Nothing Grows Alone | Why Community Resilience Requires Accountable Systems

Resilience Action Network Africa (RANA) recently brought together civil society organisations, community leaders, health advocates, climate actors and governance practitioners in Kisumu to assess the status of resilience against the lived realities of communities, and to evaluate whether the current advocacy strategy is sufficiently connected to the broken systems people confront every day.

Participants stated that resilience is not a solitary act. It is built through systems that listen, institutions that respond, budgets that reach people and public services that hold together under pressure.

 Resilience Is a Governance Issue

Climate shocks are not isolated weather events—they are governance tests. When water systems fail, livelihoods suffer. When livelihoods collapse, food insecurity rises. When families lose income, children leave school and health outcomes deteriorate. 

“For us, drought is not an event. It is a cycle. Resilience means knowing whether the next dry season will find us with water, pasture, food, and services.”  — Peter Lochuch, Programme Manager Food Security & Livelihoods, LOKADO, Turkana

 

Communities are navigating changing weather patterns and shifting livelihoods, yet adaptation financing consistently fails to reach the people living with its consequences. Where climate finance does not reach the shoreline, the farm, or the pastoral corridor, resilience remains an aspiration rather than a reality.

Health Preparedness Begins Long Before an Outbreak

Epidemic preparedness is not only about emergency plans, laboratories and press briefings. It is also about drainage, clean water, waste collection, community health systems, and trust. Disease surveillance cannot be strong where basic services are weak.

“When drainage fails, health fails. When waste is not collected, disease follows. Resilience in informal settlements begins with dignity in basic services.”  —Christopher Abuor, Kuza Trust, Nairobi

This principle gained urgency in discussions on Ebola preparedness, where border community voices highlighted a persistent inequity: they are always at highest risk during outbreaks, yet the last to receive information, resources, and PPE. Preparedness must be embedded within communities through trusted communication, community-based surveillance, and accountable local coordination, not only in national response frameworks. The convening also elevated sickle cell disease as a neglected regional health priority, calling for expanded awareness, early diagnosis, equitable treatment access, and sustained policy attention.

The Great Lakes Region Demands Systems Thinking

The Great Lakes region is an interconnected resilience landscape with lake-based economies, fisheries, wetlands, public health systems, food security and migration patterns were deeply linked. What affects one dimension affects all.

“The Yala ecosystem teaches us that wetlands, livelihoods, food systems, and health are connected. Destroy one, and the whole community feels it.”  — Peter Aduda, Coordinator- Raising Voices for Empowerment and Development, Siaya

This perspective challenges sector-based approaches to development. Resilience cannot be divided into isolated conversations on health, climate, food systems, or governance—these issues intersect every day in the lives of communities. Participants from Migori County raised the same logic in the context of mineral extraction: development that has left communities poorer, sicker and less protected. 

Communities Want Accountability, Not Consultation Fatigue

Across counties and sectors, participants expressed frustration with public participation processes that collect community views but fail to translate them into action. 

“Public participation should not be a ritual. Communities must see their priorities reflected in budgets, projects, and services.”  Joyce Shammah,  Executive DirectorFootprints of Hope, Busia

When budgets fail to reflect community priorities, trust erodes. When information is inaccessible, accountability weakens. When communities are repeatedly consulted without results, participation becomes performative. Resilience depends on trust between institutions and citizens—and that relationship is built through transparency, responsiveness and genuine accountability.

From Community Voices to Collective Action

The convening produced a shared advocacy agenda for RANA and its partners, grounded in what communities named as their priorities:

SHARED ADVOCACY PRIORITIES Community-centred epidemic and pandemic preparedness Health systems accountability and community health strengthening Climate resilience and disaster risk preparedness Food security and livelihood protection Budget accountability and participatory governance Environmental justice and responsible resource management Social inclusion and equity Regional advocacy on sickle cell disease

The most significant outcome was a collective commitment to move beyond dialogue and towards coordinated action. RANA’s role is to transform community evidence into policy influence, and local realities into national and regional change. This is why the proposed Great Lakes Resilience Working Group is a critical next step: a platform to bring together community health networks, beach management units, women’s groups, youth movements, climate actors, social justice organisations, academia, and local leaders in a coordinated advocacy effort across the region.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT Establish the Great Lakes Resilience Working Group Develop community evidence advocacy packages: policy briefs, scorecards, and clear asks Advance advocacy on epidemic preparedness and health systems accountability Promote equitable access to climate adaptation financing Build rapid-response accountability mechanisms for emerging health, climate, and governance risks Strengthen regional advocacy on sickle cell disease Expand media engagement and storytelling so community knowledge informs public discourse

 

The Kisumu convening reaffirmed that African communities are not passive recipients of resilience programming. They are first responders, knowledge holders, and accountability actors. They understand the challenges they face and often carry the solutions. But community wisdom alone is not enough.

Because in nature, and in resilient societies, nothing grows alone.