This is a story of agro-pastoralists who collectively took a leap of faith to embark on a new venture in their vast and unexploited land. Limited resources to facilitate purchase of farm inputs and plough the land plus their limited farm know how on crop management were the challenges they faced. The only government tractor available in the area had complex mechanical problems that they could not finance without external support.

IREMO, a local women rights organization and an active member of the AHN Marsabit chapter has been an active advocate for community-led interventions through the  Supporting Community-led crisis response (SCLR)  approach. SCLR is a means through which communities affected by crisis are at the center of the response and are given the power and resources to take charge of their own response. The aim of the SCLR is to strengthen the initiatives of crisis-affected people to help each other (Mutual aid), survive the crisis with dignity and promote communal wellbeing and build their resilience. 

Beans bulking - Harvesting in Hurri Hills - Photo Dulacha Tunne - CMDRR Champion

During the drought emergencies, IREMO had implemented emergency response actions such as food aid assistance, hay distribution and water trucking in the area. Additionally they had closely liaised and collaborated with National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) in disseminating Early Warning Information (EWI) to the community. However, there was need to also begin to build the resilience of the communities to actively participate in their development. Consequently, during an appreciative inquiry mission by IREMO, the farmer group reached out and presented a detailed proposal outlining tractor repair requirements, related costs, community contribution, timelines and outlined the strategies on how entire community will benefit from the proposed intervention. Through communal resource mobilization, the group was able to raise Ksh 100,000 as their community contribution. 

IREMO analyzed the proposal, approved and disbursed micro-grant value of KES 100,000 to Hurri Hills Farmers Field School Group to partly finance operations, repairs and maintenance of community tractor to be used for ploughing/ tilling the farmlands in advance of the expected rains. In close partnership with the North-Horr sub county Agricultural personnel, IREMO trained the group on crop husbandry practices and thereafter linked them with county department of agriculture for linkages and networking purposes. Through this partnership with local government, more than 300 farmers in the area received certified and adaptable crop seeds with each  household receiving 4Kgs and 5Kgs of maize and beans respectively. Monitoring field visits by IREMO revealed massive sharing between households. After planting, the group received a bumper harvest of 2500kgs and 4150kgs of beans and maize respectively which were sold at shh 200 for beans and sh 100 for maize.

Hurri Hills Farmers Field School Harvesting Maize in their Farm - Photo Dub Guyo/IREMO 

Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM), pre and post training tests conducted by IREMO revealed that 85% of the trained farmers improved their Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) on crop husbandry. These positive change in KAP led to early land preparation, planting, management and eventual bumper harvests. The group’s success has led to improved household food security. Hurri Hills is now a food basket for the entire North-Horr Sub-County and the County government had applauded IREMO’s intervention priority and termed a game changer. There has also been increased uptake of the practice in a traditionally pastoral communities of North Horr with enhanced kitchen gardening activities ongoing even on the slopes of Chalbi desert. In the long term, household food security and livelihood diversification will be a reality. 

As an early exit strategy planning, IREMO has linked and networked the group/ community with relevant government departments. The capacity building conducted has effectively transformed the participating members as Community Own Resource Persons (CORPs) making them instrumental sustainability of the interventions and replication of efforts. While during the drought emergencies IREMO provided planting seeds, the community can now produce and plant own seeds hence improving food security and economy of the ASAL community making SCLR, locally-led response a reality hence firming localization agenda. 

Through the process of implementing the SCLR approach, IREMO shares some important lessons learnt during the process: 

1. Communities are first responders, with existing own-capacities and community led response and development can potentially be an empowerment and transformative tool to trigger, mobilize communities and deliver contextualized locally-led actions to respond to fluid, dynamic needs and circumstances prevailing in ASAL ecosystems.
2. Secondly, there has been an attitude change towards farming, especially as a result of the success of Hurri Hills Farmers Field School group leading to livelihood diversification and increased food security. 
3. Most importantly, it is time to give power back to the community as they are best placed to solve their problems because they understand their needs. 
4. Emergency response actions are best delivered impactfully when integrated and multi-sectoral. The fragile ASAL ecosystems are disaster-prone, therefore, it will be innovative to embed “Crisis Modifier” component in design and conceptualization of future programming so that when disasters strike rapid response is instituted promptly and unhindered to save lives, livelihoods and assets. Also, the connectedness of CMDRR and SCLR has become clear and greater investment in these hybrid model needs to be adopted as next frontier in building resilience capacities of the vulnerable communities.