Sarah Nduku- Policy and Advocacy Manager and Peter Murgor- Cash and Voucher Assistance Manager from The International Center for Humanitarian Affairs (ICHA) during the opening remarks, gave updates on the importance of the developed National Drought Early Action Protocols (EAP) during the ongoing Development of the Anticipatory Action Roadmap meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
Sarah Nduku- Policy and Advocacy Manager
The three-day meeting (24th to 26th October 2022) brings together the key various stakeholders like Kenya Red Cross, World Food Programme, Welthungerhilfe, Save the Children, ICPAC, The National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC) of Kenya, The National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), Kenya Meteorological Department for high-level collaborative discussions on Anticipatory Actions.
Peter Murgor- Cash and Voucher Assistance Manager
The purpose of the meeting is to map the stakeholders working on anticipatory action in Kenya and the areas of implementation, showcase the products and services that have been developed to support anticipatory action, and discuss how to enhance the linkage between the county and national level products, services and procedures that support anticipatory action and lastly to explore some of the challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming anticipatory action in Kenya.
The anticipatory action approach is a practical way to minimize and avert the loss and damage caused by climate change.
Further Notes:
In Kenya, the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods have weakened communities’ coping capacities, resilience and increased their vulnerability, and account for over 70% of disaster impacts. Kenya is ranked 152 out of 181 countries globally of countries most vulnerable to climate change and readiness to improve resilience.
ICHA’s Climate Unit supported a four-day workshop at the ICPAC headquarters in Nairobi under the CONFER project with Norwegian Capacity (NORCAP) ‘s support. The workshop was themed: Synergy Building in Weather and Climate: ‘Partnership Between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Policy Makers, Humanitarian, Private Sector and Media.’ It was held from 5th to 8th December 2022.
CONFER is a multi-national collaboration to bolster resilience to climate impacts and reduce disaster risk in East Africa. The project’s main goal is to co-develop dedicated climate services for the water, energy, and food security sectors with stakeholders and end-users, to enhance their ability to plan for and adapt to seasonal climate fluctuations.
The invited stakeholders were key institutions in climate information from Tanzania and Kenya, i.e., Kenya Meteorological Department, Tanzania Meteorological Agency, and media stations from both Tanzania and Kenya.
It sought to bring together and harness the support of various stakeholders in weather and climate with a specific emphasis on those in climate-induced hazards and disaster risk reduction (droughts and other hazards). The participants examined how stakeholders can use tools such as East Africa Hazards Watch (EAHW) and East Africa Drought Watch (EADW) to make or support decision-making processes around weather and climate issues.
‘Impact-based forecast with a coproduction of climate services will solve Billions of monies used to respond to hazards only if actionable approaches are used’ -Mirriamlisa from Tanzania
Zachary Misiani, a climate scientist at ICHA, facilitated under the topic: ‘Disaster Preparedness and Response through Early warning for Early Actions & Anticipatory Action-AA.’
Kenya is a country that suffers significant consequences as a result of severe weather events such as heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, and frequent thunderstorms. Flooding, drought, damage to livelihoods, property destruction, and, sadly, loss of life are all consequences of these weather conditions. The UKMet Office in collaboration with the KMD organized a workshop to operationalize Impact Based Forecasts (IBF) and early warning initiatives to improve weather forecast service delivery. This workshop titled: Stakeholder Engagement for the Advancement of Impact Based Forecast and Early Warning System for Kenya started on Tuesday, 7th to Thursday, 9th Feb 2023 in Nairobi. Impact-based Forecasting (IBF) aims to move the focus from simply what the weather will be, to what the weather will do, providing the information needed to act before disasters occur to help minimize the socio-economic costs of weather and climate hazards. The workshop’s main agenda was to share and interact with various stakeholders in order to understand customer and user requirements, as well as typical impacts that various sectors face as a result of weather events. The ICHA climate team is participating in order to be empowered to make critical decisions that will allow KRCS resources and supplies to be placed ahead of the likelihood of weather and climate-related hazards, to take early action, and to respond as soon as it is safe to do so.
