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Who We Are
Independent NGO in Lodwar — capacity building, community empowerment and service delivery for the deprived and marginalized people of Turkana County.
Our Origin
In 2014, a group of dynamic, like-minded professionals in the development sector came together to establish a Community-Based Organisation addressing Turkana's most urgent needs. True to this spirit, it was named the Agency for Turkana Development Initiatives (ATUDIS).
Professionals cognizant of the county's problems set a deliberately broad mandate — across geographies and sectors — from capacity building to service delivery for marginalized communities. First contract: HSNP community mobilization in Marsabit & Turkana.
Collaboration with APAD, funded by GIZ, bringing the Flood Based Farming system to Turkana agro-pastoralists.
September 2022: ATUDIS transitions to a structured NGO — same grassroots character, stronger governance for institutional partnerships.
Operating across all 6 sub-counties — Turkana West, Loima, Turkana Central, Turkana North, Turkana East and Turkana South — with 13 staff, VSL groups, WASH works, peace structures and youth programs.
What defines ATUDIS: (a) enlisting community involvement when initiating activities at grassroots level; and (b) mobilizing communities to resolve conflict and bring peace, tolerance and development.
Vision • Mission • Goal • Values
A community with no one living in poverty — accessing decent standards, opportunities and choices essential to a long, healthy and sustainable life.
To work with vulnerable communities to create sustainable socio-economic development that alleviates poverty, improves living standards and imparts positive social transformation.
Improved standards of living for the Turkana community through mobilization, capacity building, advocacy and stronger grassroots institutions.
Our Strategy
A sustainable strategy achieves the maximum: problems ascertained with full community involvement, indigenous resources mobilized, and a helping hand from donors and philanthropists.
Communities build their own action plans and prioritize projects; beneficiaries selected through inclusive, gender-sensitive criteria and sensitized on ownership for sustainability.
Beneficiaries advocate on ATUDIS issues; strong engagement with Turkana County departments, NGOs, CBOs and CSOs — rights-based dialogue as the core tool.
A bridge between service providers and recipients — viewing issues from local, national and regional angles to comprehend them fully.
Main objective: support indigenous communities to sustainably utilize land-based resources to tackle their own economic, social and environmental problems.
Track Record
Why ATUDIS
Influenced by the new development paradigm which puts people before things, ATUDIS follows a participatory approach in every sphere of its work. Traditional knowledge of the rural poor is valued and respected — communities are capable of self-reliant organization. The thrust is decentralization and empowerment.
Full community involvement at every stage — identification, planning, management, implementation, evaluation. Structures are built on local institutions, never parallel ones. Field experience is converted into knowledge that influences NGO, donor and government policy toward eradicating poverty.
Collaborating with coalitions and initiatives for sectoral goals:
Staffed at managerial level from Agriculture, Irrigation Engineering and Natural Resource Management backgrounds; each sector lead reports to the Executive Director. Full profiles: info@atudiskenya.org.