In March 2023, USAID/Kenya and East Africa (KEA)’s Democracy, Governance, and Peace and Security Office commissioned a Violence and Conflict Assessment (VCA) through the Peacebuilding Evaluation, Analysis, Research and Learning (PEARL) Task Order. The VCA examines the role that Natural Resource Management (NRM) plays in violence and conflict dynamics, including the extent to which NRM drives conflict, in five counties of northern Kenya: Isiolo, Laikipia, Samburu, Turkana, and West Pokot. It seeks to inform future conflict and peacebuilding approaches at the Mission and strengthen the integration of conflict and resilience considerations across its portfolio.
This assessment is grounded in USAID/Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention (CVP)’s VCA tool. The VCA took a mixed-methods approach, which included a desk review, geospatial and quantitative analysis of four open-source datasets and program data, 70 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and 15 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) across the five counties. The 180 respondents who provided their perspectives to the assessment team represented youth, women, men, elders, government officials, USAID implementing partners, journalists, human rights activists, civil society actors, and private sector representatives. Findings reflect the prevailing trends in the data gathered for this assessment, which at times reflect respondents’ perceptions. As a result, findings should not be interpreted as representative of all conflict dynamics or experiences in northern Kenya.