An advocacy session was conducted at the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) headquarters under the Dignified Identities (DIGID) project on 27th January 2023. The session which was themed ‘Advancing the role of DIGID towards inclusivity in the humanitarian field’ brought together various stakeholders to discuss the gaps in DIGID solutions from the pilots that were conducted in Mathare Slums (in the context of cash) and in Kalobeyei-Kakuma region (in the context of health).
The stakeholders including delegates from the Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy, the KRCS policy and innovations team, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) staff, representatives from the Department of Refugee Services, Danish Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross, Inter-Soft, and Gravity discussed the gaps of DIGID solutions in addressing humanitarian Challenges. They also explored areas of technical and financial partnerships on DIGID. The team also discussed ways to advocate for the acceptability of humanitarian digital solutions to aid humanitarian assistance. They also analyzed ways of engaging different government institutions to adopt DIGID and enable high levels of dignity during humanitarian aid assistance to refugees and host communities.
The Dignified Identity in Cash Assistance (DIGID) project started in 2018 and the first phase was piloted in Kenya as part of cash assistance during Covid-19 targeting vulnerable populations without any form of identification. DIGID is governed by a consortium composed of the Norwegian Red Cross, Norwegian Refugee Council, Norwegian Church Aid, and Save the Children Norway, and funded by Innovation Norway. These humanitarian organizations have come together to address challenges related to the identification of these populations. The consortium aims to ensure that People with no official IDs are assisted.
In August 2022, Kenya Red Cross Society, through the International Center for Humanitarian Affairs (ICHA), successfully conducted its first-ever mapathon (a coordinated mapping event whereby participants join physically or remotely to add map data of an area through a web-based mapping platform) in Wajir County. This Mapathon served as a kick-start to a series of mapathons aiming to map out the entire county gradually.
This activity is part of a year-long project funded by the HOTOSM ESA hub, which commenced in June 2022. The project seeks to understand disaster risk and increase the resilience of vulnerable communities to climate-related disasters such as drought and floods through open map data. The project aims to collect comprehensive and up-to-date data on buildings, roads, water points, markets, health facilities, schools, and other social amenities. These datasets are essential because they form part of the capacities and vulnerabilities that are found within the communities. Open access to such datasets is imperative since it helps humanitarian actors make informed and targeted efforts on where to allocate resources.
To officially launch the project, all the stakeholders, including the HOTOSM ESA hub, KRCS-ICHA, Wajir County Government officials, and Community representatives, met during the inception meeting in July 2022 to expound the project aims and objectives. The stakeholders were practically shown through demonstrations and field engagements the mapping process, its short-term and long-term objectives, and the importance of the project to the community and humanitarian partners, especially in terms of disaster preparedness and response.
In August, the three-day mapping event attracted 30 mappers from the Wajir County government and the local community. The event focused on introducing the mappers to open data through platforms such as the OpenStreetMap (OSM) and building their capacity to map building footprints and other features of interest using the HOT tasking manager. This tool is designed for a collaborative mapping process on OpenStreetMap. Two areas within the Wajir West sub-county were mapped: – Ganyure Wagalla and Hadado Athbohol wards. By the end of the exercise, the mappers managed to add close to 6,878 building footprints to OSM, which are freely accessible. The new mappers were also introduced to mobile mapping techniques using smartphones to add features of interest to OSM. The mobile data collection was done through Organic maps – a mobile-based application that complements mapping efforts to add point features to OSM. The application is available for both Android and iOS devices. Mappers were able to add features of interest such as health facilities, pharmacies, water points/ facilities, financial and learning institutions. The mobile data collection exercise took place within Wajir township.
The second Mapathon event took place in Nairobi at Kenya Red Cross Headquarters. It attracted 80 participants drawn from diverse backgrounds and with different skills. There was presence from the OSM Kenya community, youth mappers – Technical University of Kenya (TUK) chapter, organizations such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Somalia, university students, and volunteers eager to contribute to OSM. The mapathon also aimed to map vulnerable communities at risk of climate-related hazards, and Wajir county was part of the mapped areas. Participants actively participated in the whole-day exercise, where more than 39,262 buildings were mapped.
