NAIROBI, Kenya – The “Karamoja cross-border region,” also known as the “Karamoja Cluster,” refers to an area of land that straddles the borders between southwestern Ethiopia, northwestern Kenya, southeastern South Sudan, and northeastern Uganda.
The region is composed of semi-arid savannah, grading into wooded grassland to the north and northwest and semi-arid to the south and southeast. Rainfall is erratic and localised, making crop farming an unreliable subsistence strategy; thus, livestock rearing is a better option owing to livestock mobility.
The region has, in the past, experienced a host of challenges, including a persistent drought that has been strongly associated with food insecurity, chronic poverty, protracted competition, displacement, and conflicts over livestock and access to pasture and water resources and unwarranted loss of human life, as well as cross-border incursions.
The Karamoja Cross-border Area is home to at least 19 pastoral and agro-pastoral communities (including Bokora, Daasanach, Didinga, Dodoth, Jie, Matheniko, Nyangatom, Ethur, Pian, Pokot, Tepeth, Topotha, and Turkana; Nyangiya; Napore; Mening; Achole; Upe; and Iki) who have similar language, cultural practices, and wayss of life.
How communities of the Karamoja Cross-border Area are interconnected
The development of the Karamoja Cross-border Area is complicated by one of its defining features—the fact that it is a cross-border area: a geographic location that is shared between 4 countries, inhabited by communities that are characterised by their interaction and interconnectedness through various unifying factors (e.g., social, ethnic, and linguistic unity; sharing complementary natural resources; livestock movement; infrastructure and trade).
These communities experience similar challenges and are often interconnected through, inter alia, natural resource sharing, livestock movement, regional trade, and transboundary human and animal diseases.
The communities are affected by the challenges of occupying the same space, especially as all of them are vulnerable to various shocks and stresses, such as conflicts, drought, and transboundary human and animal diseases.
These unifying factors, including challenges in water and pasture availability, poor markets, and inadequate infrastructure, underscore the inextricable linkage of communities with a common destiny whose development cannot be tackled through national programs alone.
A new report by the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) lifts the lid on several interventions that have been adopted for preparedness and response to cushion these communities and safeguard their livelihoods across the crop sector, livestock and rangeland sector, water resources sector, health and nutrition sector, and social protection sector.
Crop sector
• Farmers are advised to adopt fast-maturing, drought-tolerant, and nutritious crop varieties.
• Enhance post-harvest management measures to minimise crop losses for food security
• Promote value addition to increase the value of produce, e.g., milk, beef, hay, and processing of crops
• Provision of relief food for the affected areas
• Farmers’ income is likely to increase if adequate preservation of food crops for the next season is adhered to
Livestock and Rangeland sector
• Farmers are advised to regularly spray and treat their livestock against ticks and flies, as well as deworm them.
• Farmers should vaccinate against Newcastle and rabies
• Farmers should be trained and adopt Apiculture, including climate-smart livestock farming management practices
• Farmers should carry out regular monitoring and timely reporting of any animal disease occurrence in the community.
Water Resources sector
• Water harvesting during seasons of heavy rainfall should be promoted, including through nature-based approaches
• Community ownership of water sources is strongly encouraged. This will help in the maintenance of those water points
• By-laws should be put by local/community leaders to strongly protect water sources from being contaminated by animals
• Mobilise and secure resources for the rehabilitation of boreholes and other water sources
• Capacity building on sustainable water management practices
ICPAC is a specialised institution of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), based in Nairobi, Kenya, mandated to provide timely climate early warning information and support specific sector applications to enable the region to cope with risks associated with climate variability and change, including providing climate applications for poverty alleviation, environment management, and sustainable development.
ICPAC also hosts the Disaster Risk Management Unit and the IGAD Food Security, Nutrition, and Resilience Analysis Hub (IFRAH).
