pastoralism good practice and lessons learnt in pastoralist
TRANSCRIPT
A Review of Good Practice and Lessons Learned in Programming for ASAL Populations in the Horn of
Africa
For UNICEF ESARO
Katharine Downie, PhD September 2011
Table of Contents
Background and Context_______________________________________________1
Introduction ____________________________________________________________ 1
Why focus on pastoralists in the quest for equity of service provision? ____________ 3 Lack of Access to Basic Services__________________________________________________3 Health of Pastoralists ___________________________________________________________4 Education and Pastoralists _______________________________________________________4 Marginalisation of Pastoralists in Government Policy and Practice _______________________5 Contribution of Pastoralist Livelihoods to Regional (HoA) Economies ____________________6
Why focus on livestock when addressing pastoralist wellbeing?__________________ 8
Purpose of Synthesis Exercise__________________________________________10
A Review of Good Practice in Programming for Pastoralists _________________10
What is Good Practice? __________________________________________________ 10
Health provision to pastoralists – external agencies experience _________________ 12 The “One Health” Approach ____________________________________________________12 Joint Vaccination Campaigns in Chad _____________________________________________13 The provision of combined static and mobile health services ___________________________14 Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs), Community Health Workers (CHWs) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) ______________________________________________16
Health provision to pastoralists – the UNICEF Experience_____________________ 19 Child Health Days in Somalia (CHD) _____________________________________________19 Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) in Karamoja ____________________________21
Food Security and Livelihoods _________________________________________22
External Agency Experience in Food Security _______________________________ 24 Pastoralist Areas Coordination Analysis and Policy Support (PACAPS) Early Warning/Early Response (EW/ER) Mandera Triangle strategy for pastoral communities _________________24 Save the Children’s Africa Regional Pastoral Initiative - Pastoral Health and Nutrition Initiative (PHNI): Milk Matters _________________________________________________________26 Disaster Risk Reduction in Mitigation of Food Insecurity in Ethiopia ____________________28
Education __________________________________________________________31
External Agency Experience ______________________________________________ 31 Tent Schools in Iran___________________________________________________________31 Distance Learning for Women in the Gobi Desert____________________________________32
Education - UNICEF Experience __________________________________________ 34 North-eastern Province Girls Scholarship Education Program in Kenya___________________34 Flexible Approach to Basic Education (FABE) in partnership with Africa Educational Trust (AET), Horn Relief and Save the Children in Puntland________________________________35 Pastoral Youth Leadership in Puntland in partnership with Horn Relief___________________35 Alternative Basic Education Centres in Karamoja, Uganda (ABEK) _____________________37
WASH activities _____________________________________________________40
Social Protection ____________________________________________________41
Experience of External Agencies __________________________________________ 41 Livestock and Health Insurance__________________________________________________42 Training for Income Diversification ______________________________________________42 Safety Net and Cash Assistance Programmes _______________________________________43
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Recommendations ___________________________________________________44
References _________________________________________________________46
List of Figures Figure 1: Social service coverage of pastoralists in eastern Africa, compared to national averages of countries in eastern Africa _____________________________4 Figure 2: Focus on Pastoralists and Equity_________________________________7 Figure 3: Livestock and Pastoralist Wellbeing ______________________________9 Figure 4: What is Good Practice? _______________________________________12 Figure 5: Good Practice in Health Service Provision - External Agency _________19 Figure 6: Good Practice in Health Provision - UNICEF______________________22 Figure 7: Good Practice in Food Security and Livelihoods Interventions - External Agency_____________________________________________________________30 Figure 8: Good Practice in Provision of Education - External Agency___________34 Figure 9: Good Practice in Provision of Education - UNICEF_________________39 Figure 10: Good Practice in WASH interventions ___________________________41 Figure 11: Good Practice in Social Protection Interventions __________________43 Figure 12: Schematic for Good Practice __________________________________45
Background and Context
“For many decades, governments regarded pastoralism as ‘backward’,
economically inefficient and environmentally destructive, leading to policies that
have served to marginalise and undermine pastoralist systems. More recently,
pastoralism has come to be regarded by many as a viable and economically effective
livestock production system, but the policies needed to reverse its historical
marginalisation and address the chronic levels of poverty and vulnerability faced by
many pastoralist communities have yet to be put in place.” (Chinogwenya &
Hobson, 2009)
Introduction
As part of its strategy to deliver more effective programming in the Horn of Africa for
pastoralists and people who live in Arid and semi-Arid Lands, UNICEF seeks to
review its current practices in delivery of health, nutrition, education, water and
sanitation and social protection programmes and look closely at what other agencies
are also doing in this field with a view to learning from both its own and external
experience in order to deliver services from which pastoralist communities can derive
the most benefit.
