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Resilience narratives and outcomes of new water supplies in the Horn of Africa drylands

This study explores narratives around water supply and household resilience from the perspective of funding and development agencies, and reviews policies for adaptation and resilience in drylands.

Publisher Centre for Humanitarian Change - What works
By Eric KiokoJackson WachiraNancy BalfourHussein Wario

Page contents

    This desk study explores narratives around water supply and household resilience from the perspective of funding and development agencies, and reviews policies and strategies for climate adaptation and resilience in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). 

    A review of academic literature, programme documents, project reports and lessons learnt highlights the strengths and weaknesses in the conceptual framing of resilience by different stakeholders and the difficulties in mainstreaming resilience throughout the project cycle of design, implementation, evaluation and reporting of resilience outcomes. 

    In addition, funding and development agencies operationalise the concept of resilience primarily by relying on one of its defining characteristics, the response to perturbations or disturbances, while largely ignoring learning and adaptability as well as self-organisation.

    Read the report here.

    People in an arid environment transporting water on the backs of camels and donkeys
    Pastoral communities use camels and donkeys to transport water from boreholes in Kenya – Image by Ous732 – Wiki Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

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