Dr Kabayo during his opening remarks
Nanyuki (Kenya), April 20, 2015: The intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries of Kenya, opened the Kenya-Ethiopia Cross-Border Regional Pastoral Livelihoods Resilience Project (RPLRP) Harmonization Workshop today in Nanyuki under the leadership of Mr. Diducas Ityeng, Team Leader for the RPLRP-Kenya, Dr Kifle Argaw, Drought Resilience National Coordinator for Ethiopia, and Dr John Kabayo, Head of the IGAD Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI) Platform Coordination Unit (PCU).
This three-day joint workshop whose objective is to harmonize work plans in the Somali cluster and the Borena cluster, inhabited by pastoralist and shared by Ethiopia and Kenya, is gathering professionals and officials from the ministries in charge of agriculture of both countries.
Participants are expected to agree on mutual cross-border activities, develop annual work plans and budgets for the Financial Year 2015/16, and outline the way forward towards a joint program to implement the RPLRP cross-border activities.
During the opening session, Dr Kabayo started by giving a brief historic background of IDDRSI and described the rationale behind IDDRSI. “The Heads of State decided to opt for a regional response to the regional challenges posed by recurrent drought disasters,” he said. He added that this harmonization workshop was the second of its kind as the first one was a joint planning meeting between Kenya and Uganda for the Karamojong Cluster towards the end of last year in Eldoret, Kenya. Dr Kabayo thanked the World Bank for the financial support provided to the RPLRP. He also acknowledged the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation or GIZ representatives attending the workshop
Upon invitation from Dr Kabayo for some opening remarks, Stephane Foreman, World Bank Team Leader for the RPLRP, noted that, for the World Bank, this Project constitutes “an innovative way to approach the pastoralist agenda.” The regional cross-border dimension of this Project and its holistic approach to the question of pastoralism rendered this Project a source of inspiration for West African countries that started duplicating the excellent work by IGAD concerned member countries and IGAD for the good quality coordination”, he said.
Before the workshop was officially open, Mr. Diducas Ityeng, acting as the Facilitator during the opening session, outlined that some other pertinent issues to be discussed including the IGAD work plan, the Project Integrated Management Information System (IMIS), and detailed baseline survey similar to the one already discussed between Kenya and Uganda.
