The project, Early Warning System for Monitoring Nutrition and Livestock Health for Food Security of Humans in East Africa, headed by Dr. Paul Dyke of Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), addresses risk by adapting already successful U.S. technologies to East Africa in order to increase the lead time on the forecast of drought and famine, and allow policy makers to visualize the impact of their interventions on food crises. The project combines predictive and spatial characterization technologies with the formation of a network of collection and measurement sites in East Africa. The data from these sites, in coordination with the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) project, will allow 6-8 weeks of increased lead-time for drought forecasting.

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Integrated Modeling and Assessment System Project

The project, Integrated Modeling and Assessment for Balancing Food Security, Conservation and Ecosystem Integrity in East Africa, headed by Dr. Micheal Coughenour of Colorado State University (CSU), addresses the relationship between pastoralists and wildlife conservation in the context of the unpredictability of semi-arid environments. This project will adapt models already in use in U.S. national parks to assist policy makers at the national and local level to establish approaches that are compatible with both pastoral life and conservation of biodiversity. The project intends to identify, in an integrated manner, the tradeoffs of different management decisions on wildlife conservation, livestock production and pastoralist food security and health.

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Pastoral Risk Management Project

The project, Improving Pastoral Risk Management on East African Rangelands, headed by Dr. Layne Coppock of Utah State University (USU), uses four systems to cope with risk and destock livestock in semiarid ecosystems: resource tenure, closer links to markets, rural finance and public service delivery. These activities represent mechanisms to allow asset diversification, improved ability to interact with markets, increased investment in rural institutions and commerce, and better capacity to cope with an unpredictable environment. The impact of these alternatives will likely reduce conflict, improve the economic conditions of pastoralist and their communities, provide higher productivity and stability to their livestock systems and greater protection for the biodiversity in their environments.

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Child Nutrition Project

The project, Role of Animal Source Foods to Improve Diet Quality and Growth and Cognitive Development in East African Children, headed by Dr. Charlotte Neumann of the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), targets mechanisms to cope with malnutrition of rural populations, particularly children. The project is definitively testing the link between animal source foods (ASF) and cognitive and physical development in children. Additional project work, after testing, will consider the effectiveness of different interventions in delivering ASF into the diets of children.

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