Drought Cycle Management: A toolkit for the drylands of the Greater Horn

Droughts periodically afflict large areas of the Greater Horn of Africa. The pastoralists and farmers who live in the drylands used to cope quite well. When a drought came, they were prepared. Drought was part of their lives. But social, economic and environmental changes that have taken place in the last few decades have disrupted these traditional mechanisms. Droughts now have a more devastating effect: as water sources dry up and the land becomes parched, large numbers of livestock and people go thirsty and hungry. Dealing with the humanitarian catastrophe is enormously expensive and rarely successful. Drought cycle management offers a better approach. It helps people - and the governments and development agencies that serve them - to plan for drought. It aims to strengthen people's livelihoods throughout the drought cycle in good times as well as bad - to make them less vulnerable when the rains fail. This toolkit, intended for development workers and policymakers, describes the drought cycle management approach and how to apply it in practice. It covers a wide range of subjects, from animal health to water supplies, and from crops to community organization. It also describes how to adapt your own organization to better respond to the drought cycle. This toolkit is based on the skills and experience of nearly 70 specialists in various aspects of managing drought in the Greater Horn. It contains nearly 100 short case studies to illustrate successes and failures in dealing with drought. It also has a large number of 'tools': guidelines, checklists, techniques and approaches that readers can select, use, and adapt in their own work. Numerous clear line drawings, drawn by local artists, illustrate the text.