Category Archives: Regions

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / Film and video / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Insuring the never before insured: Kenyan herders get first drought payouts

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Sake Dabasso Halake stands proudly in front of Equity Bank‘s Marsabit branch, clutching an envelope of 16,000 Kenya shillings (USD165) that she received as a payout on an insurance policy she earlier took out for her cows; she lost ten cows in a drought just ending that has hurt the livelihoods of thousands of livestock herders … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Food Security / Nutrition / Somalia

Barely breathing: The famine crisis in Somalia deepens

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Photo on Flickr by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation Turkey. Jeffrey Gettleman, the East Africa correspondent for the New York Times, reports that Somalia’s spreading famine and agony is testing the limits of aid. At Benadir Hospital, in Mogadishu, Gettleman watches children die. In Benadir, there is a room full of old blue cots, one after another, … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Feeding / Ethiopia / ILRI / Innovation Systems / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Project / Report / Research

Ten lessons on multi-stakeholder networks and innovation platforms

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Keith Sones and Alan Duncan prepared an issue brief with lessons on ways to establish and facilitate multi-stakeholder networks on smallholder agriculture in developing countries. … Between 2007 and 2010, the Fodder Adoption Project (FAP) – funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Event / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / UK / Vulnerability

Kenyan pastoralists benefit from unique livestock insurance

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Children in Kenya’s Marsabit District pass one of thousands of carcasses of livestock that died in the drought in the Horn of Africa (photo on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). Voice of America reports today on ‘A new insurance program for poor livestock farmers in northern Kenya has made its first pay out to some 650 herders … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / ASF / Australia / BecA / Biotechnology / Capacity Strengthening / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI / Nutrition

Australia to set up Africa-focused International Centre for Food Security

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Gabrielle Persely at a March 2011 farewell seminar she gave at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), titled ‘Africa, science and agriculture: A 25-year perspective’ (photo credit: ILRI/Mungai). Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced a new initiative to share Australia’s world leading expertise in food production with the people of Africa. The Government will set … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Climate Change / ILRI / Livestock / Opinion piece / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Southern Africa / Vulnerability

ILRI in southern Africa–More efforts needed to address vulnerability and climate change

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Sikhalazo Dube, from South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), reflects on ILRI’s work in southern Africa … Livestock research and development practitioners in the region welcomed the opening up of ILRI’s regional office in southern Africa five years ago. ILRI identified two areas as possible entry … Continue reading →

Directorate / Drought / East Africa / Event / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / UK / Vulnerability

Innovative livestock insurance scheme for remote Kenyan herders was dreamed up at Cornell

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Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), speaks at an event in Marsabit town, in northern Kenya, where several hundred livestock herders were given payouts for livestock insurance that they took out earlier (photo on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). ‘In the midst of a drought-induced food crisis affecting millions in the … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Satellite images trigger insurance payouts to poor livestock herders in Kenya’s northern dryland frontier

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Andrew Mude (right), a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, explains the livestock insurance payouts made last week to resource-poor livestock herders in Kenya’s Marsabit District in the wake of a great drought in the Horn of Africa that dried up the available forage on Marsabit’s rangelands and caused the … Continue reading →

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

Livestock genetic resources of and for the poor: Where ILRI research stands

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Okeyo Mwai, livestock geneticist, reflects on ILRI’s research over the past decade on the animal genetic resources of the developing world and future directions. Watch the 2-minute interview with Okeyo Mwai. What we achieved in the last decade With the Food and Agriculture Organization of the … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Event / Film and video / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

News agency interviews herders who received drought insurance payouts in Kenya’s Marsabit District

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Insurance payouts for Kenyan drought victims, posted 26 Oct 2011 by Agence France Press TV: Runtime 2:06. Agence France Presse TV has posted on YouTube an interesting 2-minute video piece on the first-ever insurance payments made to pastoral herders in northern Kenya’s remote Marsabit Dictrict, following a great drought in the Horn of Africa that … Continue reading →