This review of UNICEF good practice and lessons learnt was taken from six countries
in the HoA; Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda (Karamoja) and
the external agency review of good practice and lessons learnt employed examples
from pastoralist and ASAL communities around the world. One of the factors
hindering a comprehensive review was the lack of information on activities. While
Country Offices furnished examples of work that was ongoing or had been carried out
tailored to pastoralists, this information was not comprehensive and did not come
from all COs. In some cases, activities such as a cost/benefit analysis of mobile health
clinics in Ethiopia were indicated in planning by Terms of Reference but there was
little evidence as to whether this had been carried out and what the results of this
analysis were.
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Current initiatives in UNICEF programming for women and children in all sectors
suggest that good practice is being implemented, however, this opinion is based on
anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. From a review of activities in pastoralist
communities being carried out by UNICEF in the HoA, it was extremely difficult to
assess the impact (and therefore potential good practice) of these interventions as
there were very few evaluations and thus very few indicators of impact of these
interventions. Impact would then necessarily inform lessons learned which would
feed back into programme design.
It should be noted however, that the Evaluation of Child Health Days in Somalia,
carried out by UNICEF and WHO, did produce valuable data to be used in informing
practice. The evaluation also indicated that this intervention was both cost-effective
and had an impact on improving child morbidity and mortality in Somalia.
Activities reviewed included those in all sectors; mobile schools, mobile health
clinics, nutrition activities such as supplementary feeding, WASH activities such as
water point rehabilitation and social protection programmes such as emergency cash
transfers and vouchers. In comparison to other sectors, however, it was noted that
there were relatively few WASH activities specifically geared to pastoralist
populations being carried out. Given that UNICEF is the lead actor in the Global
WASH cluster and that water and hygiene are crucial elements in the welfare of both
pastoralists and their livestock, it would be prudent to understand whether this
absence occurs as a result of a lack of investment in analysis with respect to relevance
and importance, a lack of technical capacity within the resources for programming or
other reasons.
It should be mentioned that in addition to few evaluations, there was no evidence of
risk or vulnerability assessments being carried out prior to implementation of
interventions and no analysis of the relationship between livelihoods and other sectors
such as nutrition, education and health.
Although livestock livelihoods play a crucial role in the wellbeing of pastoral
communities, IDPs and refugees in the HoA, there was little evidence to suggest that
sectoral programming had been done taking into account the role they play.
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Information from livelihoods analysis frameworks such as the Household Economy
Approach or the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework which could be incorporated to
build intersectoral capacity to withstand potential shocks by good practice in
programming, was not in evidence.
Overall, there is little evidence-based analysis and the use of monitoring and
evaluation data to inform better programming. In many cases, data does exist and
resides with agencies such as FAO, FSNAU, regional governments or within early
warning systems but it is not being used in a coordinated fashion to build the
resilience and capacity of communities in programming for risk mitigation. As one of
the key elements in preventing future catastrophic emergencies, particularly
influenced by drought or floods in the HoA is to build the capacity of communities to
withstand the effects of drought on the nutrition and health of women and children, it
is vital that systems and therefore programmatic direction, are in place which reflect
an understanding of the causes of vulnerability in the region as associated with
livelihoods, conflict and climate change in pastoralist lives. The coordinated use of
monitoring and evaluation data to adopt develop social protection initiatives,
influence relevant curricula in education and gain a better understanding of
relationships between animal and human nutrition and wellbeing is essential to coping
with the effects of drought and other disasters in such a way that famine is not an
inevitable consequence.
Why focus on pastoralists in the quest for equity of service
provision?
Lack of Access to Basic Services
The lack of service delivery to pastoralists is widely acknowledged to be one of the
most evident processes of marginalization and exclusion by governments and policy
makers (Schelling et al., 2008a). The table below illustrates pastoralists access to
social services in three countries in the Horn of Africa; Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan
illustrating the extent to which these communities are falling behind in basic
indicators of well-being.
