This brief highlights key learnings for policymakers from research that explores the causal impact of two intervention models designed to support pastoralists in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Rapid changes in East Africa's arid and semi-arid regions, caused by climate-related disasters, armed conflict, livestock diseases, macroeconomic shocks, and increasing population, are making pastoralism an increasingly precarious livelihood. There is a critical need for innovations that enhance pastoralists’ resilience and adaptability.
To this end, Global Communities’ AfriScout programme supports pastoralists through two intervention models: AfriScout Regen (implemented in Ethiopia), providing intensive, localized grazing support at a community level following an adaptive multi-paddock approach; and AfriScout Steward (implemented in Kenya), an app providing satellite and crowd-sourced information on rangeland conditions to inform grazing and migration decisions.
To better understand the causal impacts of the two AfriScout models, SPARC partner Causal Design conducted a two-year, mixed-methods impact evaluation. The evaluation sought to identify the attributable outcomes of AfriScout on pastoralist decision-making and subsequent impacts on rangeland conditions and herd conditions.
This policy brief summarises key findings of the study and highlights learnings from each model for future program design and policymakers