Common Programme Framework for Ending Drought Emergencies.

The purpose of the EDE Common Programme Framework is to facilitate cooperation and synergy across sectors, actors, geographical areas and levels of operation, so that programming is more coherent, coordinated and efficient. One of the Overall Pillar Outcome is the enhanced resilience of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) livelihoods to the effects of drought and climate change through improvement in resilience and in long-term household food security (14.8). A common programming approach plays to the strengths of different agencies and instruments and the Government and its development partners will contribute to the following policies: National Climate Change Response Strategy, 2010, and National Climate Change Action Plan, 2013; National Social Protection Policy, 2012; National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, 2011; and the National Nutrition Action Plan, 2012-17 (15.2.4). A multi-sectoral approach to the situational analysis addressing agro-environmental concerns and agro-environmental sustainable measures are included in the objectives, particularly in the ASALs, owing to a number of distinctive features including remoteness, lack of infrastructure, and perennial drought (Table 1). Strong multi-agency collaboration is important for: the depth of inequality between many ASAL counties, particularly in access to basic infrastructure and services, is such that only a concerted and sustained effort over a long period of time by a critical mass of partners can reduce it (section 3).
The programme does not address climate-proof infrastructures at community level since this is provided for under the EDE drought risk management pillar, through mechanisms such as Food for Assets and Cash for Assets programmes, and the National Drought Contingency Fund. The priority sectors for direct investment under this framework are transport and water, since the private sector is already making a substantial contribution to the energy and ICT sectors. Some examples of the kind of climate-proof infrastructures (12.2.3).
The EDE strategy argues that the current pattern of investment in the ASALs, where the main form of public subsidy has been extensive and prolonged humanitarian aid and the region appropriately subsidised by investing in the foundations for poverty reduction and growth. These foundations are the focus of the first four pillars of the Common Programme Framework (3.1). In the specific context of risk management, common programming is a way of bridging previously separate disciplines. Increased water use efficiency in agricultural production. Increased area under irrigation (2.3). Isolation, insecurity, weak economic integration, comparatively limited political leverage and a challenging natural environment combine to produce high levels of vulnerability and chronic poverty. The objectives are: expanding access to social protection for chronically vulnerable populations (Table 9). The EDE initiative reflects two significant changes in our understanding of drought emergencies, having their roots in poverty and vulnerability. The concept of sustainable livelihoods is gaining greater prominence in debates on ASAL development. Integral to this is the need to mainstream a sustainable livelihoods approach in poverty reduction and environmental management (14.2.1).
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the government plans technical measures to alleviate the pressures on the natural resources. The policy addresses the commitment and capacity for disaster and crisis risk management for agriculture, food and nutrition. Sustainable livelihoods aim at researching into mechanisms that will improve the delivery of livestock insurance, methods of integrating indigenous knowledge in ecology, medicine and animal health, and training in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.
The Common Programme Framework is an example of a framework for resilience which international and humanitarian actors are adopting as an organising concept for food security, disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the government plans national strategies for drought preparedness in both the short and long term, aimed at incorporating mechanisms that ensure earlier response, the scalability of existing services, market-based approaches, and stronger complementarity of interventions across separate disciplines (such as drought risk reduction, climate change adaptation and social protection). With its emphasis on the integration of drought risk reduction in policy, planning and implementation (4.2.5).