Tana River County is the beneficiary of a Sh 540 million European Union (EU) project to address Climate Change.
The European Union officially launched the project aimed at mitigating against the effects of climate change in the county.
The project dubbed “Community Resilience Building in Livelihood and Disaster Risk Management (REBUILD) is being implemented by a consortium lead Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP) in close collaboration with the County Government and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA).
Devolution Cabinet secretary Eugene Wamalwa who was the chief guest in the launch said the rebuild project is focusing on the promotion of climate-resilient agricultural production.
The CS peaking during the the official launch of the project at Hola hailed the EU for the funding the project and being a consistent partner in drought risk management across Kenya’s drought risk management across the arid and semi-arid counties.
Wamalwa said in the last eight months alone, he has launched five EU-funded projects in different ASAL counties in the country.
Three of the projects he said were implemented by the National Drought Management Authority among them a high-capacity earth dam in Kitui; fully equipped boarding facilities in a primary school in Baringo; and rehabilitated and equipped classrooms and girls’ dormitory in West Pokot.
The CS said the other two ongoing resilience-building projects similar to the one in Tanariver are implemented by NGOs in Baringo and Isiolo counties.
Mr Wamalwa hailed the NGO consortium partners led by CISP-Kenya for raising another Sh135 million which constitutes 20 per cent of the total rebuild project cost.
“Together they bring on board a wealth of experience and expertise. Such strong collaborative initiatives will go a long way towards combating the negative effects of drought and ensuring sustainable livelihoods,” he said.
The CS said Tana River County has been negatively impacted by a changing climate that has contributed to cyclic droughts, seasonal flooding of the River Tana and recently the Desert Locusts invasion.
He said the Covid 19 pandemic has also had a negative impact to the community in Tanariver adding that the REBUILD project is focusing on the promotion of climate-resilient agricultural production.
According to the CS, more than 120,000 people in hard-to-reach agro-pastoralists and pastoralists area are set to benefit from the project which will help in addressing food and nutrition security one of the biggest challenges in the county.
“The rebuild project fits well within my Ministry’s scope of work. It contributes significantly to the Government’s Ending Drought Emergencies or EDE strategy, which my Ministry coordinates, especially to the Pillar on Sustainable Livelihoods,” he said.
The CS said the project will contribute significantly to building the resilience of communities in Tanariver County through; increase crop and livestock production; enhanced food and nutrition security; and increased access to markets.
“It will in addition, enhance mechanisms for collaboration towards drought risk management and foster peace-building among communities to promote the use of shared natural resources more sustainably,” he said
Those present during the launch was the host Governor Dhadho Godhana, the Charge d Affairs EU delegation to Kenya Katrin Hagemann, CISP County director Melisa Yorgancioglu, Tanariver senator Juma Wario among other top officials of the consortium NGOs.
Ms Hagemann said the aim of the project was to mitigate the adverse effects of drought and other climate change emergencies,
She said Rebuild project was one of the four NGOs grants the EU is supporting in four counties including West Pokot, Baringo, Isiolo and Tana River.
“It aims at enhancing food and nutrition security of vulnerable households, especially for women and children, and generating sustainable livelihoods and protecting productive assets, “she said.
She said 9200 households are sent to benefit from the project including pastoralists, agro-pastoralists/smallholder farmers, fishing communities.
The EU envoy said 60 per cent of the beneficiaries are expected to be women together with 16 schools with 4,800 Children, 36 community-based organizations ,54 women’s groups.
Other beneficiaries include 290 government officers among them county and sub county officials, NDMA, veterinary and agricultural officers together with 22,000 community members benefiting from Community Management of Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) awareness and peace building activities.
She said the EU will support establish Milk mini-processing plants in Garsen and Bangale, modernizing and commercialising of the fishing industry at Kipini and the land governance programme implemented by FAO together with future plans to support the Go Blue program.
Currently she said the EU is preparing its strategic planning for the next seven years of partnership with Kenya which seeks to find areas to support in the country’s development priorities.
The governor thanked the EU envoy for being the first to step Tanariver county and funding the consortium of NGOS who will implement the rebuild project.
Mr Godhana said the EU has been supporting the county in other projects including the climate smart crop farming and the Go Blue project under the blue economy.
“The project targets to address the challenges of disasters uplift the standards of living of the community and who now will be beginning from scratch and help transform the county’s economy at large,’ he said.
During the ceremony beneficiaries were able to showcase some of the projects they were undertaking including fodder processing, honey making, livestock keeping among others.
Dofin Komora the founder of Neema women group from Tanadelta Conservation network who deal with honey production said the donors bought 100 bee hives which were distributed among different groups in the grassroots.
“My group got 40 bee hives and we are producing honey we have brought samples to show how successful our farming is,” she said.
