Garba Tula Governance Assessment Final Report ... - Land Portal

Garba Tula Governance Baseline Assessment, April 2011
lack the capacity to provide the support needed to establish and guide the operation of these
governance mechanisms.
This situation does however provide the opportunity for this project to help fill this capacity gap, by
assisting with the establishment and ongoing operation of these community based associations, which
have the potential to play an important role in improving natural resource governance in Garba Tula. As
an initial step, it is proposed that a capacity assessment be carried out to identify the specific needs of
such community user associations in the Garba Tula area, and that technical and logistical support
subsequently be provided to facilitate their establishment and registration in line with the stipulations
set out in the relevant Act. Once the associations are established, ongoing support and capacity building
may also be required during the early phases of their operations, for example, to help establish
institutional systems and accountability measures that are often lacking in community based
organisations.
5.3 Objective 3: Service provision in support of enhanced natural
resource governance, natural resource-based livelihoods, and wise
stewardship of land and natural resources strengthened
As discussed in section 4.3 above, the provision of natural resource services is an important category of
natural resource governance mechanisms, especially in a remote dryland area such as Garba Tula.
section 4.3 also discusses the way in which government has so far failed to adequately provide the
necessary services because of the current centralised nature of service provision, and how this is due to
change under the new Kenya Constitution which decentralises the majority of natural resource
livelihoods service provision functions to the new County government level. This is clearly a radical
change in the national governance framework, and it will take many years for the new arrangements to
be implemented. In the meantime, the IUCN project needs to make appropriate contributions to the
service provision governance mechanisms for the Garba Tula area that are complementary to the
ongoing change process. Objective 3 is designed to achieve this aim, with Outputs mainly focussed
around continuing to collaborate and involve the existing government service providers, promoting the
role of NGOs in service provision to fill the current gap left by government, and promoting and
supporting new community-based service provision mechanisms where these are emerging, in particular
with regard water service provision.
Output 3.1. Collaboration and support of relevant district-based technical officers in Garba
Tula natural resource conservation, management and livelihoods strengthened
Although the existing centralised system of service provision is not ideal, government natural resource
technical officers still represent a significant potential source of technical knowledge with regard various
aspects of natural-resource based livelihoods – in the Garba Tula area, especially with regard livestock
and pasture management, livestock marketing, and livestock health. As discussed in section 4.3 above,
another reason why it is important to engage with district-based government technical officers is that
they represent continuity at a time of major upheaval in the broader decentralised governance
framework in Kenya, with their roles continuing in one form or another under the future decentralised
governance dispensation. Outcome 3.1 therefore focuses on building collaboration with and support
from the relevant district-based technical officers, in particular in the promotion of appropriate naturalresource
based livelihoods in Garba Tula.
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