Disasters Special Issue: Resilience in protracted crises: navigating uncertainty in the drylands

Africa’s drylands are not naturally fragile, even though they are often described that way. Yet people living in the drylands often face overlapping problems, including conflict, climate shocks, unstable markets and long-term marginalisation. When crises do happen, they are rarely simple or easy to control. Instead, they become protracted and complex, with many kinds of disasters unfold at different speeds and scales.

To make sense of this, and to offer suggestions for more effective ways of providing aid and support in intractable situations, this special issue of Disasters journal brings together articles that present case studies from across the continent. 

Published on behalf of ODI Global, Disasters is the leading journal in the field of disasters, protracted crises and complex emergencies, terrorism and technological disasters.

In this Special Issue, SPARC researchers explore diverse themes and new evidence from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan and Uganda. Taken together, the articles call for new ways of thinking, seeing and acting in a moment fraught with uncertainty. 

Journal articles

This list is being updated as individual articles are published.

• Institutional and policy networks in disaster management in the Horn of Africa: insights from Kenya - Tahira Mohamed (https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.70031)
• The mixed resilience outcomes of water interventions in the pastoral drylands of the Horn of Africa - Jackson Wachira, Masresha Taye, Nancy Balfour, Hussein Tadicha (https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.70027)
• Anticipatory action and pastoralism in Africa: a synthesis of current challenges, opportunities, and priorities - Samuel F. Derbyshire, Nathaniel Jensen, John Mutua, Tahira Mohamed, Puff Mukwaya, Guyo Roba, Susan Njambi-Szlapka, Sirimon Thomas, George Tsitati, Alan Duncan (https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.70026)
• ‘Entwined economies of violence: understanding contemporary conflict between Pokot and Turkana communities along the Kenya-Uganda border’ - Daniel Salau Rogei (in production)  
• ‘Rethinking vulnerability and humanitarian assistance in the pastoral drylands: insights from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia’ - Hassa, R., Derbyshire, S. F., Stites, E., and Scoones, I. (in production)  
• ‘From conflict to collaboration: how local conventions foster peacebuilding in Central Mali’ - Ba, B. and Flintan, F. (in production)   
• ‘Food prices and food crises since 2020: evidence from Mali, northeast Nigeria, Sudan, northern Uganda’ - Wiggins, S., Barry, B., Suleiman, H., Dudu, J., Eronmhonsele, J., Kiwala, Y. and Patel, N. (in production)