Efficacy of Resilience Building Programme on Drought in Kakuma, Turkana County: A Case Study of World Food Programme

Abstract

Climate-related disasters, particularly droughts, have had a major impact on the socioeconomic growth and stability of Kakuma in Turkana County, Kenya. The World Food Programme (WFP) through the Resilience Building Programme has responded by putting a number of plans into place to improve the region's resistance to drought. It has implemented climate-resilient agriculture Initiatives, cash transfer programs, and Water and Sanitation project as a social safety net to improve economic stability and food security. Despite effort of WFP to improve drought resilience, there is still a lack of documented data on the efficacy of social protection programs. This study offers a critical analysis of the contributions of these interventions to social protection systems. The main objectives for this study are; to evaluate WFP’s social protection initiatives for drought resilience among communities in Kakuma, to examine the effectiveness of WFP’s social protection initiatives on communities’ resilience to drought in Kakuma and to explore strategies for strengthening and sustaining social protection systems among communities in Kakuma. The theories used in this study include the Human Environment Relations Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Theory and the Social-Ecological Theory. To critically evaluate the WTP’s role of enhancing social protection and drought resilience in Kakuma, a qualitative study was carried out. Key stakeholders, representatives of the Turkana County Government, Staff members of WFP, IConnect Kenya Initiative staff, and lastly smallholder farmer in Kakuma area. The goal of the qualitative method was to learn more about local perspectives, experiences, and the efficacy of WFP activities. The study comes to the conclusion that while WFP's resilience-building initiatives in Kakuma, which include cash transfers, climate-smart agriculture, and WASH programs, have improved drought resilience, they remain constrained by inequality in gender, sustainability gaps, geographical limitations and unequal funding. This emphasizes the need for social protection systems that are more inclusive and well-coordinated. The study offers practical suggestions to strengthen the WFP's role in fostering social protection and climate resilience in Kakuma.