Empowering pastoralists in Kenya - The 4th DIVA Donate campaign
By Walodja1987 at
We are excited to announce the launch of the 4th iteration of the DIVA Donate campaign, focused on providing anticipatory cash transfers to pastoralist communities in Kenya ahead of drought.
We are particularly thrilled to share that DIVA Donate has been selected as one of the recipients of the Arbitrum ReFi grant. This grant has allowed us to further enhance the DIVA Donate platform and to seed this new campaign. The grant is a testament to the value of our work and the community’s trust in our mission to become the most effective and efficient platform for disaster relief, powered by blockchain technology. We are deeply honored and incredibly grateful for this support! 🙏
In this blog post, we will explore the details of the new campaign and discuss the updates made to the DIVA Donate app, all made possible by the generous Arbitrum grant.
✨ About the campaign
In our 4th campaign, we remain dedicated to providing anticipatory cash transfers to pastoralist communities in Kenya, specifically in Kajiado county, which are disproportionately affected by climate-change-induced drought.
The campaign’s objective is to assess vegetation health using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) following the October-November-December 2024 rainy season and disburse funds to participating pastoralists if the NDVI at the end of this period suggests insufficient vegetation, due to lack of rainfall, to support livestock during the subsequent dry season.
With a fundraising target of $15’000, our goal is to distribute drought relief of $75 each to 200 pastoralists in the event of drought, sufficient to sustain one livestock for six months.
From the previous campaign, $8’632.60 of the Mercy Corps Funds remained unreleased and will be rolled in this new campaign, highlighting the amplified impact of every dollar contributed. Additionally, an approximate $2’500 will be contributed from the Arbitrum grant.
🧑🎓 Calibrating the donation release profile
We continue to rely on FEWS NDVI data as our trigger metric due to its resilience against cloud coverage and atmospheric contamination. Its public availability also allows for transparent verification by all stakeholders.
We employed the same methodology as in our previous campaign to determine NDVI thresholds that indicate drought conditions. Specifically, we analyzed historical NDVI values at the end of December, coinciding with the end of the rainy season, and correlated these with on-the-ground assessments from the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) reports during the first two months of the subsequent dry season. More details are provided in the following sections.
Historical NDVI
Looking at the historical NDVI data covering the last 12 years, a recurring pattern emerges: an increase in NDVI during the October-November-December rainy season, indicating improved vegetation, followed by a decline until the end of February / beginning of March as the dry season progresses.
Source: FEWS
The chart highlights the NDVI values on 31 December for each of the last 12 years, ranging between 0.40 in 2017, and 0.75 in 2019, with an average NDVI value of 0.58. Low NDVI values imply reduced fodder and tougher survival conditions for pastoralists' livestock during the subsequent dry period.
On-ground reports
To assess which NDVI levels led to drought stress in the subsequent dry period, we examined the NDMA reports for January and February following the years with the five lowest recorded NDVI values: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2022.
Here is a summary of the drought status assessments, listed in ascending order of NDVI:
- 2017 (NDVI: 0.40): The January 2018 report indicated a drought status of Alarm. The report for February was not available.
- 2022 (NDVI: 0.45): Reports from January and February 2023 indicated a drought status of Alarm.
- 2016 (NDVI: 0.50): Reports from January and February 2017 indicated a drought status ranging from Alert to Alarm.
- 2014 (NDVI: 0.52): Reports from January and February 2015 indicated a drought status of Alert.
- 2021 (NDVI: 0.53): Reports from January and February 2022 indicated a drought status of Alert, but some parts of the region showing normal conditions.
Based on these observations, implementing a donation profile that pays out 100% of the contributed funds for NDVI values of 0.45 and below (2017 and 2022), 50% for values at 0.50 (2016), and no payout for values at or above 0.52, seems to be a prudent approach. The payout profile is depicted below (note that the NDVI value was shifted by +1 for technical reasons):
Any funds that remain unreleased can be reclaimed by the original contributor and redeployed into future campaigns.
💡 How to participate
Participating in the campaign is simple if you have a browser wallet funded with USDT on Arbitrum. Just visit divadonate.xyz, connect your wallet, enter the amount you wish to contribute, click "Deposit" and confirm the transaction in your wallet.
Note that you may be asked to "Approve" the transfer first in order to grant DIVA Protocol, the smart contract powering DIVA Donate, the permission to move USDT on your behalf. For a step-by-step guide, you can check out the video tutorial produced for a previous campaign (make sure to use the Arbitrum One network and select the new campaign).
For those new to crypto, there is a one-time setup process to go through to set up a wallet and convert your local fiat currency into cryptocurrency. Refer to our FAQs for more guidance. If you need support, head over to the diva-donate channel in our Discord and ask your questions. This process will be further simplified in the coming weeks thanks to the Privy integration that was implemented thanks to the Arbitrum grant.
🏆 Rewards
Consistent with previous campaigns, participants will receive a digital certificate (POAP) to commemorate their contribution. Donations of $75 or more will receive the golden-ring POAP. Smaller contributions will be rewarded with the silver POAP.
👷 Platform enhancements
Thanks to the Arbitrum ReFi grant, we implemented several enhancements to the existing DIVA Donate platform, improving both user experience and performance. These include:
- Documentation: We've added documentation that explains what DIVA Donate is, how it works, and includes impact statistics from past campaigns.
- Blog: We’ve migrated our blog from the DIVA Protocol website to the DIVA Donate domain, creating a more centralized and focused hub for all updates and insights related to our campaigns. You can find it here.
- User-friendly onboarding: We've integrated Privy, the leading onboarding solution in Web3, which features embedded wallets, social logins and fiat-to-crypto on-ramp. This update will make the platform more accessible to a wider audience.
- Performance enhancements: Leveraging cutting-edge libraries such as Wagmi and Viem, we've optimized platform performance, ensuring more efficient data querying and an overall faster experience for users.
- Top donors leaderboard: We've introduced a new Top Donors table on the campaign page, highlighting the most generous contributors and fostering a sense of community engagement and competition.
🔢 DIVA Donate Statistics
Below provides the since inception statistics of the DIVA Donate initiative (excluding the new campaign):
- Number campaigns: 3
- Contributed: $34’325
- Donated: $11’744 (34.3%)
Now also available in our docs.
💎 Join the cause
The DIVA Donate team is actively seeking partners who share our vision of harnessing blockchain technology to provide effective support to vulnerable communities affected by climate change. Given the versatile nature of DIVA Protocol, the smart contract-based infrastructure powering DIVA Donate, the donation payout can be linked to virtually any metric and adapted to many different use cases. If you represent a charity or NGO passionate about this concept, reach out and join forces to provide more efficient and effective support to those in need.
🌔 Conclusion
The 4th campaign emphasizes our commitment to mitigate the impact of climate change on pastoralist communities in Kenya. We are grateful for the continued support of our donors and partners and look forward to making a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve. We are also grateful for Arbitrum’s support in our mission! Together, we can continue to empower communities and foster resilience against the challenges posed by climate change.
🍀 About DIVA Donate
DIVA Donate is an innovative platform that leverages blockchain technology to enable parametric conditional donations for disaster relief. It is a joint initiative between two entities united around the mission of empowering vulnerable communities affected by climate change:
- Fortune Credit: a microfinance institution in Kenya which provides credit, insurance & other financial services to 50k+ customers including small-holder farmers & pastoralists, and
- DIVA Technologies AG: developer of DIVA Protocol, a smart contract-based system for creating and managing custom derivative contracts peer-to-peer.