LIVELIHOOD DYNAMICS IN NORTHERN KARAMOJA A Participatory Baseline Study for the Growth Health and Governance Program John Burns – Gezu Bekele – Darlington Akabwai May 2013 II Table of Contents SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 Research Background and Overview .................................................................................... 4 1.2 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 5 2. METHODS .................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Study Overview ..................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Sampling ............................................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Method and Size ............................................................................................................. 6 2.3 Data Collection Methods ....................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Pre-Testing ............................................................................................................................ 9 2.5 Data Analysis and Triangulation ........................................................................................... 9 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................................. 10 3.1 Trends and Events .............................................................................................................. 10 3.2 Wealth and Inequality .......................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Production and Economic Activities .................................................................................... 12 3.3.1 Crop Production ............................................................................................................ 12 3.3.2 Livestock Production .................................................................................................... 16 3.3.3 Other Income Earning Opportunities ............................................................................ 20 3.4 Markets ............................................................................................................................... 21 3.5 Access to Products and Services ........................................................................................ 23 3.5.1 Transport Services and Utilization ................................................................................ 26 4. Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 27 4.1 Assessment Constraints and Methodological Limitations ................................................... 27 4.2 Recent Trends and Events .................................................................................................. 27 4.2. Wealth and Inequality ......................................................................................................... 29 4.2.1 Conceptualizing poverty - who are the poor? ............................................................... 29 4.2.2 Wealth characteristics in Karamoja .............................................................................. 29 4.2.3 Poverty dimensions in Karamoja .................................................................................. 30 4.2.4 Poverty dynamics and inequality in Karamoja .............................................................. 32 4.3 Crop Production .................................................................................................................. 34 4.3.1 Constraints to crop production ...................................................................................... 34 4.3.2 Opportunities for crop production ................................................................................. 36 4.4 Livestock Production ........................................................................................................... 40 4.4.1 Constraints to livestock production ............................................................................... 40 4.4.2 Livestock losses – guns, germs and stealing ............................................................... 42 4.4.3 Opportunities for livestock production .......................................................................... 44 4.5 Other Economic Opportunities ............................................................................................ 47 4.5.1 Natural Bush Products .................................................................................................. 47 4.5.2 Brickmaking .................................................................................................................. 48 4.5.3 Gold mining .................................................................................................................. 48 4.5.4 Trade and exchange ..................................................................................................... 49 4.5.5 Traditional crafts ........................................................................................................... 49 4.5.6 Wage labor - employment ............................................................................................ 50 4.5.7 Tourism ......................................................................................................................... 50 4.5.8 Maladaptions ................................................................................................................ 51 4.6 Access to Markets ............................................................................................................... 52 4.6.1 Market networks ........................................................................................................... 52 4.6.2 Constraints ................................................................................................................... 53 4.6.3: Functioning and non-functioning markets .................................................................... 54 4.7 Access to Products and Services ........................................................................................ 57 4.7.1 Transport ...................................................................................................................... 57 4.7.2: Water ........................................................................................................................... 58 4.7.3: Health and Education .................................................................................................. 58 4.7.4: Animal health services ................................................................................................. 59 4.7.5: Agricultural extension .................................................................................................. 59 4.7.6: Financial products and services .................................................................................. 60 4.7.7: Other products ............................................................................................................. 62 5 Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 63 Annex I Post Harvest Storage (photos) Annex II Livelihoods Activities (photos) Annex III Roads and Transport (photos) Annex IV Markets (photos) Annex V Miscellaneous (photos) Annex VI Community Animal Health Model IV List of Tables Table 1: Sample for focus group component .................................................................................. 6 Table 2: Characteristics of informants ............................................................................................ 6 Table 3: Summary of focus group methods .................................................................................... 8 Table 4: Timeline of recent events (summarized across all study sites) ...................................... 10 Table 5: Wealth breakdown .......................................................................................................... 11 Table 6: Relative importance of different income sources ............................................................ 11 Table 7: Constraints to crop production ........................................................................................ 12 Table 8: Main crops – opportunities and constraints .................................................................... 13 Table 9: Fruit production – opportunities and constraints ............................................................. 14 Table 10: Vegetable production – opportunities and constraints .................................................. 14 Table 11: Community suggestions for improving crop production ................................................ 15 Table 12: Constraints to livestock production ............................................................................... 16 Table 13: Community suggestions for improving