Category Archives: Kenya

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Early famine warnings in Horn not enough: Early action also needed–Economist

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The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reports on emerging food security conditions related to drought and other climate crises (image on the ReliefWeb website by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems). The first food to arrive in famine-struck Mogadishu, … Continue reading →

East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Resilience / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Long-term ‘food aid-plus’ has helped avert famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda–Economist

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Children in Kenya’s Watamu District with milk (photo on Flickr by Thomas Blower). An article in this week’s Economist describes the value of helping communities in the Horn of Africa’s to build resilience to recurrent drought. It is this ‘Food Aid-Plus,’ argues the Economist, that has helped avert famine in southern Ethiopia (seeds), northeastern Kenya (school milk … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Europe / Food Security / Ireland / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Ireland’s longstanding support for Somalia’s poor and its current fight against another ‘Great Hunger’

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Statue commemorating The Great Hunger in 18th-century Ireland (photo on Flickr by munksynz). Carl O’Brian in the Irish Times yesterday (26 Jul 2011) asks: ‘When does a food crisis become a famine?’ Irish journalists, people, government officials and aid agents have a particular passion for fighting famine, which so devastated their country in the mid-1800s, killing … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

United Nations upgrades drought in southern Somalia to famine status

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An elderly Somali woman arrives at Dadaab refugee camp, in northern Kenya; despite the dangers, thousands of refugees every week are making the journey south from Somalia into Kenya, walking for weeks across the desert and braving attacks by armed robbers and wild animals; Dadaab is now the world’s largest refugee camp, supporting more than 370,000 … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Drought bites harder in pastoral regions of Africa’s Horn

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Map of drought-afflicted areas in the Horn of Africa as of 28 June 2011 (map credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, web-posted on the ReliefWeb website). ‘. . . [A]fter the worst drought in 60 years, more than 10m people in the Horn of Africa need emergency food aid. Livestock have … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Kenya / Somalia / Vulnerability

‘I never thought I’d lose all my cattle; I never thought I’d be a refugee’–Abdi Farah Hassan

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A kilometre outside Waridaad village, in Somalia, carcasses of dead sheep and goats stretch across the landscape; this and other regions of the Horn of Africa are suffering from one of the driest years in memory; severe shortages of food and water, along with spiralling food prices and the deaths of livestock, have plunged many … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Cattle / East Africa / Film and video / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Australian TV program highlights research in race against time to save Africa’s ‘hairless sheep’ and other native breeds

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Worm-resistant red Masai sheep, an indigenous ‘hairless’ sheep kept by Maasai herders, in Kenya (photo credit: ILRI). Catalyst, the Australian Broadcasting Company’s well-regarded science television program, yesterday (14 Jul 2011) broadcast an episode on research being conducted in Kenya to conserve the native livestock of Africa. Okeyo Mwai, an animal geneticist working at the International … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Southern Africa / Vulnerability

Coping with weather variability–urgent in Africa whether or not it is due to climate change

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The worst drought in 60 or so years is biting deeper into countries in the Horn of Africa; artists from around the world painted canvases illustrating the human impact of climate change in their countries; 16 of these canvases were being exhibited at the UN Climate Negotiations in Poznan, Poland, in Dec 2008 (image credit: … Continue reading →

Directorate / East Africa / Event / Germany / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism / Wildlife / WLE

Germany and ILRI sign agreement in Nairobi to collaborate in research to assess the pastoral-livestock-wildlife benefits from Kenya’s eco-conservancies

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited ILRI’s Nairobi campus on 12 Jul 2011: Here, the Chancellor is rising from signing ILRI’s visitors’ book, with German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, Kenya Agriculture Minister Sally Kosgei and ILRI Director General Carlos Seré looking on (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). Nairobi’s Daily Nation newspaper reported yesterday (12 Jul 2011): ‘Kenya has … Continue reading →

Directorate / East Africa / Event / Germany / ILRI / Kenya

German chancellor and minister of agriculture and Kenyan ministers of agriculture and health visit ILRI’s research laboratories

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel signs ILRI’s visitor’s book, with the German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner (left), Kenya Livestock Minister Mohammed Kuti, ILRI Director General Carlos Seré and Kenya Public Health and Sanitation Minister Beth Mugo looking on (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Nairobi yesterday (12 Jul 2011) on a one-day stop on … Continue reading →