Tag Archives: DroughtInHorn2011

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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

Unusual project cushions drought impacts on poor livestock herders in drought-ravaged Horn

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Some people in Kenya’s Marsabit District who in recent months lost up to a third of their cattle and other livestock to a great drought in the Horn of Africa received insurance payments last week; this man awaits his payout following a village meeting in Dirib Gombo, where it began to rain just two weeks … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Environment / Food Security / Geodata / Insurance / Livestock-Water / NRM / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Water / Wildlife / WLE

Rethinking drylands: Time to unlock their (big, neglected) potential

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A herd of livestock near Marsabit town, in Kenya’s remote northern pastoral drylands (image on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). It’s time to unlock the potential of the world’s drylands, which cover more than one-third of the earth and are home to a third of humanity, half of whom—one billion—live in poverty and hunger. The current famine … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / Event / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Photo / Vulnerability

New satellite-based insurance scheme makes first payments to drought-hit pastoralists in the Horn

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The carcass of a donkey in northern Kenya; like many other animals in recent weeks, this animal lay down to die just as seasonal rains arrived in the region following a prolonged drought. Photographer Neil Palmer explains: ‘Already weakened by months of near-starvation, the animals were unable to endure the colder weather that followed the … Continue reading →

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

First-ever livestock insurance payouts made in Marsabit

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At a village meeting last Friday in Dirib Gombo, in Kenya’s northern Marsabit District, farmers who took out livestock insurance receive their first payout after a prolonged drought here and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). ‘An innovative insurance scheme to help East African farmers recover from the devastating drought is … Continue reading →