A new project is launched to support climate-smart livestock strategies and investments in East Africa

It is hard to overstate the role that the livestock sector plays in ensuring food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The sector provides a vital source of income to most of the rural poor. Livestock production also provides nutritional benefits to people through their milk, meat and eggs, which are protein dense and contain key micronutrients not found in plant-based foods. Access to animal-source foods not only improves diets but also raises incomes of the most resource-poor.

But given its reliance on rain and stable temperatures, livestock production is especially vulnerable to climate change. Across Africa’s drylands, for example, livestock systems depend on water and vegetation resources that are becoming increasingly scarce. It is expected that droughts will become more frequent and intense on the continent with ongoing climate change. There is thus urgent need to develop and implement livestock-based adaptation strategies to climate change.

Livestock production both affects and contributes…