Human-Centered Design Training for Building Resilience in Kenya’s ASAL Regions

Category: Human-Centered Design, Training

Topic Areas: Climate Resilience, Poverty Reduction

Client: Food for the Hungry (FH) Kenya

Problem

Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL), which cover over 80% of the country and house 16 million people, face persistent poverty, food insecurity, and vulnerability due to climate change impacts like droughts and floods. Despite interventions, these regions remain marginalized due to structural challenges and climate variability. Building resilience in these communities is critical but requires innovative, community-driven solutions.

Food for the Hungry (FH), an organization working to reduce poverty in these areas, identified a key challenge: the need to build resilient communities that can overcome poverty sustainably. However, existing efforts were hampered by difficulties in engaging communities effectively and adapting solutions to local contexts.

Approach

FH Kenya, in partnership with Buni Banda, conducted a 4-day training for 20 staff members to introduce Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles. The training focused on equipping staff with practical skills to apply HCD in their programs aimed at poverty reduction and resilience building in ASAL regions. Key elements included:

Interactive learningthrough lectures, group activities, and discussions.
Brainstorming, clustering ideas, and developing relationships between concepts.
Prototypingand testing ideas to develop actionable solutions.
Iterative feedbackto adjust and improve training sessions.

Outcome/Impact

The training enabled FH staff to develop innovative solutions tailored to ASAL communities’ needs, enhancing their capacity to implement resilient programs. Participants gained valuable tools for collaborating with local communities and developing context-specific solutions. The project is expected to improve poverty reduction efforts and create long-term resilience in ASAL regions through continued application of HCD in future initiatives.