The most recent activity was carried out from 1st to 3rd November 2022. This engagement saw KRCS- ICHA carry out training on using the tasking manager in the Wajir North sub-county and Habaswein town within Wajir county. The three-day training engaged county staff and community members/ volunteers on how to map with the ID editor on the HOT Tasking manager. It covered creating OSM accounts, searching for specific tasks, and adding features and their respective attributes within the editor. The participants were also taken through the use of Kobo / ODK to collect data from mapping out features of interest.
The project has added over 52,000 building footprints, 517 km of road, and over 300 features of interest. The project intends to expand its mapping efforts to cover the entire county.
The project is participatory in working with communities and stakeholders within Wajir county to identify datasets influencing disaster risk. The project also intends to build local stakeholders’ capacity to use map data for decision-making and educate them on disaster risk management. The data from the mapping activity will also be available to the National and County governments.
John Hopkins University delegates pay ICHA a courtesy call
A delegation of graduate consultants from the John Hopkins University in the United States of America paid a courtesy visit to the International Center for Humanitarian Affairs (ICHA) climate team on 20th January 2023.
The four: Verónica Addai, Macda Gossa, Michelle Lee, and Julia Kresky, are currently undertaking a study in association with a US-based organization, TomorrowNow (tomorrownow.org) on the role of different stakeholders in developing solutions to support smallholder farmers.
John Hopkins University delegates pay ICHA a courtesy call
They met Mr. Zachary Misiani – Climate Research Officer, Boneya Hassan – GIS expert, and Morris Makabe – Communications expert for discussions on ICHA’s climate research, data collection, and information processing for Early Action and interventions in various communities.
The team was briefed on some of the activities of the Climate & Research unit, Data, and GIS unit of ICHA and their previous climate-related research activities within the Kenyan context.
They also discussed the importance of collaborations with different stakeholders in the development of Early Action Protocols and Interventions to support smallholder farmers/HydroMet, future opportunities, and challenges among other things. They also reviewed the various perspectives and models of forecast-based financing.
The ICHA team received a formal invitation to attend a collaboration workshop planned for the end of February in Nairobi – Kenya.
ICHA’s Climate Unit supported a four-day workshop at the ICPAC headquarters in Nairobi under the CONFER project with Norwegian Capacity (NORCAP) ‘s support. The workshop was themed: Synergy Building in Weather and Climate: ‘Partnership Between National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Policy Makers, Humanitarian, Private Sector and Media.’ It was held from 5th to 8th December 2022.
CONFER is a multi-national collaboration to bolster resilience to climate impacts and reduce disaster risk in East Africa. The project’s main goal is to co-develop dedicated climate services for the water, energy, and food security sectors with stakeholders and end-users, to enhance their ability to plan for and adapt to seasonal climate fluctuations. The invited stakeholders were key institutions in climate information from Tanzania and Kenya, i.e., Kenya Meteorological Department, Tanzania Meteorological Agency, and media stations from both Tanzania and Kenya.
It sought to bring together and harness the support of various stakeholders in weather and climate with a specific emphasis on those in climate-induced hazards and disaster risk reduction (droughts and other hazards). The participants examined how stakeholders can use tools such as East Africa Hazards Watch (EAHW) and East Africa Drought Watch (EADW) to make or support decision-making processes around weather and climate issues. ‘Impact-based forecast with a coproduction of climate services will solve Billions of monies used to respond to hazards only if actionable approaches are used’ -Mirriamlisa from Tanzania Zachary Misiani, a climate scientist at ICHA, facilitated under the topic: ‘Disaster Preparedness and Response through Early warning for Early Actions & Anticipatory Action-AA.’
Kenya Red Cross Training Institute (KRCTI) has continued to establish itself as the region’s premier training centre in Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Under the intelligent leadership of the Principal, Ms. Monica, who has firmly championed excellence, the Training Institute has made significant steps toward its vision of being a global leader.
