Challenging Orthodoxies: Understanding Poverty in Pastoral Areas of East Africa

Abstract

Understanding and alleviating poverty in Africa continues to receive considerable attention by a range of diverse actors, including politicians, international celebrities, academics, activists, and practitioners. Despite the onslaught of interest, there surprisingly is little agreement on what constitutes poverty in rural Africa, how it should be assessed, and what should be done to alleviate it. Based on data from an interdisciplinary study of pastoralism in northern Kenya, this article examines issues of poverty among one of the continent's most vulnerable groups, pastoralists, and challenges the application of such orthodox proxies as incomes/expenditures, geographic remoteness, and market integration. It argues that current poverty debates 'homogenize' the concept of 'pastoralist' by failing to acknowledge the diverse livelihoods and wealth differentiation that fall under the term. The article concludes that what is not needed is another development label (stereotype) that equates pastoralism with poverty, thereby empowering outside interests to transform rather than strengthen pastoral livelihoods.3

How Can Local Governance Systems Strengthen Community Resilience? A Social-Ecological Systems Approach

“…Continuing the previous example, a proliferation of government-and donor-funded wells and boreholes in semi-arid regions of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia coupled with point-source provision of health care, veterinary services, education, emergency food aid and other social protection services, have had significant effects on the pastoralist institutions described above. In turn, this has contributed to negative environmental effects as a result of over-stocking and unsustainable rates of groundwater exploitation, which relate directly with greater sedentarisation and population density (Gomes, 2006;Little et al, 2008). In these cases, the critical role of informal institutions in managing access to resources has been eroded, effectively reducing the resilience of pastoralist communities.…”

“…Then the task becomes one of identifying, maintaining, strengthening and better integrating institutions across scales of risk governance. For example, a sizable body of evidence has emerged to suggest that many of the management strategies that pastoralists in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions of Africa employ-including the maintenance of traditional governance structures and various informal institutions-are not merely coping strategies, but strategies for managing risk through the optimisation of resources (Flintan et al, 2013;Hesse & MacGregor, 2006;Krätli & Schareika, 2010;Little, McPeak, Barrett, & Kristjanson, 2008). Effective drought risk management should incorporate such customary, local-level institutions and other natural resource management authorities (Hesse & Macgregor, 2006), as well as informal institutions such as transhumance, herd-splitting, social and familial networks of livestock 'loaning' and customary property rights regimes (Flintan et al, 2013).…”

Early assessment of seasonal forage availability for mitigating the impact of drought on East African pastoralists

“…Dry years can bring about a high mortality of their livestock due to reduced forage and water availability and outbreaks of epidemic diseases, especially if adverse conditions persist during multiple seasons (Megersa et al 2014a). Although pastoralists are a heterogeneous group in terms of wealth (Little et al 2008), those with already small herd sizes risk falling into persistent poverty after drought-induced livestock losses (Barnett et al 2008;Lybbert et al 2004;Toth 2015). Due to the spatially covariate nature of drought with its effects generally felt across large regions, coping mechanisms such as herd migration or local-sharing norms (Dixit et al 2013) are often inadequate to prevent adverse impacts on livelihoods.…”

Index Insurance and Cash Transfers: A Comparative Analysis from Northern Kenya

“…The result can be that households with small herds are unable to take full advantage of a primary asset of arid and semi-arid lands, extensive common pool rangelands. In both Ethiopia and Kenya, sedentary households, small herds, and extreme poverty are inextricably associated due to the feedback between mobility and herd size in an environment where there are few other livelihood options Little et al 2008;Lybbert et al 2004).…”

“…Opportunistic grazing and forage tracking associated with livestock mobility and satellite camps provides low-cost fodder, contributes to pasture sustainability by allowing degraded pastures near base camps to rest, manages risk, and provides access to different markets (Niamir-Fuller 2005). These mobile strategies have been found to increase average herd productivity, reduce production variability due to climate shocks (Niamir-Fuller 1999;Scoones 1994), and increase drought survival rates in northern Kenya (Little et al 2008). …”