The Support to Local Development Component aims to foster an enabling environment in the arid lands to allow the population to break out of the prevalent survival-relief continuum into a positive development agenda leading to economic growth and reduced dependence on outside intervention.

This will be achieved by improving the delivery of essential services to enable communities diversify their economic activities, develop sustainable exit strategies, and promoting the interests of the arid lands at the national level to ensure that adequate consideration is given to arid lands development.

Support to Local Development fosters an enabling environment in the arid districts for economic growth and reduced dependence of the population on outside intervention through:

(a) Policy, Advocacy and Research

Provision of financial assistance for policy, advocacy and researchin support of arid land development:

• Supporting the mainstreaming of pastoral issues and concerns
• into sectoral policy initiatives, including the National Gender Policy
• Developing a National Pastoral Policy
• Supporting local and national advocacy groups to ensure adequate onsideration of the interests of the arid lands
• Increasing the exposure of national policy makers to the arid lands through visits and other initiatives
• Providing funds for adaptive research and studies addressing specific technical and social challenges in the arid lands
• Assisting the local government reform process, inter alia, by training staff and councillors to assume and handle greater responsibilities in shaping the local development agenda

(b) Local Services Development

Provision of funds for strengthening of local services development in sectors essential to the sustainable development of communities in the Arid districts:

• Complementing the existing governmental and other education programs to ensure acceptable levels of access to basic education, concentrating in particular on mobile schooling
• Providing funds to carry out awareness programs in communities to prevent and reduce health risks and address minor health problems, including awareness raising and capacity building to facilitate access to other funding sources to address the HIV/AIDS problems
• Supporting agricultural services by increasing, the capacity of technical services providers to provide advice to farmers on sustainable irrigated and rain fed cropping techniques
• Creating river water users associations on a pilot basis to strengthen community based water resource management and to manage conflicts related to water resource access
• Supporting livestock production, health and marketing initiatives to foster the profitability of the livestock sector which is the mainstay of the economy in the arid lands; and
• Provision of financing in the form of a "district services allocation" to fund priority service development activities in each district, selected and managed by DSGs in accordance with broad guidelines on eligibility.

(c)Piloting Financial Services

Design and establishment of appropriate and sustainable financial services in the arid districts.