Does resilience-building last when projects end? Retrospective lessons from projects to support pastoralists in Turkana, Kenya

Few studies assess the longer‑term impacts of resilience‑building projects in drylands once external support ends. This research revisits three interventions in Turkana, Kenya village (savings and loan associations (VSLAs), improved water supply, and livestock marketing) six years after project closure.

All institutions persisted but none functioned as intended. Informal rules and power relations continued to shape outcomes, limiting enforcement of formal regulations. VSLAs were decapitalising, sustained only by further aid, and excluded most community members. Boreholes provided reliable water but encouraged settlement, reducing mobility and sparking resource conflicts.

Findings highlight that institutional sustainability requires alignment between formal and informal rules, and that power asymmetries predictably undermine outcomes.

Policy implications stress the need for systematic retrospective evaluation, realistic expectations of incremental change, and designs grounded in existing practices. Resilience programming should avoid assumptions of transformative change and instead support organic, locally driven processes that build on what communities already do.