Announcement
Launch of the Enhanced Livelihoods in the Mandera Triangle Activity
Nairobi, Kenya
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Thursday, November 01, 2007
The Enhanced Livelihoods in the Mandera Triangle (ELMT) Activity, part of USAID/EA’s broader Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoral Areas (RELPA) program, is being formally launched in Nairobi the first week in November 2007. This US$10 million investment will strengthen livestock-based and alternative livelihoods in the tri-state Mandera Triangle region (bordering Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia). Individual country level launches will also be held as follows: in Garissa, Kenya on November 15; in Baidoa, Somalia on November 26; and in Nazret, Ethiopia on December 4.
The ELMT Consortium is comprised of CARE Somalia (which will lead the Consortium), CARE Kenya, CARE Ethiopia, Save the Children Federation, Inc. (SC/US), Save the Children (SC/UK), and Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) – Suisse (VSF-S), together with 50 partner organizations. These organizations have significant experience and expertise in the Mandera Triangle. ELMT will aim to build on this experience in three key strategies: consolidating the evidence base, scaling up best practice from the evidence base, and sharing the evidence base into on-going policy initiatives in the Horn of Africa. It will also help to guide investment in the region in the future.
ELMT will use the concept of Sustainable Rural Livelihoods as a basis for its approach to improving the lives of pastoral people and strengthening the sustainability of their livelihoods. The activity will transition from OFDA-funded emergency recovery activities to livelihoods enhancing activities. The primary field activities of the ELMT Activity are:
- The protection of livestock based livelihoods in the event of an emergency;
- Improving livestock production, health, and marketing;
- Enhancing natural resource management;
- Developing alternative and complementary livelihood strategies;
- Strengthening capacity of customary institutions in peace building, civil governance and conflict mitigation;
- Strengthening pastoral area ‘voice’ in dryland policy formulation.
ELMT partners anticipate working with approximately ½ million people across the program area in the three countries over the course of the two years of the program.