The ESA consoritum of prototype developers works closely with three early adopters headquarted in Nairobi, Kenya: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and Regional Center For Mapping Of Resources For Development (RCMRD) to improve existing drought monitoring tools/products with new multispectral broadband, hyperspectral and thermal satellite image data.
ILRI is a CGIAR research center with the mission of improving food and nutritional security and to reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock. ILRI has played in the last 10 years a prominent role in the East African region in relation to climate risk management and environmental research, with a specific focus on drought. Under the perspective 2022-2024 One CGIAR portfolio, ILRI is currently leading or strongly contributing to initiatives associated to food security and climate resilience such as ClimBeR: Building Systemic Resilience Against Climate Variability and Extremes and Livestock, Climate and System Resilience. ILRI uses NDVI to trigger payouts in the event of a drought to pastoralists who are enrolled in their index-based livestock insurance program.
NDMA is Kenya’s authority responsible for the management of droughts and head-quartered in Nairobi. The National Drought Management Authority Act (2016) mandates the NDMA to exercise overall coordination over all matters relating to drought risk management and to establish mechanisms, either on its own or with stakeholders, that will end drought emergencies in Kenya. The EU has, since 2007, been working with NDMA to manage drought risk. The EU support has been provided in different projects funded under the 9th, 10th and 11th European Development Fund. The projects are implemented through the NDMA and include the set-up and operation of an operational spectral vegetation indices based on real-time drought monitoring system directly linked to its contingency funds as well as the Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP). NDMA publishes drought early warning bulletins across ASALs in Kenya. The bulletins include geospatial drought information derived from MODIS 250 m resolution normalized difference vegetation index.
RCMRD was established in Nairobi, Kenya in 1975 under the auspices of the UNECA and the then OAU, today African Union. RCMRD is an inter-governmental organization and currently has 20 Contracting Member States in the Eastern and Southern Africa regions: Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somali, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. RCMRD's vision is to be a premier center of excellence in the provision of geo-information and allied technologies for sustainable development in the member states and other stakeholders. RCMRD's key function is to support our member states in addressing varied development challenges to better manage their finite natural resources and build resilience.