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Pastoralism in Africa's Drylands Pastoralism in Africa’s drylands Reducing risks, addressing vulnerability and enhancing resilience Pastoralism in Africa’s drylands Reducing risks, addressing vulnerability and enhancing resilience Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2018 REQUIRED CITATION FAO. 2018. Pastoralism in Africa’s drylands. Rome. 52 pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN 978-92-5-130898-1 © FAO, 2018 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode/legalcode). Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons license. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition. Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http:// www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Third-party materials. 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Photo cover: ©FAO/Albert Gonzalez Farran Contents Foreword. v Acknowledgements . vii Executive summary. ix Introduction . 1 Pastoralism and mobility: Current issues and discourse . 4 The context of pastoral vulnerability . 7 Neglect and exclusion . 7 Violence, displacement and militarisation of pastoral livelihood systems . 8 Insecure land rights and natural resource management . 11 Diminishing forage base and increasing trend toward nutritional vulnerability . 13 Increasing risk of animal and zoonotic diseases . 15 Climate change and climate variability . 17 Enhancing the resilience of the pastoralist system: The way forward . 19 Policy and governance . 19 The cross-border and regional dimension . 20 Pastoral livelihoods-based monitoring and information system . 20 Ensuring stronger linkages between local and higher-level peace processes . 21 Reducing vulnerability through supporting livelihoods resilience programming . 21 Ensuring a timely livelihoods-based livestock emergency response when a crisis threatens . 22 Conclusion . 27 References . 28 iii Foreword Stretching across Africa’s drylands, from the Sahelian West to the rangelands of Eastern Africa and the Horn and the nomadic populations of Southern Africa, pastoralism is the main livelihood of an estimated 268 million people. It represents one of the most viable – and sometimes the only suitable – livelihood options in the drylands and makes enormous contributions to social, environmental and economic wellbeing in dryland areas and beyond. Pastoralism has a unique ability to add value and convert scarce natural resources into meat, milk, income, and livelihoods. Pastoralist populations Yet pastoral livelihoods have been severely undermined by decades are increasingly vulnerable of neglect (with as low as 1 percent of government budget allocation), to malnutrition and food violence and displacement, insecure land rights and access, deteriorating insecurity as their capacity natural resources, climate variability and change, and a growing risk to adapt to and recover of animal and zoonotic diseases. The pastoral system and mode of from crises declines in the production is increasingly threatened despite demonstrated remarkable face of recurrent and often resilience. Pastoralist populations are increasingly vulnerable to overlapping shocks . malnutrition and food insecurity as their capacity to adapt to and recover from crises declines in the face of recurrent and often overlapping shocks. This was starkly illustrated in 2017 as Somalia veered towards famine, with pastoral populations facing the worst of the drought and resulting hunger. Conflict and instability have also constrained pastoralists’ movement. In April 2018, ministers of the West African states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met to consider tightening further crossborder transhumance as a means of curbing concerns over growing insecurity in the Sahel, with frequent incursions from terrorist groups and conflicts between herders and farmers. Many of the protracted and recurrent crises in Africa today are in pastoral areas, demonstrating that not enough is being done to sustainably address the vulnerability of these populations. Responses to crises in pastoralist areas are often late and inadequate, and humanitarian interventions are insufficiently linked to longer-term development. Longer-term investments are either disruptive to the pastoral way of life or tend to be sectoral, for instance focusing on water or on livestock rather than on the whole pastoral livelihood system. Therefore a shift to a more systemic livelihood approach would provide a more holistic framework, with challenges are tackled in a sustainable manner. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has therefore prepared this paper to explore the mounting challenges faced by the pastoral system and indicate opportunities and options to strengthen the resilience of pastoral livelihoods. Ultimately, this requires a deliberate mix of short-, medium- and long-term actions undertaken in tandem across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. v Pastoralists are key actors Pastoralists are key actors and an integral part of a lasting solution to and an integral part of ensure the stability of Africa’s drylands. FAO’s recommendations therefore a lasting solution to include engaging pastoralists in policy- and decision-making processes ensure the stability through improving capacity, accountability and responsiveness in of Africa’s drylands . governance institutions; engaging local, national and regional partners to address the cross-border dimension of pastoralism; ensuring stronger links between local and higher-level peace initiatives; developing livelihoods-based information and monitoring systems (from rainfall to forages, water points, feed, mobility and beyond) in order to provide critical early warning that triggers early action; supporting adaptive capacities through the linking to markets and trade and the introduction of diversified income sources and new practices and techniques; and ensuring adequate preparedness for timely response if and when a shock strikes. The development of an enabling policy environment in pastoral and agropastoral areas should also consider longer-term sustainability including incentives for the private sector to flourish. Continued investments in innovation and technologies are also critical to enable pastoral communities to use otherwise marginal and fragile ecosystems. For example, in the Horn of Africa, FAO is working with the relevant governments to undertake feed assessments to establish feed balance and avert massive livestock deaths with major implications for livelihoods and human nutrition. Pastoralism is well adapted to manage the risks and uncertainties faced in Africa’s drylands. With pastoralists facing an increasing threat of hunger, FAO is advocating for enhanced efforts and stronger partnerships among all actors to build the resilience of pastoral livelihoods. Daniel Gustafson Deputy Director-General (Programmes) Maria Helena Semedo Deputy Director-General (Climate and Natural Resources)
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