The Citizens' Charter for Action on Drought in Kenya

The Citizens’ Charter for action on drought in Kenya A call to action by drought-affected communities and civil society The Citizens’ Charter for action on drought in Kenya A call to action by drought-affected communities and civil society Published by ActionAid International Kenya ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL All African Conference of Churches Building, Waiyaki Way P.O Box 42814-00100 Nairobi Telephone +254 (020) 4440440/4/9 Email: [email protected] Website: www.actionaid.org/kenya ISBN : 978-9945-134-07-9 ©ActionAid International Kenya, 2013 Photocopies of all or part of this publication may be made provided that the source is acknowledged. ActionAid International Kenya would appreciate receiving details of the use of any of this material in training, research or programme design, implementation or evaluation. Table of Contents 1. Background to the Citizens’ Charter p7 2. Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views p8 3. Drought mitigation policies: an analysis of the current state of play p13 4. People’s voices: the experience of drought in Kenya p17 5. The Citizens’ Charter p28 Signatories p32 Glossary p43 Acronyms p34 1. Background to the Citizens’ Charter 6 7 1. Background to the Citizens’ Charter Kenya is prone to several types of natural and Outcomes of the consultations were shared human-induced disasters. Its commonest with a cross-section of citizens brought natural disasters are drought and floods, while together from various parts of Kenya, and the most common human-induced disasters prominent representatives of various depart- include fires, conflict, terrorism and disease. ments of the Kenyan government and civil The frequency and intensity of such disasters society. A workshop was held in Nairobi in have increased tremendously in recent years. July 2013 to discuss, analyse and validate the outcomes of the consultations, and a ‘Citizens’ Drought is the most significant hazard in Charter’, setting out a collective proposition by Kenya – vulnerability to which has badly all participating agencies, was compiled. hindered poverty reduction, the realization of Vision 2030, and reaching the Millennium This document brings together key insights Development Goals (MDGs). The severity, from the consultations with drought-affected magnitude and intensity of droughts appear people, snippets from the policy analysis and to have increased over time. In recent years, the ‘Citizen’s Charter’ itself – put together by Kenya has faced severe droughts in the arid the citizens and organisations participating in a and semi-arid lands (ASALs) where up to 3.75 two-day workshop held in Nairobi on July 9-10, million 1people are extremely food insecure. 2013. The consequences of prolonged drought have This document has five key parts: had both macro- and micro-level impacts, including (among other things) severe water , The background to the Citizens’ Charter shortages in pastoral and agro-pastoral areas , Our methodology of northern and south-eastern Kenya; inade- , A review of Kenya’s drought mitigation quate pasture, reducing the health of livestock policies and therefore the market prospects and , People’s voices: the experience of drought incomes for pastoralist and agro-pastoralists; in Kenya The Citizens’ Charter crop failures; malnutrition among children and women, and migration and disease outbreaks. Reduced crop production, including cereals, has directly impacted the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to which agriculture contributes about 24%. Current nutrition assessments indicate that up to half a million children below the age of five, and pregnant/ lactating mothers, are acutely malnourished. The World Food Programme (WFP) has been targeting around 2.8 million people for general food distribution and the government announced an allocation of KSh9 billion in July 2011 towards the drought response. Despite massive efforts by humanitarian agencies to respond to the crises in Kenya and the Horn of Africa, the situation continues to deteriorate. Members of vulnerable populations are dying, while livestock and livelihoods are also being lost. ActionAid in Kenya reached out to drought-affected people in various parts of the country to hear their experiences of coping with the crisis. 1 Kenya food security steering group; outlook report 2011 6 7 Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views 2. Methodology 8 9 Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views 2. Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views Consultations were carried out with drought-af- Diversity was sought primarily in terms of: fected people across 10 locations in Kenya, identified using a selective sampling approach , profile of communities to ensure an optimal degree of diversity in what , representation of diverse regions was a relatively small but manageable sample , livelihood patterns size. , nature of crisis , degrees of accessibility , area-specific issues, e.g. incidence of conflicts, deforestation etc. 8 9 Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views Accordingly, locations representing different combinations of sampling factors were identified in three different counties in Kenya: West Pokot, Embu and Isiolo. Specific sites within the three counties and their standing on different sampling criteria are summarised below: Primary livelihoods Location (County) isolated) Difficult access High deforestation Hotspots of conflict Especially vulnerable communities (e.g. IDPs, Pastoralist Agriculturalists Kamayech (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ Kopulio (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Chesakam (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ Poole (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ ✓ Kruru (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Nakuyen (West Pokot) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Kakaawa (Embu) Kalisa (Embu) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Sericho (Isiolo) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Modagashe (Isiolo) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 10 11 Methodology: seeking diverse voices and views A number of participatory methods were A team of facilitators, trained in participatory used in the consultations to understand how consultations, conducted consultations at the drought manifests itself and has an impact pre-selected sites. In addition, a comprehen- on people’s lives. These included: sive reading of relevant secondary informa- tion, including national plans, budgets and , Historical transect, to understand policies, was carried out at the beginning changes in manifestations and severity of the process. Snippets from the readings of droughts over time. were shared with drought-affected people in various regions for their feedback. , Wellbeing analysis, for categorising households in terms of locally defined A stakeholders’ workshop, including repre- standards of wellbeing, as well as for sentatives of various government depart- identifying the most disadvantaged ments, donors, local and international households within the communities non-governmental organisations (NGOs), visited during the consultations, so national-level alliances and networks, and that droughts impact could be studied representatives from communities in West against varying backdrops. Pokot, Isiolo and Embu, was organised in July 2013 in Nairobi for sharing and , Cause-effect diagrams, to assess validating the outcomes of the consulta- perceived causes – including underlying tion. A Citizens’ Charter of demands was and root causes – as well as perceived formulated in the same workshop, encap- effects of various drought-related sulating snippets from analysis of various phenomena, e.g. charcoal burning. drought-mitigation policies in Kenya, voices of drought-affected people and demands of , Social maps, to get a bird’s-eye view citizens and civil society organisations for a of locations visited during consulta- stronger response to droughts. tion, especially in terms of disparities, Agriculture Sector Development Strategy incidence of issues, key features and This section outlines the key contents of endowments. each of these policies in brief. , Mobility maps, to understand people’s experiences and hardships related to access of important needs of survival, based on analysis of dispersion and accessibility of vital institutions, places and services. , Resource maps, for analysis of availability and accessibility of important survival resources, particularly in the wake of crises. , Seasonality diagrams, to understand patterns of climatic variations, incidence of droughts, changes in degrees of hardship and availability of coping resources across months of the year. , Daily activity schedules, for analysis of incidence of hardship within a typical day in the lives of a range of people, especially from vulnerable communities. 10 11 Drought mitigation policies: an analysis of the current state of play 3. Drought mitigation policies 12 13 Drought mitigation policies: an analysis of the current state of play 3. Drought mitigation policies: an analysis of the current state of play 3.1 National Policy for Disaster Management 3.2 National Food and Nutrition Security in Kenya (Draft) Policy The draft National Policy for Disaster The National Food and Nutrition Security Management in Kenya stresses the need Policy aims to protect vulnerable populations for disaster preparedness on the part of by promoting safety nets linked to long-term government, communities and other stake- development. It recognises the importance of holders in Disaster Risk Reduction activities, financing an institutional and legal framework, and provides for systematic monitoring and and seeks to address the crucial issues of early evaluation of the whole Disaster Manage- warning and emergency management, which ment System, as well as the management are critical to disaster risk reduction.

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