Climate Adaptation Fund develops key project in Kenya

A climate change adaptation project has been launched in eastern Kenya and will significantly benefit pastoral communities.

The project, in Garbatulla, in the eastern county of Isiolo, is funded through the Climate Adaptation Fund and developed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Through what are known as ward committees, communities can identify initiatives they find promising and request that they be funded. Similar projects are being piloted in five wards in eastern and northern Kenya.

Jo Abbot, the deputy head of the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) in Kenya, said climate change-related challenges can be managed through the adoption of technology and by keeping communities abreast of weather patterns. But relaying weather forecasts through print and electronic media and television has meant that this information does not reach people like pastoralists. And the information available is often imprecise.

But empowering communities through resilience and early warning programmes improves pastoralists' coping mechanisms, and could work better than funding emergency programmes, experts say.