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Figure 1: Social service coverage of pastoralists in eastern Africa, compared to national averages of countries in eastern Africa
Source: (Ali & Hobson, 2009)
Health of Pastoralists
When compared, the diseases and health conditions in mobile populations do not
differ substantially from those of sedentary populations, but pastoralists suffer higher
Infant MR, Maternal MR, and higher U5MR (Chabasse et al., 1985; Brainard, 1986;
Munch, 2007). Pastoralist groups may be more frequently affected by water-borne
diseases (parasitic or bacteriologic) as they consume surface water more often than
settled groups (Bonfiglioli, 1990) and can be susceptible to zoonotic diseases such as
brucellosis, Q-fever, bovine tuberculosis and botulism due to their association with
and consumption of raw, unpasteurized milk (Smith et al., 1979; Schelling et al.,
2003). In addition, mobility and dispersion can influence the spread of disease
(Loutan, 1989) and therefore enhance risk for mobile populations. For example, the
transmission of measles amongst the Tuareg people of Niger is reported to be low due
to their dispersion, but individually, due to poor vaccination coverage, these people
can act as reservoirs of disease, and therefore pose a risk to those with whom they
come into contact (Loutan & Paillard, 1992).
Education and Pastoralists
While recently governments, policy makers and pastoralists themselves have realized
the importance of education programmes for mobile populations, barriers to accessing
quality and relevant programmes remain high. Although solutions to problems with
attendance caused by mobility such as boarding schools, mobile school programmes
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and non-formal education programmes have been met with some success, sparse and
infrequent attendance due to labour demands in the household (Kratli & Dyer, 2006),
perceived irrelevant curricula, problems with gender inequality due to cultural taboos
(Admassie, 2002) or the demands of herding for boys (Carr-Hill, 2006) and lack of
sustainability due to funding restrictions (Carr-Hill, 2006), limit the impact of
education on the population. Examples of innovative approaches to provision of
education will be discussed further in this review.
Marginalisation of Pastoralists in Government Policy and Practice
Pastoralists have traditionally suffered from a lack of representation in governments
in the HoA, a situation which has led to development of policies that have adversely
affected their lifestyles and access to public services. While some of these policies are
more deliberate and set out to change pastoralist lifestyles, others are harmful more by
omission or exclusion of pastoralist needs.
Up until about 15 years ago and in some countries still practiced today, governments
and policies focused on settling mobile populations, restricting herd sizes and
restricting access to natural resources (de Waal, 1991; Korwa, 1993). Settled
communities are better represented in government structures and as a result are better
served by social services and infrastructure such as schools, markets and health care
than do mobile communities. Governments are able to enumerate and therefore tax
settled communities, thus making the provision of services, in their eyes, more cost-
effective (Little et al., 2006). The process of sedentarisation or “villagisation” is still
advocated in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Ethiopia, Djibouti and
Tanzania , with governments promising better access to basic services, on the
condition that pastoralists remain settled (Oxfam GB, 2009).
Modern-day policies continue to allow appropriation of pastoral rangelands, with
associated displacement and impoverishment of pastoralists. Rangeland is taken over
by farmers in countries where sedentary crop production is seen as preferable to
livestock production; pastoral land is allocated to private companies for commercial
agriculture, especially in riverine areas which are often critical dry season resources
for pastoralists; pastoralists are excluded from wildlife conservation areas which were
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formerly traditional rangelands; and pastoralists are displaced due to large scale
irrigation schemes.
In eastern and southern Africa there are no specific pastoral policies or laws that
explicitly address pastoral land tenure issues. Instead pastoral land tenure, when
addressed, falls under other policy instruments and laws such as a national
constitution or poverty reduction strategies, or as a sub-component of national sector-
based laws on land, forests or the environment (AU, 2010).
