TWENDE: Towards Ending Drought Emergencies

TWENDE — Towards Ending Drought Emergencies: Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Kenya’s Semi-Arid Rangelands — is a five-year project funded by the Green Climate Fund, with IUCN as the accredited entity. Conservation International partnered with AAA as one of the project’s executing partners.

The project’s objective is to reduce the cost of climate-change-induced drought on Kenya’s economy by increasing the resilience of livestock and other land-use sectors within restored and effectively governed rangelands. It contributes to the national policy of Ending Drought Emergencies set out in Kenya’s Vision 2030.

AAA’s role: camel milk

TWENDE works across three landscapes — Sabarwawa, Mid-Tana and the Chyulu Hills — spanning eleven counties from Garissa and Isiolo to Taita Taveta and Kajiado. Five priority value chains were identified: camel milk, honey, fodder, livestock, and gums and resins, with emphasis on community-based, youth- and women-led enterprises.

AAA’s mandate was the camel milk value chain. After a value chain analysis in Garissa, Tana River, Isiolo, Marsabit and Samburu, AAA identified about ten business cases for capacity development and support with equipment. The businesses received hands-on training in financial management, marketing and branding and business planning, with expert guidance on packaging milk to the required standards. AAA also strengthened cooperative governance and access to finance for women-led cooperatives and community-based enterprises.

Beyond equipment delivery

In many development programmes, equipment delivery is presented as the finish line. For the enterprise it is only the beginning. The real test is whether the asset can be integrated into daily operations: whether staff can maintain it, whether the business has the raw material, water, energy and working capital to run it, and whether the market will pay for the extra volume or value created.

AAA’s support therefore combined coaching, financial and operational planning, risk assessment, compliance support and market development alongside the in-kind package: stainless-steel milk containers, water storage, testing kits, protective gear, sealing equipment, cooling and dispensing solutions, solar systems and value-addition machinery.

Restoration and enterprise are one question in TWENDE, not two. A rangeland that recovers supports the herds that supply the milk, and an enterprise that sells that milk profitably gives the community a reason to keep restoring.

Other work in Kenya’s drylands

Beyond the camel milk cohort, AAA developed business cases for GAIN covering camel meat (nyirinyiri), blended flour and chicken eggs, extending the same enterprise-first method to other dryland value chains.