Preferences for drought risk adaptation support in Kenya: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment and three decision-making theories

Promoting household-level adaptation measures is an important part of climate change adaptation policies to reduce vulnerability to droughts for (agro-)pastoral communities in sub-Saharan Africa. To develop effective supportive policies, it is important to get a better understanding of the needs in the communities. In this study, we, therefore, present the results of a discrete choice experiment in which we identify preferences for four different support types of drought adaptation in (agro-)pastoral communities in Kenya. We include four types of drought and adaptation support: water supply, emergency livestock fodder, adaptation subsidies, and adaptation training. A novelty of our study is that we link the results from our discrete choice experiment to behavioural factors of three established decision-making theories: expected utility theory, protection motivation theory and theory of planned behaviour. Including these theories in our analysis results in an improved understanding of the causal relationship between adaptation behaviour and preferences for adaptation support. We demonstrate that households in (agro-)pastoral communities are willing to pay for both adaptation support and emergency drought support. There is however clear heterogeneity in preferences for support related to behavioural factors. We discuss the implication of our results for drought risk adaptation policy.