Contribution of Pastoralist Livelihoods to Regional (HoA) Economies
Some governments and policy makers have now understood that the livestock that
pastoralists depend on can contribute significantly to their countries’ economies, if all
elements are properly managed. In economic terms, pastoralism contributes
significantly to the HoA’s agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP), including 35%
of agricultural GDP in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan. It is estimated that meat supplied
from pastoral rangelands account for 99% of consumption in Djibouti, 52% in Eritrea,
14% in Ethiopia, 36% in Kenya and 46% in Sudan. Milk production in pastoral
rangelands also contributes significantly, both to GDP and food security in the region,
with approximately 75% of milk consumed locally. Taxation on marketed livestock
and livestock products also accounts for a significant percentage of local and national
revenues, with the pastoral sector accounting for almost all revenues in key dryland
zones throughout the region. Ironically, however, the ratio of contribution to
government revenues and allocation of public spending to pastoral development in
these same regions stands at 10:1, despite its proven importance (COMESA, 2009).
Pastoralism has also been shown to contribute appreciably to agricultural Gross
Domestic Product (GDP); in many Sahelian, Central and Inner Asian countries up to
80%, and this contribution increases further when considering indirect benefits such
as manure for crop farming, wildlife conservation and tourism (Pratt et al., 1997;
WISP, 2007). The livestock sector in non-OECD countries is growing at a rate of up
to 7% per annum - much faster than the agricultural sector as a whole, and by 2020 it
is predicted to be the most important sub-sector in terms of added value (Scoones &
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Wolmer, 2006). In Ethiopia, for example, the size of the economy is much larger than
usually reported. The volume of animals traded and exported via informal trading
routes significantly exceeds the volume of animals exported through official channels.
A recent study estimates that informal cross-border exports from northern Somali
Region alone exceed by a factor of 3.2 to 6.5 the Ethiopian Customs Authority’s
statistics for the number of live animals exported from the whole of Ethiopia (PCI,
2007).
Figure 2: Focus on Pastoralists and Equity
Pastoralism has been shown to contribute significantly to GDP in HoA countries both in meat products and milk production. Despite this obvious economic value, the ratio of contribution to government revenue and allocated public spending to pastoral development remains at 10:1.
Summary Box: Why focus on pastoralists to redress the balance of inequity of service provision? Lack of access to social services over time has resulted in pastoralists lagging significantly when compared to other sedentary populations in the region, in basic indicators of well‐being such as literacy rates, immunization coverage, infant, under five and maternal mortality rates and school enrollment rates. Pastoralists continue to be marginalized by government development policies; sometimes with a purpose of transforming their lifestyles from nomadic to settled and sometimes simply by the requisite protective policies to maintain their way of life being omitted. Pastoralists are also often not represented in government censuses, demographic surveys and other baseline data collection exercises.
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Why focus on livestock when addressing pastoralist wellbeing?
Livestock play an integral part in not only the way of life for pastoralists, but also
their livelihoods as they are almost entirely dependent on them. It is for this reason
that any interventions in health, water and sanitation, nutrition and education must
take into account the importance and role of livestock in pastoral livelihoods and
well-being. Livestock perform multiple roles: they provide income and cash through
the sale of live animals and animal products, in particular, dairy and feed the
household (milk, meat and blood). In some parts of Northern Kenya, livestock and
milk and milk products represent 100% of total annual income (COMESA, 2009);. In
addition, they are used for transport, traction and the provision of manure. They hold
an intrinsic aesthetic value in pastoral societies; livestock are a reflection of wealth
and status within that society (Lewis, 1994) and are used to cement social ties in bride
prices and other transactions. The health of a pastoralist’s livestock is as important as
the health of his/her children (Schelling et al., 2008a).
Livestock can also play a crucial role in reconstruction and recovery following
conflicts or environmental catastrophes. In contrast to crops, livestock such as camels,
cows, sheep, goats and chickens make an immediate contribution to the food supply,
thus providing a bridge for the household until the first harvest (Reist et al., 2007).
Livestock restocking to pre-conflict herd size is a viable recovery strategy, however, it
must be remembered that the minimum time for this recover is 3, 10 and 12 years for
goats, cattle and camel owners respectively (Simpkin, 2005).
Given the importance of livestock to pastoralists, when designing interventions for
mobile populations, livestock health can act as a gateway to human public
interventions. In some mobile communities in Chad, more people have skills required
to care for animals than they do for addressing human health needs (Weise & Tanner,
2000). Livestock veterinary interventions such as a dual vaccination campaign for
both animals and humans can not only reduce costs but serve to build trust within
communities as they see the care and attention given to their animals. Examples of
this can be seen in campaigns in Chad (Schelling et al., 2007) and the practice of
implementing human health activities following successful treatment of animals in the
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Greater Horn of Africa (Catley, 1999). Multi-sectoral livelihoods approaches that
address water provision for animals and water safety and provision for humans, in
addition to addressing supplementary feeding programmes for livestock and humans
can often be more successful than those dealing with animals and humans separately.
