Igad, UN agency sign Sh1 billion deal to promote livestock trade
Police guard cattle recovered from suspected rustlers in Isiolo. Igad and FAO are leading an initiative to end cattle rustling among Kenyan communities and regional neighbours. PHOTO | FILE
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and a UN agency have signed a Sh1 billion partnership agreement to promote livestock trade and end cattle rustling between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia over the next five years.
The programme, which is being funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC), will be jointly managed and implemented by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and IGAD.
The initiative will also manage cross-border efforts on animal health and natural resources management across the borders to promote peace and end perennial food insecurity.
“This programme will address community engagement on policy and investment as well as cross cutting areas of work such as conflict, gender and nutrition,” FAO’s Sub Regional Co-ordinator for Eastern Africa Patrick Kormawa said.
Speaking during the signing ceremony at the weekend, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri acknowledged the role of partnerships in addressing the problem of drought emergencies, urging partners to continue building coalitions with the common goal of ending drought emergencies.
“We can go further and explore areas where further policy harmonisation would be beneficial for drought affected communities. Some examples might be social protection cross-border mobility, livestock health or trade,” said Mr Kiunjuri.
“These policy processes tend to be lengthy and complex so let us move quickly to identify any areas where such work would be beneficial and take the necessary action together”, he urged.
The event comes four years after The Declaration of The first Resilience Summit on “Ending Drought Emergencies in the Horn of Africa’’ held in Nairobi in September 2011.
The summit called for the establishment of a Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) giving IGAD the role to lead and coordinate the efforts aimed at implementing the objectives of the initiative.
The newly-signed agreement will support programmes geared toward building resilience of cross-border communities at the Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia border, including selected cross-border locations of Ethiopia (Liben), Kenya (Mandera) and Somalia (Gedo).
The target areas include the conflict zone of the Dawa River (which forms part of the Ethiopia-Somalia and Ethiopia-Kenya border) and which are characterised by high food insecurity, conflict and insecurity.
Mr Kormawa assured partners that previous programmes and experience have helped shape this new intervention that is geared towards bridging relationships between communities and national systems.
“The programme support to communities and other beneficiaries will be provided not as an end in itself, but as a means towards strengthening national systems and institutions to better deliver investment plans and programmes in cross-border areas.”
The partnership is a follow-up project based on a joint regional initiative in support of vulnerable pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in the Horn of Africa.
IGAD is currently in the process of implementing digital-based animal identification, which will play a key role in managing disease that are common in most pastoral areas where pastoralists move with their animals from one location to another in search of pasture and water.
Monitoring the movement of animals is critical especially along borders where a herd of infected livestock can cross to a neighbouring state, risking the spread of disease.
Regional harmonisation of livestock identification and traceability systems, is expected to improve coordination of surveillance and control of trans-boundary animal diseases, enhancing regional trade in livestock and livestock products.
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