Helping pastoralists in East Africa to cope with drought

Droughts in East Africa’s drylands are becoming more frequent. This creates difficulties for many pastoralists in the region. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and donors are trying to find new ways to help pastoralists cope with drought, other than food aid and financial relief. Can these new support measures complement traditional pastoralist coping strategies?

Research fromthe Natural Resources Institute in the UK examines emergency livestockmarketing interventions (ELMIs). This approach involves donors and NGOs buyinglivestock from pastoralists during droughts, either directly or by providingsubsidies or other incentives to commercial traders. ELMIsare popular with donors, and have had some success in Kenya and Ethiopia.

By buyinglivestock at the start of a drought, ELMIs relieve pressure on naturalresources (such as grazing lands) and strengthen the financial power ofpastoralists. They can also provide protein-rich food to drought-affectedpopulations, because in some project designs, the purchased animals are slaughteredand used as food.

Pastoralists alsohave their own coping strategies, which have been used for centuries. The mostimportant strategy has always been moving livestock in times of drought, tosearch for better sources of food and water. Selling animals at differentstages of a drought is also important, but there is no simple pattern that allpastoralists follow. Investing in veterinary treatment for livestock duringdroughts has become increasingly important strategy in recent years, as haspaying for water from diesel-powered boreholes.

Some ELMIs have had good results as localised projects. However,scaling them up to the level of policy interventions requires policymakers tounderstand how they work alongside existing pastoralist coping strategies:

• When pastoralists move their animals atthe start of a drought, buying livestock through the ELMI approach may bedifficult to implement. Where pastoralists are less mobile than they used tobe, as in many parts of East Africa,ELMIs are more successful and easier to manage.
• ELMIssupport the new pastoralist coping strategies that require cash, such as payingfor veterinary treatment.
• Where ELMIs provide meat to communities,they could revive traditional mechanisms of food sharing. However, they couldalso remove animals that might otherwise be loaned to relatives as a copingstrategy.

Policymakersshould give full consideration to existing coping strategies when designingpolicy interventions. This is crucial if ELMIs are to be successful on a largerscale. The researcher suggests:

• ELMIsthat use subsidies to add animals to existing marketing channels have lowerunit costs and better prospects for expanding than those which return meat tocommunities.
• ELMIsmust occur early in the drought cycle if they are to be successful.
• Prompt cash payments are essential toensure the maximum benefits to pastoralists.
• Projects should be sensitive to contextsand locations, as pastoralists in different areas use different copingstrategies.
• Policymakers need a much greaterunderstanding of how pastoralists sell livestock over the course of a drought.This is a major gap in knowledge that requires further research if ELMIs are tobe successful on a larger scale.