Goat herds return home at sunset in northern Kenya (photo credit: USAID/Donatella Lorch).

‘[Hussein] Ahmed, a pastoralist in Marsabit district in arid and semi-arid northern Kenya, lost all his animals in 2011 during one of the worst droughts in the region for over 60 years. . . .  “Before that [I lost my animals] to cattle rustlers trying to replace what they had lost to drought,” Ahmed tells IPS. . . .

‘But a clansman, who had signed up for a pilot livestock insurance product, gave Ahmed five goats and a cow and a chance to start over.

‘Life is different now. Ahmed has restored his herd and has security, even in the face of drought and continued cattle rustling.

‘A year ago he signed up for the same pilot livestock insurance product that his clansman has – the first ever cover for pastoralists in Kenya, which is being offered by [the]…