Donor: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) 

Implementing partners: ASAL Humanitarian Network (AHN); ACTED, IMPACT Initiatives (IMPACT);

AHN member organisations:  Relief, Reconstruction and Development Organization (RRDO), Pastoralist Girls Initiative (PGI)

County: Garissa, Lagdera and Dadaab sub counties

Project duration: September 2022 to May 2023

Target Households/Households Reached: 2036 Households (12916 individuals) Male PWDs – 6597 and female PWDs – 5619 gender desegregated data F, M, BOYS, GIRLS, PWDs

Issue/Background

Towards the last quarter of 2022, The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) estimated that 4.4 million people in Kenya (27% of the ASAL population) were facing high levels of Acute Food Insecurity. Most alarming is that this is the highest recorded magnitude and severity of food insecurity in decades. Food systems in the past have been vulnerable to shocks from droughts, floods, armed conflicts and the changing climate. However, the pandemic, compromised the food security and nutrition status of the most vulnerable populations in the world. (United Nations, 2021).Millions of livestock— which pastoralist families rely upon for sustenance and livelihoods—are emaciated or dead, including more than 1.5 million animals that have died in Kenya. Food prices are rising in many drought-affected areas, due to a combination of macro-economic challenges, below-average harvests, and rising prices on international markets, including as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Garissa County has reported high rates of children at risk of malnutrition and, this is mostly attributed to the continued decrease in milk production and consumption at household level, as well as poor dietary diversity, poor child feeding practices, and reduced food intake at household level. The state of pasture and browse in most parts of the county remained poor, condition was below normal. In addition, the pasture and browse is not expected to last long due to high concentration of livestock in grazing areas, specifically pastoralists from Mandera and Wajir have moved their livestock’s in thousands to Garissa county, these has led to resource based conflicts among the pastoralists communities. During such transportations of livestock’s from Wajir and Mandera it has been evident that high number of livestock’s have died due to the body weaken conditions.

In support to this drought response, the AHN Network provides technical backstopping to the partners by guiding them through the activities and challenges that may be encountered during the implementation. In support to this response, the AHN Secretariat will undertake a harmonized Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) functions for the project, and use its existent independent Complaints, Feedback, and Response Mechanism (CFRM) to provide safe and confidential channels for reporting of coercion, corruption and/or abuse. To do so, AHN will have the support of ACTED’s Appraisal, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (AMEU) for the management of the CRFM. The latter will provide accountability monitors that form part of an independent platform for beneficiaries to provide feedback on the project and raise complaints on implementation at any stage throughout the project cycle. In addition, IMPACT will conduct the monitoring and evaluation of the cash distribution activities – baseline and endline – for a coherent methodology and analysis framework currently being applied by the AHN partners across the ASAL counties.

Intervention: Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance provided to drought affected households