General

After having been severely affected by the drought in Kenya, vulnerable communities in the county of Kitui are now in need of support to enable them to recover and build their resilience to future irregular weather patterns and other shocks. Communities still remain in significant need: in April 2011 an ACF SMART survey of Mwingi and Kitui districts in Kitui Country showed that Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) in Mwingi was 6.5% while Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) was 0.9% and there was one case of 0.1% oedema. GAM in Kitui was at 10.2% and SAM was at 1.5%. The District Nutrition Official reported on November 25th that increasing intakes to specialist feeding programmes indicate that nutrition levels continue to decline, and are expected to continue to do so until the first crops of protein rich pulses are ready in December. The Diocese of Kitui, CAFOD’s partner in the region, will focus its response in Kyatune in Kitui and Muumoni in Mwingi. The communities of Kitui have traditionally raised livestock, though there has been a trend towards agriculturalism, spreading outwards from the urban centre, as conditions for pastoralists have become harsher. Assisting communities to find sustainable livelihoods in the context of irregular weather patterns, changing practices in land ownership and increasingly urbanized economies is essential to building community resilience to shock. Kyatune is a semi-arid marginal agricultural area in the northern highlands with only sand beds and no permanent river, which has struggled with repeated failed rains. Located close to Kitui Central, it has high poverty levels, high levels of malnutrition and stunting and a high prevalence of HIV. Communities rely less on large livestock as landholdings are smaller but the short rains have been erratic and insufficient to establish crops. Rains have only just started and are late and light, and local knowledge suggests they will finish early. In the last six months, CAFOD’s partners have been providing emergency relief to communities through cash transfers to support household food security, as successive crop failures and price rises have burdened communities with a myriad of problems related to malnutrition. Hospitalisation of children suffering from malnutrition and disease as result of suppressed immunity has the effect of withdrawing caretakers from valuable economic activities. There has been increasing need for special diets which many households cannot afford because of low income. Muumoni is semi-arid and sparsely populated by communities of marginal mixed farmers who rely more on livestock rearing. Roads are poor and the Diocese of Kitui is the only agency offering long-term assistance in this remote and hard to access area. The Government of Kenya has provided support in the form of livestock off-take, targeted at 50% of stocks, to relieve stress on pasture, while income has been significantly reduced as families have sold animals at low prices. Here also the seed system collapsed, and CAFOD’s partner has responded by providing cash transfers to increase food purchasing power, along with seed distributions to ensure the planting season was not missed. Rains began in mid-October and thus far crops appear to be thriving. Supporting rapid recovery and accelerating production is even more vital in these two areas given the elections planned for December 2012. This coincides with peak harvest time when the long rains fall in Kyatune and Muumoni and electioneering is liable to disrupt normal farming patterns.

General

This activity (Support to RRG/Munden to contribute to DFID's global target of increased access to secure land and property rights) is a component of Land Governance for Economic Development reported by FCDO, with a funding type of 111 - Not for profit organisation and a budget of £1,198,948.This project benefits Developing countries, unspecified.And works in the following sector(s): Rural development, Agricultural land resources, Agricultural policy and administrative management, Urban development and management.

General

The Global Environment Facility was established in October 1991 as a pilot program in the World Bank to assist in the protection of the global environment. In 1994, at the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF was restructured and moved out of the World Bank system to become a permanent, separate institution. As part of the restructuring, the GEF was entrusted to become the financial mechanism for both the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The GEF serves as a 'financial mechanism' to five conventions: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and Minamata Convention on Mercury. The GEF strives to achieve global environmental benefits by supporting developing countries in their efforts. GEF has organized its work around five focal areas ? biodiversity loss, chemicals and waste, climate change, international waters, and land degradation ? and take an integrated approach to support more sustainable food systems, forest management, and cities. The program architecture of GEF's eighth additional financing period is based on the 'healthy planet, healthy people' thinking. At the same time, the number of integrated programs was increased to eleven from four in the previous additional funding period. The GEF is a network organization. It is composed of independent secretariat and evaluation office, the World Bank acts as a trustee channelling project support to implementing entities such as to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Finland has supported the GEF from the very beginning. The support to the GEF was 26.9 million euros during the seventh cycle (2018-2022) and 48 million euros during this round.