Institutional coordination and collaboration improved: The diversity and innovative activities undertaken through the DRESS-EA project at regional and country levels have increased their capabilities in coordinating drought related impacts. This is contributing to development of the national drought development guidelines.
Enhanced capacity and knowledge, skills in drought management-Handling drought actions in a timely manner: Capacity building of stakeholders at various levels (communities, sub-national and government staff, practitioners and professionals) in water and drought management. This includes training in drought early warning and taking early action.
Partnership building with stakeholders at the region and country level (policy and communities): The signing of the MOU;s and agreements with mandated institutions has provided a conducive environment to collaborate on several activities, including project preparation and joint action planning.
Adoption of the drought regional dimension through the cross-exchange and integration of ideas: GWP EAF is promoting the regional dimension of the DRESS-EA project to enhance adoption of integrated approaches. This has been done in the following ways: Cooperation/coordination, Knowledge, technology, and expertise, Duplication in planning and contribution to regional frameworks.
Enhanced cohesion within the community of practice: The coordination of activities amongst the various stakeholders has created a sense of togetherness within the entire community of practice. The multi-sectoral discipline used brings the sectors together, during the governance meetings the decision makers are interacting and sharing ideas. This policy-community interface has created gains within the drought space. There is also social cohesion amongst the groups and associations at the community level/ the vulnerable groups, including women, children and the elderly.
Increased empowerment of the vulnerable groups especially the women: Women are the main producers of food in the household. Therefore, to attain food security in the region requires a concert effort targeting these groups (women and girls). Improving women’s access, ownership, and control over land and inputs is catalyst to increased investments in land productivity, thus improving food security, nutrition and health at household and community levels. We need incorporate gender perspectives into drought management efforts and allocation of financial resources for gender equality in drought management, include gender-specific indicators in monitoring and evaluation and include Women in decision making. GWP EAF is collaborating with SWA- Sanitation and Water all to mobilize the responsible entities on financing government programmes to include gender.
Uptake of replicable adaptation actions by the communities: The DRESS-EA project employs a regional Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach. New and already existing innovative solutions to drought risk management through participatory processes are already emerging and being used by the project. An example is in Kenya where communities are adopting soil and water conservation measures in Kitui country. In Uganda this is through using drought tolerant crop varieties and in Sudan, mini-irrigation schemes are popular.
The linkages initiated by the GWP EAF and the DRESS-EA project with regional and national drought agencies such as IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC), and Meteorological Authorities that focus on strengthening Early Warning Systems and sharing climate related information provides an opportunity for improved drought management. GWP EAF through the running initiatives continues to create synergies will support within the framework of the three pillars of integrated drought management i.e. i) drought monitoring and early warning systems; ii) vulnerability and impact assessment; and iii) drought preparedness, mitigation, and response.