51´«Ã½

Kenya: Sample counties and livelihood zones.

John O’Loughlin, College Professor of Distinction in Geography and Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS), received a National Science Foundation grant in August 2024 for a study of climate change, food insecurity, and conflict/cooperation in Kenya with a special emphasis on the role of local formal and informal institutions in mitigating or exacerbating conflicts. Co-principal investigators are Terry McCabe of IBS and Andrew Linke, associate professor of Geography at the University of Utah who received his PhD in the department in 2014. This large-scale study of rural livelihoods (over 3000 households in 11 counties) with emphasis on the effects of seasonal changes in the weather on food supplies examines the role of local institutions in mediating these effects.Ìý(see the following map – the sample counties with their main ecological features)

Supported by weather and environmental change data collected at a local scale, the main data source are 5 panel waves of over a 3-year period. In February 2025, the team traveled to Nairobi to train over 70 enumerators, local team supervisors and regional coordinators on the survey instrument of over 100 questions and on the sampling protocols in the carefully selected enumeration areas. (see the photo below after training in Nairobi with the research team and the local collaborators ).

Navigating a steep slippery path to a village elders house Machakos, February 2025.

After one week of intense training, the field work began with the teams of 5 persons (4 enumerators and a supervisor) traveling to the respective counties for which they have local language and cultural skills.Ìý ÌýBy the end of March, all of the data were collected and validated.Ìý The research team, including geography graduate students Sarah Posner and Priscilla Corbett, are now analyzing the first set of results.

The three principal investigators traveled with the teams to 3 counties in the first days of the field work in order to understand how the sampling protocol and surveys were implemented on the ground. By visiting numerous sample points and meeting with interviewees as well as village elders who were separately surveyed as the teams completed their work showed the extensive and careful implementation of the survey. (see the photoÌý- John O’Loughlin and Andrew Linke navigate a slippery path in a narrow ravine on the way to a village elder in Machakos county Kenya, February 2025).

Huge thanks are due to the Kenyan collaborators and to the local authorities who are supporting the data collection. Later field work in 2025 will consist of the first phone wave in August and focus groups in November in coordination with the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi where the principal investigators hold research appointments.Ìý The team will again travel to Kenya to train and monitor this further field work.