Best Practices

Newsletter 10

Empowering Pastoralists

Ethiopia on January 29,2005 has hosted an international gathering of pastoralists representing 23 countries from across the world. Participants from Cambodia to Argentina and Tajikistan for the first time were brought together in South Omo. The event was the biggest gathering of its kind which was held in the traditional meeting sites of the south Hammer pastoralists.

             The gathering stressed that pastoralism as a way of life is highly neglected. The Hamers were tips of an iceberg where eight million Ethiopians representing 20 different ethnic groups were not only marginalized from the political process but also neglected to leading a life of poverty. Successive governments did little to recognize their needs and they could hardly be part of change in the country.  

            The first notable attempt of changing the life of pastoralists in Ethiopia was vividly seen with the dawn of democracy after the fall of the military junta. The Transitional Government of Ethiopia /TGE/ initiated broad economic reform measures to address every economic issues including the relatively backward regions of pastoralist areas.

            Adjustment of policies in the pastoralist areas were focused on political empowerment and poverty reduction. All in all these polices and strategies attempted to give due attention to the question of pastoral development and good governance.    

            Pastoralism is an ancient mode of life whereby shepherds and herdsmen endure harsh environment in order to provide their animals with better grazing land. They often travel long distances. According to UN reports there are more than 50 million pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa. 

            Due to their continuous mobility, ensuring the political and economic basic right of pastoralists was impossible in Ethiopia up until recently. 

            Pastoralists inhabit over half of the Ethiopian territory. There are at least 120 districts of which 51 are in Somali State, 29 in Afar, 33 in Oromia and 7 in the Southern Peoples' Nations and Nationalities State.

            The pastoralist areas have abundant untapped resources; the water bodies are worth mentioning. The majority of barely utilized rivers and river basins like that of Awash, Wabesheble, Dawa and Omo among others are found in the pastoralist areas.  They have never been used either for irrigated pasture or farming. The areas are consistently hit by recurrent draught. No meaningful development schemes were undertaken using the water resources.

            Marketing is another critical problem for pastoralists. Pastoralists are unable to secure fair price for their livestock. If the price of livestock drops no wonder their life is endangered.  They are forced to sell their products at an illicit market in which they get law prices. 

            The feature all pastoralist areas share is absence of infrastructure and services.  Access to roads is next to impossible. There are no feeder roads, specifically designed to pastoralist community. As far as basic services are concerned, not only resources are scarce but due attention was minimal. For instance, eventhough primary school enrollment at the national level is nearly 62 percent, in the Afar and Somalia state it is only 12.6 and 13 percent respectively.  Not only that there are fewer school teachers but also fewer pupils attend class and the majority of them drop-out. The same holds true in other sectors such as health. 

            Although pastoralists have huge potential for development they have failed to utilize these resources due to lack of good governance and refined policy.  It is against this social and economic backdrop that the government attempted to find sustainable solution.

            The government, owing to its firm commitment to bring about durable economic development and reduce poverty in the pastoralist community, has carried out multifaceted activities.

            Politically, pastoralists are represented in the House of Peoples' Representatives by Pastoral Affairs Standing Committee.  The main objective for the establishment of the Committee is to realize the right of the pastoralists enshrined in the constitution, and to supervise the special support the government has been providing. Moreover, in the Federal Affairs Ministry a Pastoral Development Department entrusted with improving the livelihood of pastoralists across the nation was established in 2002.

             Gebrewahid Wolde Giorgis, Head of Pastoralist Department with the Ministry says his office envisages a phased voluntary sedanteriztion along the banks of the major rivers as the main direction of transforming these societies into agro-pastoral communities, changing their life-style from a mobile one to sedentary life, from rural to small pastoral town leading to eventual urbanization.

            Further, undertaking integrated development with irrigation as the basis and livestock production as the focus, static and mobile education and health services as well as rural roads, energy water supply and rural telephone service are also given priority in the policy.

            One feature of the pastoralist area is that they reveal a wide spread malmanagement of development works due to constraints of skilled manpower and resources. To alleviate this problem, the federal government renders support in capacity building. Besides, neighboring regions such as Amhara and Tigray are also taking part in support schemes.

            In deed in the past few years there have been efforts in pastoralist areas to clean up local administrations. In this regard, the restructuring of regions at zonal and woreda level is finalized in 1997 E.C. The Afar region for example was able to fill 40-50 per cent of the structure at all levels with skilled labor force. 

             Provisions of social services by the federal and regional governments to the pastoral communities help improve their lives. Primary school coverage has shown drastic change. In the Somali region the coverage has risen from 19 to 25 percent. In the previous Ethiopian budget year alone 375 alternative schools were built in Somalia and Afar regions.

            Emphasis is also given to the expansion of higher learning institutions. A number of institutes and research centers are working to improve the productivity of livestock and development of grazing land. The Gode and Jijiga research centers are cases in point.  

            The utilization of major rivers and riverbanks is crucial to change the life of pastoralists. In this respect, irrigation of 780 hectares of land is underway in Western Gode, Somalia State, in collaboration with the Federal Government. Over 4000 hectares of land will soon be irrigated as studies are being finalized. This effort is part and parcel of the settlement programme of pastoralists along the major riverbanks of the country. 

       In its bid to change the life of the pastoral community, the government implements its strategies and policies through field studies. The success scored in one region is disseminated to another with adjustment to specifics in the localities.

            In an overall attempt to change the pastoral life, the government has earmarked 60 million dollar for pastoralist communities. The government will carry out projects in the next 15 years in 30 woredas of Somali, Afar, Oromia and Southern regional states. The major focus of the projects, among others, is maximization of social services and development of infrastructure.

            The life of the pastoralists is determined by the availability of viable marketing outlets as their livelihood depends on their livestock and transactions related to them. Gathering information on prices and livestock market outlet is showing improvement.  Organizing pastoralists under cooperatives is one option that would solve the problem.  In Somali and Afar regions, for instance, 52 co-operatives were established the previous year with the support of the federal government.

            Both the regions and the federal government have boosted their integrated and concerted efforts in order to register social and economic progress in the pastoral community.

            Economic development activated in the pastoralist area is geared towards improving the way of life of pastoral communities. To bring about rapid development aimed at changing their economic and social status as well as to ensure security, building the capacity of pastoralists is vital.

In doing so regional and federal governments as well as stakeholders should further play their roles of extricating the pastoralists form abject poverty.