ICPALD with the support of European Union organized a two-day validation meeting on April 19-20, 2022, aimed at providing opportunity for (Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda) to harmonize cross-border outputs and discuss synergies related to identification of key cross-border routes/corridors, resources and cross-border resource management, and conflict resolution. This was a follow up to the two participatory mapping processes conducted between Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan in Lodwar, Kenya and between South Sudan and Uganda in Moroto, Uganda. The validation meeting was a completion of mapping for the whole Karamoja cluster, which designated 14 transhumance corridors between Kenya and Uganda, 7 corridors between Ethiopia and South Sudan, 8 corridors between Ethiopia and Kenya and 7 corridors between Kenya and South Sudan.

The meeting, which was held in Lodwar, Kenya facilitated a sharing of best practices to enable formal, safe cross-border livestock mobility in the cluster, and identified strategic areas of collaboration and coordination between government and other actors as prioritized by the Implementation Roadmap of the IGAD Transhumance protocol.

Speaking during the meeting, the Turkana County Secretary, Mr. Peter Eripete, observed that, while the IGAD-led process of mapping of corridors and resources would help in actualization of the Transhumance corridor development plan, it would also contribute to addressing the common challenges faced by pastoralist communities living in the Karamoja, cluster which lies between the four countries.

The meeting discussed and recommended the following for action by concerned parties.

• Establishment of channels of communication to provide weekly updates for accurate prediction between the cross-border communities.
• Integration of traditional prediction methods into the Government and IGAD-led forecasting predictive tools to promote inclusivity of the local communities.
• Work with relevant authorities to overlay conflict maps with the validated route map to reduce resource-based conflicts.
• Work with local communities to establish guidelines on cross-border movement in line with the IGAD Protocol on Transhumance.
• Set up an over-arching cross-border committee to support among other issues, information sharing amongst the border communities.