A more detailed examination of the “One Health” concept will be explored further in
this paper.
According to proponents of “The Livestock Revolution”, (Delgado et al., 1999) which
postulates that the combination of population growth, rising per capita incomes, and
progressive urbanization are creating an unprecedented growth in demand for food of
animal origin in developing countries, giving rise to major opportunities and threats
for mankind, pastoralists will play an important role in meeting this demand. In order
to maximize benefits from this growing demand, pastoralists will need to control their
producer and market chains, including food safety standards awareness, thus requiring
education imparting skills in literacy and numeracy and the regulation of the health of
their animals. Appropriately delivered and suitable interventions in both of these areas
would enhance pastoralists’ opportunities.
Figure 3: Livestock and Pastoralist Wellbeing
Livestock can play a vital role in recovery following a drought or other disaster. Purchase of livestock such as goats, chicken, cattle and camels makes an immediate contribution to food supply, unlike crops. Given the importance and investment to pastoralists in the health of their livestock, opportunities exist to combine animal and human health activities. These can include dual vaccination and de‐worming campaigns, WASH interventions and entry points for monitoring nutrition and child and maternal health. According to the “Livestock Revolution”, the demand for products of animal origin will significantly increase in the near future in developing countries. With this growing demand will come disease threats, health and safety issues and the need to control producer and market chains. It will therefore be necessary to be closely involved in enabling pastoralists’ participation by ensuring access to basic services such as health, education and water and sanitation; thus adequately equipping them to contribute.
Pastoralists are almost entirely directly dependent on their livestock for health and nutrition. Income from sales of livestock and livestock based products (dairy, dried meat) buys grain to supplement diets, medicine and health care and other household products.
Summary Box: Why focus on livestock when addressing pastoralist wellbeing?
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Purpose of Synthesis Exercise
In keeping with the IASC Plan of Action for the HoA, which emphasizes a change in
the donor emergency paradigm from crisis response to crisis prevention, this
document will focus on how building sustainable livelihoods for pastoralists can
mitigate the impact of known cyclical crises and what has worked in programming for
pastoralists in the past and present. Much of the IASC Plan looks at how addressing
the root causes of food insecurity can alleviate humanitarian response to crises. Some
of this is being done by developing Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programmes (CAADPs), which focus primarily on sedentary agriculturalists, but the
IASC Plan of Action also stresses the need to examine the CAADPs with respect to
their “humanitarian value” and look at specific needs of pastoralist communities.
The purpose of this paper is to present a synthesis of programming initiatives in
health, nutrition, education, WASH and social protection activities, which illustrate
good practice in programming, drawing on those activities implemented by UNICEF
and also those within other agency experience, focusing on provision of interventions
for pastoralist groups around the world. The focus of this synthesis with relevance to
UNICEF experience is six countries in the Horn of Africa; Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Somalia and Uganda and is disaggregated by sector.
A Review of Good Practice in Programming for
Pastoralists
What is Good Practice?
Elements of good practice can be seen as guiding principles to plan more effective
interventions. Key facets of good practice, gathered from reviewed literature,
including the One Health approach, are as follows:
1. Ensure deep and meaningful participation of pastoralists at all stages of project
design:
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This implies participation at the earliest stages of problem setting and throughout the
project cycle. Participation is for the sake of wider empowerment and not only to
ensure that project activities are tolerated by communities but that they occur at
appropriate times during the year and take into account seasonality affecting
livelihoods and priorities and preferences . Participatory assessment must gather
information on the main characteristics of the barriers to social services, on
community priorities and preferences, and on an exhaustive analysis of primary
stakeholders. Community participation in planning health and education provision
will empower community members to voice their needs and, later on, allow them to
pursue their own initiatives to improve access to the services they desire. Participatory
monitoring and evaluation of activities should constitute the basis for scaling up
appropriate interventions and appropriate policy formulation.
