The Evolution of Kenya’s Drought Management System - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 200

Chapter 11
The Evolution of Kenya's Drought
Management System
James Oduor , Jeremy Swift, and Izzy Birch
Abstract This chapter traces the evolution of Kenya's drought management system
from its origins in the 1980s to the present day. The system is now the responsibility
of the National Drought Management Authority which was established in 2011.
The creation of a permanent and specialist institution in government to manage
drought-related risks was the culmination of many years of work by many actors,
both within the government and outside it. A critical outstanding challenge remains
the permanent availability of contingency fi nance to ensure timely and appropriate
response to the earliest signs of drought stress. This chapter draws heavily on dis-
cussions that took place during a meeting in Turkana, northern Kenya, in August
2013 between the pioneers of Kenya's drought management system and the staff
and partners of the NDMA.
Keywords Kenya ￿ Turkana ￿ Drought management ￿ Early warning ￿ Contingency
planning ￿ Contingency fi nance ￿ Resilience ￿ Institutionalisation
;