About CETRAD/Mandate

CETRAD's mandate is the ASALs, and focuses on the assessment and evaluation of the potential and the utilisation of the resources in the said areas. This mandate as well includes the assessment and evaluation of the interaction and relations between the ASAL and the high potential areas (in particular mountains and highlands) on the one hand, and the interaction and relations with the economic core regions (in particular urban centres).

This mandate is, therefore, twofold: to undertake practical oriented and field-based training in order to build the required technical and professional capacities for ASAL development; and to carry out area or situation-specific, regionally oriented and applied research for the purpose of developing and maintaining an integrated and comprehensive data and information base for the entire Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL) of Kenya in order to:

• Understand the natural resource base and assess its potential in view of the ecological and socio-economic dynamics currently taking place in the ASALs.
• Develop appropriate technological packages and strategies for sustainable resource utilisation in the ASALs and
• Understand and integrate the multitude of the sectoral actors and varied strategies and approaches influencing development processes in the ASALs.