2. Adopt an innovative and adaptive approach
Appropriate attention should be given to community-based services, such as
community health workers, traditional birth attendants and teachers, but with close
attention to the quality of services and to ensuring their continuation beyond the
duration of project support (sustainability). Innovations such as combining mobile and
static health services and provision of dual animal and human interventions are a
proven way to link pastoralists with formal service provision. Projects also need the
capability and space for flexibility, for example with regard to school calendars and
timetables for pastoral children and for health centres to consider by-passing
pastoralists, and teachers need training to adapt curricula to the pastoral setting.
Flexibility should also be exercised in identifying alternative solutions, and inter-
sectoral collaboration should be pursued where relevant.
3. Ensure cultural sensitivity
Teachers and health workers should ideally be recruited from within the community,
but where this recruitment cannot supply the required numbers, the quality service
provision can be improved if all personnel are trained to be culturally sensitive to their
clients’ needs. Women’s needs have to be addressed in particular in project
development, since women face particular challenges in access services (Schelling et
al., 2008a). Communities’ perceptions of illness and disease which may prejudice
against or deter seeking treatment from modern health practitioners must also be taken
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into consideration when designing effective interventions. For example, a mother who
believes her child’s polio was inflicted by witchcraft –conditions that affect an
individual’s mobility, essential to the pastoralist way of life, are commonly attributed
to negative supernatural forces – may not go out of her way to bring her children to a
polio immunisation campaign (Reidy, 2010).
4. Ensure cost effectiveness and impact
Good practice must include a cost/benefit analysis of interventions to ensure they are
cost-effective in improving delivery of service to ASAL populations. While cost-
effectiveness should remain a priority for long-term sustainability of building
resilience and capacity into populations, in the bid to achieve equity with other
sedentary populations, initially, given the current gap in spending of development
funds on pastoralist populations versus other more sedentary groups, more funds
overall could be devoted to ASAL interventions. This does not lose sight of the
importance of individual interventions being cost-effective for sustainability long-
term. Evaluations therefore need to be carried out regularly on activities to ensure
their cost-effectiveness and the impact they have on the sectoral core indicators of
well-being.
Figure 4: What is Good Practice?
Summary Box: What is Good Practice?
1. Ensure deep and meaningful participation of pastoralists at all stages of project design.
2. Adopt an innovative and adaptive approach. 3. Ensure cultural sensitivity. 4. Ensure cost‐effectiveness and impact.
Health provision to pastoralists – external agencies experience
The “One Health” Approach
The concept of One Health evolved from One Medicine, an approach pioneered by
Calvin Schwabe, an American epidemiologist whose work with the Sudanese Dinka
pastoralist healers caused him to examine the synergies of human and veterinary
medicines and the added public health benefits of using a combined approach. One
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Health operates on the premise that the cooperation between human and veterinary
medicine to protect and improve animal and human health, such as the collaborative
efforts made by agencies when investigation SARS and avian flu can lead to a more
holistic understanding of disease causes and pathology and therefore enhance
preventive and curative measures. An intersectoral human and animal health approach
is particularly applicable in a pastoralist context where animals play such a crucial
role in livelihoods. Nomadic pastoralists trust providers who exhibit successful
treatment of their livestock, their most respected commodity and in some countries,
animal health workers and services are more prevalent than human health services.
Joint Vaccination Campaigns in Chad
Animal health as a gateway to human health provision is a strategy that has met with
some success. In Chad, simultaneous assessments of the health status of people and
animals in nomadic pastoralists showed not one fully immunised nomadic child or
woman; on the other hand, cattle were largely vaccinated because of compulsory
vaccination campaigns (Bechir et al., 2004; Schelling et al., 2007). Preventive
veterinary measures were designed at the outset to reach mobile populations, but
public-health services were restricted to static health centres, failing to account for
mobile lifestyles (Zinsstag et al., 2005).
A project of the Swiss Tropical Institute supported the implementation of several joint
campaigns and played a facilitating role in harmonising the timing of activities of the
public health and veterinary services. Between 2000 and 2005, 14 vaccination
campaigns for nomadic children, women and the camp’s livestock were carried out
among the three principal nomadic ethnic groups (Fulani, Arabs and Dazagada) in the
Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem of West-Chad. Each campaign was composed of three
vaccination rounds for children and women to assure a complete course of vaccination
of children in one year. The capacity of existing mobile veterinary teams was
extended for simultaneous vaccination of people and animals during at least one
round for 10 of the 14 campaigns.
