About the campaign

• This campaign represents the 5th iteration in the series dedicated to providing anticipatory cash transfers to Kenyan pastoralists which are disproportionately affected by climate-change-induced drought.
  
  

  Context

  Pastoral communities live a nomadic lifestyle, grazing animals on open-access pastures and migrating with them in response to seasonal variations. Livestock and livestock products serve as their primary sources of income and food.
  
  However, changing weather patterns induced by climate change are threatening the livelihoods of these communities. Over the past decade, Kenya has experienced severe droughts which have decimated the pastoralists' livestock and put the pastoral communities at risk of starvation.
  
  Kenya's climate naturally fluctuates between rainy and dry seasons. Rainfall during the rainy season stimulates vegetation growth, which provides necessary pasture for livestock in the coming dry season. Consequently, sufficient vegetation and fodder at the end of the rainy season are crucial for sustaining livestock and, by extension, the livelihoods of pastoral communities throughout the subsequent dry season.
  
  The long rains season begins in mid-March and lasts until May/June, followed by a predominantly dry period until October, during which vegetation levels gradually decline. The short rains arrive in mid-October and continue through November and December, leading into a hot, typically rainless dry season lasting until March.

Campaign goal

• The goal of this campaign is to assess vegetation health using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) following the March-May 2025 long rains season and disburse funds to participating pastoralists if the NDVI at the end of this period suggests insufficient vegetation to support livestock during the subsequent dry season. The target cover amount of $75 per pastoralist intends to subsidize the provision of food for one livestock animal over a period of six months.
  
  The campaign goals are summarized below:

• 533 Pastoralists
• $75 target cover amount per pastoralist
• $40,000 total cover for the campaign

Partners

• This campaign takes place in partnership with Ripple and utilizes their new stablecoin RLUSD, demonstrating its applicability in humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Ripple has generously contributed $25,000 to support this campaign. Additionally, approximately $12,000 which remained unreleased in previous campaigns (funds received from Mercy Corps Ventures and Arbitrum) have been rolled into this campaign to further amplify the impact.

• Pastoralists in the Kenyan County of Laikipia (North)

The pasture condition is assessed using an indicator called NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The NDVI is a widely-used metric for quantifying the health and density of vegetation using sensor data. It serves as a reasonable metric for assessing drought as vegetation density generally correlates with rainfall patterns.

For this campaign, the NDVI as at 31 May 2025 within the eVIIRS dataset, as published on the USGS FEWS NET Early Warning System website, will be used. These values will be reported via the DIVA Donate Multisig on 7 June 2025. The chosen dataset offers a smoothed NDVI timeseries that corrects low-quality observations caused by clouds or other atmospheric contamination.

Payouts to pastoralists are determined by the NDVI values measured on 31 May 2025. Below are the payouts in % of contributed funds based on different (shifted) NDVI scenarios:

• 100% - if the NDVI is at or below 1.55
• 67% - if the NDVI is at 1.57
• 0% - if the NDVI is at or above 1.61

For details on the derivation of these threshold, see our blog post.