Can space-borne technologies be pro-poor? Example of applications to benefit poor pastoralists’ households in the greater horn of Africa

Poor pastoralists in the drylands of the horn of Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, etc.) are under threat from repeated cycles of drought, climate change as well as other drivers of change, including increased population pressure, marginalization from political and economic processes, and globalization. As a result, pastoralists’ livelihoods that depend on a mobile system of livestock keeping that represents the most economically viable production system for these drylands of the Horn of Africa are under a constant state of threat.
With the great strides made in satellite–based weather monitoring system in recent times, it is unclear how such technologies have benefitted the poor at the grass-roots level.
This presentation focuses on an example of how such advanced satellite-based technologies have been harnessed to predict and provide near real time information on forage supply for near real-time decision making by pastoral communities in the Horn of Africa. The presentation will focus on application of space based spatial data sets in combination with modeling and information and communication technology to build a forage-based livestock early warning system for improved livelihoods for the drought prone pastoral areas and communities of the horn of Africa.