Firstly, the Training Institute celebrated its 8th graduation ceremony at KRCS’ headquarters on 28th October 2022 for its Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedicine graduands, where 82 students graduated.
Besides the accreditation from the American Heart Association, where it was the first and still the only institution of its kind to be accredited, and besides being accredited by the Technical Vocational Education and Training Authority to develop curricula, train and certify in Diploma in Paramedicine and Certificate in Advanced Emergency Medical Technician; there are newer and most recent milestones.
The training Institute also partnered with Umma University to train medical students. It partnered with International Organization for Migration (IOM) to train medical staff across the African region. It partnered with World Food Programme to train medical staff on Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support training. It also partnered with the University of Geneva to offer a Community Health Assistance program in Dadaab. Moreover, Equity Group Foundation partners with the Institute on its Wings to Fly Scholarship Program to help scholars in areas of Mental Health, Gender Based Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health, mentorship, career guidance, etc. This has continued to create hope in the lives of scholars who come from humble beginnings.
The Training Institute is also working with Penda Health Services to train health/administrative personnel in the region on various programs. Additionally, it partnered with Safaricom to train staff on Occupational Safety and Health programs. It now has a new Clinical placement partnership with Embu hospital and Nyeri hospital for our students.
Besides all these, Kenya National Qualification Authority registered its two academic qualifications: Advanced Certificate in Emergency Medical Technician and Diploma in Paramedicine. It is now registered as a workplace safety committee trainer with the Directorate of Occupational Health and safety. And to boost learning, it launched a new syllabus with life skills units. It purchased state-of-the-art equipment and received a donation of equipment from the Board Members for both short medical courses and academic programs.
Academic student numbers have grown fast from 2021- 2022; EMTs at 25% and paramedicine at 47%.
2023 Plans at a glance The Training Institute plans to expand to have a vibrant branch in Mombasa. Secondly, in terms of Curricula, it intends to register a curriculum for Diploma in Disaster Management. Thirdly, it will be rolling out Occupational Health and Safety Committee curricula by mid-next year. Fourthly, given the speed at which the Training Institute is growing, it intends to acquire another building or additional campus to accommodate staff and students. Lastly, next year’s top priorities will be pursuing critical partnerships with universities in Israel, the UK, the US, and the Middle East for student certification and exchange of programs.
You are always welcome to the Kenya Red Cross Training Institute
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Solferino Academy delivered a two-day strategic Futures and Foresight workshop on the 22nd and the 23rd of November 2022 at Malindi-Kenya for International Center for Humanitarian Affairs (ICHA) staff. The workshop aimed to ignite future-forward thinking. The facilitators introduced the strategic foresight management approach and took the staff through practical ways of anticipating and shaping emerging trends, risks, and opportunities at work.
The futures and foresight concept combines evidence and insight with scenario development and creativity to spot challenges and make strategic decisions. It identifies possible future perspectives of work for early preparations. Through creative and engaging group discussions and presentations, ICHA staff shared different ways to use the lessons learned in the workshop for their personal development and work.
After the workshop, on the third day, the staff congregated for the 2022 budget appraisals and 2023 draft budget discussions and plans in breakout groups, borrowing concepts from the training. There were team-building activities at the end of the workshop and training at various beaches in Malindi.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) organized and conducted the three-day summit from 15th to 17th November 2022. This was the first PGI/Climate summit in Africa. It targeted African National Societies, Partner National Societies, and IFRC delegations within the greater Horn of Africa.
The summit aimed to develop a checklist and roadmap to enhance better integration and mainstreaming of key issues relating to Protection, Gender and inclusion into Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience programming and advocacy. KRCS Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Annette Msabeni, officially opened the summit and reiterated, “We still have not done enough when it comes to inclusion of persons with disabilities in climate change.”
KRCS Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Annette Msabeni
At the end of the summit, the participants understood how they could facilitate the dialogue between PGI & DRR/Climate to support the scaling up of gender-sensitive and inclusive DRR and climate resilience programming and advocacy.
On the last day, the team spent the afternoon planting trees at Mutuini Primary school in Nairobi County.
