Drylands covers 40 % of the global land area and hosts 2 billion people of which 90% live in low- or middle-income countries. Drylands often face severe land degradation, low agricultural productivity, rapid population growth, widespread poverty and poor health. Livestock-based livelihoods, largely depending on seasonal migration is the norm. People and land are highly vulnerable to climate change, while there are also changes in land tenure, insecurity/conflicts and rapid infrastructure growth. Governance structures and institutions are often eroded.
"SDGs 2 (Zero hunger), 15 (Life on land) and 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) being the focus of this work are threatened in many dryland areas, but there are opportunities to turn this around and create synergies between the targets. We will use innovative approaches in dryland borders of Kenya and Uganda focusing on livelihood improvement through rangeland (grazing areas) restoration and governance interventions", says Professor Ingrid Öborn (SLU) who will be leading the research.
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in East African drylands is the focus of the research project called Drylands Transform that recently has been funded with 2 million Euros from the research council FORMAS. SLU will lead the multidisciplinary team with researchers from universities in Sweden and East Africa, and international research & communication centres.