Introduction

Background


The Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries, is spearheading the World Bank aided Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience Project (RPLRP-Kenya), with the objective to enhance livelihoods resilience of pastoral and agro pastoral communities in cross border drought prone areas of Selected Countries and improve the capacity of the selected Countries governments to respond promptly and effectively to an Eligible Crisis or Emergency.

RPLRP (Kenya) will build and strengthen linkages between regional institutions, such as IGAD and AU, and the Ethiopian and Ugandan Governments to better tackle issues that affect communities in the ASALs, with a specific focus on sub-regional issues, including those related to Natural Resources Management, Market Access and Trade, Livelihoods Support, Pastoral Risk Management and Project Management and Institutional Support

In line with the demands of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 which ushered in devolved governments, most Agriculture related functions were transferred to the county units. The project adopted a two- tier implementation approach that led to creation of 14 County Project Implementation Units, co-ordinated by the National Project Implementation Unit at the Headquarters, Nairobi.

Project Preparation involved a wide scale consultative process that included, but not limited to: (i) meetings with the technical and administrative staff at the county level; (ii) a wide range of stakeholder consultations in the proposed RPLRP project counties; (iii) joint planning workshops and field visits to the project communities. The outcome of the consultations was a validated project document and inputs in the various plans adopted by the project in line with The World Bank policies.

 

Through this project, The GoK is committed to support pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in their efforts to reduce vulnerability to drought related shocks through participatory approaches, based on democratic governance principles. These communities are essential to the success of RPLRP (KENYA) because they have often faced severe droughts that strike with increasing severity each drought cycle. Mechanisms for equitable and effective participation of vulnerable and marginalized groups such as women and youth in Natural Resource Management, Market Access and Trade, and Livelihoods will be enhanced in order to boost the delivery of tangible benefits and the long-term sustainability of RPLRP (KENYA).

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