works and services. The following are the key achievements to date;
Component 1: Natural Resources Management
- 20 water pans/earth dams of total capacity 620,000 m3 have been constructed.
- 42 boreholes have been drilled and equipped with a discharge of between 2.6 to 18 m3/hr
- 7 shallow wells constructed
- 5 sub-surface dams have been constructed
- 3 irrigation schemes complete in Baringo, Marsabit and Isiolo counties. 4 others under construction/rehabilitation. When all the schemes are complete 1050ha of land will have access to irrigation water.
- 1 irrigation scheme reservoir dam completed in Isiolo
- Trekking distances to access water for human and livestock use have been reduced from 15-30 km and sometimes even more, to an average less than 1 km to 7 km. This has saved time that was being used for fetching water to be used for other domestic and economic activities.
- Conflicts for water resources have significantly reduced.
- With the drilling and equipping of the bore holes cases of water bone diseases have reduced significantly.
Component 2: Improvement of Livestock Infrastructure and Management
- All 20 livestock sale yards targeted by the project have been completed and operational handling on average 200 cattle and 1000 shoats per market day
- 425 ha of improved pasture have been established
- 81,489 bales of hay and 6,568 kgs of grass seed have been harvested from the pasture demonstration plots so far.
- In a bid to improve the quality of pastures for livestock, 8 on-farm trials on 4 grass varieties have been established in Marsabit county in collaboration with KALRO-Kiboko.
- 18 hay sheds (with capacity to store between 15,000-20,000 bales) have been constructed for use by the pastoralists during drought.
- 6 vet labs have been equipped with disease diagnostic equipment. Over 200,000 samples have been collected for screening. 132,349 cattle and 3,789,231 sheep & goats have been vaccinated.
Component 3: Project Management and Capacity Building
This component is meant to support the development and strengthening of the capacities of personnel and institutions to enhance their resilience to drought. The project has supported each implementing county with 3 motor vehicles, 9 motor cycles and other office equipment to improve mobility, performance and monitoring. The project has conducted Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) prior to the development of water, irrigation schemes and livestock structures. These will be used for environmental monitoring to ensure environmental safety and sustainability.
Women and youth are being supported through Income Generating Activities (IGAs) to empower them both economically and socially. 28 IGA groups have been shortlisted to benefit from initial IGA interventions.
Community participation has been given prominence from site identification, signing resolution forms to commit land for project activities, supervision of construction and management of the infrastructure. This is important for success of the project, ownership and sustainability. Each site has a well mobilized community with community project implementation committees responsible for oversight and management of the infrastructure development and use. Continuous strengthening and backstopping is being done to the various infrastructure management committees. The PCU has continuously carried out monitoring and backstopping of county project implementation teams (CPITs) to enhance personnel capacity.
The Project Steering Committee (PSC), which provides oversight and policy guidance to the project, meets at least twice a year to approve the project’s work plans and budgets and procurement plans and, also conducts field supervision to the project counties. The Bank conducts at least two supervision missions to the project every year to ensure progress towards meeting the project’s development objective.
Natural resources such as water and pasture are in short supply in the project areas. The pastoralists also keep very high numbers of livestock, leading to conflicts over these resources. In order to address matters of conflict and peace building, the PCU has trained staff and farmer leaders (78 officers and 218 farmers -153 M: 65F) in all the six project counties in peace building and conflict resolution. In total 2,000 (1,400M; 700F) farmers and staff have been trained in different areas (production, marketing etc)