Veterinarians vaccinated 149,255 livestock against anthrax, pasteurellosis, blackleg,
and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia. After 3 visits from the vaccination team,
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4,653 children <5 years of age were fully immunized against diphtheria, whooping
cough (pertussis), and tetanus (DPT) and against polio; 7,703 women received at least
2 doses of tetanus vaccine (TT2+). The average dropout rate within a given campaign
was 64% for children <5 years from the first to third vaccination for polio and DPT
within a given campaign and 32% for women from the first to second
dose of tetanus vaccine. Although these campaigns showed high drop out rates of
children and women, drop out was very rarely due to refusal to be vaccinated, but
rather due to the high mobility of pastoralists – a chronic problem. Achieving lower
drop out rates remains a critical need, however vaccination of DPT and polio can
continue in subsequent campaigns and one vaccination is effective in immunizing
children against measles and yellow fever.
Pastoralist communities highly valued the combined approach that considers the
health of their family members and of their livestock. In addition to anecdotal positive
feedback from pastoralists and health and veterinary personnel, the data collected
during the 14 campaigns showed a higher mean of persons vaccinated per day for
combined livestock/human vaccination days versus human only days. A key
statement repeatedly made by nomadic parents was, “Measles and whooping cough
have disappeared among nomads, although it remains at the market-sites we visit.
And when we attend markets, we no longer contaminate our camps with these
diseases.”(Schelling et al., 2007).
The provision of combined static and mobile health services
It is difficult to sustain health services within a community with mobile service
provision for any length of time as these services are both costly and logistically
problematic to organise. In addition, outreach services of health centres specifically
including bypassing mobile groups are rare – likely owing to the health centres’
annual planning of materials and drugs that does not foresee other groups than those
sedentary communities in their zone of responsibility (Schelling et al., 2008b). The
most successful human and animal health services for nomadic pastoralists combine
fixed and mobile facilities, incorporating local knowledge and specialisation where
appropriate.
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The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) has over thirty years
experience in delivering mobile health services. Dr Basil King, the Head of the
Nomadic Health Unit for AMREF established mobile health services for the Maasai
in Kenya in the early 1950s and these continued until the early 1990s, until they were
stopped for a number of reasons, the main one being cost (personal communication
from Basil King). The first evaluation in 1984 found the achievements of the mobile
clinics remarkable. However, it also found that activities depended upon the dedicated
work of two nurses, that the clinics were expensive, were not replicable and were not
sustainable in the long-term. Another criticism was the top-down administration of the
programme – the activities were based in Nairobi and that the communities served by
the clinics were not actively involved. Two more evaluations in 1989 and 1991 came
to similar conclusions. Consequently AMREF closed the mobile services and
provided health services from a static dispensary within Maasailand (King, 2000).The
experience of high costs is borne out by that in other communities in West Africa
where it was found that mobile health services had more-fold costs than static facility
services (Brenzel & Claquin, 1994) - particularly if operating independently from
static health facilities (Aliou, 1992). AMREF worked closely with the Kenyan
Ministry of Health and set up curative and preventive health care services, including
maternal health and basic medical laboratories. The outreach services were targeted to
the most common diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory diseases of
young and adult pastoralists and included immunization campaigns. Severe cases
were referred to static health facilities.
In the Agadez region of Niger, three different pilot health interventions for nomadic
pastoralists have been tested. In 1968, mobile units were set up but exhibited poor
performance and high costs. In 1971, fixed health structures were built next to
pastoral zones, but utilisation by nomads was infrequent. Finally, in 1988 the
Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) linked the static with mobile delivery
structures and the outcome both in terms of reached people (e.g. 40% of BCG
coverage) and costs were more favourable than the single approaches (Aliou, 1992).
Such a combined approach between mobile and static services is also promoted in
other projects to make best use of existing infrastructure and human resources. The
experience in Chad is that during the mobile vaccination services, the pastoralists
perceive the quality services that are offered at the health centres and start to trust the
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health providers. The public health sector was thus able to use the mobile campaigns
as a gateway to the pastoralists and increasingly, nomadic parents visited health
centres with their children for treatment and prevention (Schelling et al., 2008b).
Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs), Community Health
Workers (CHWs) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs)
The Pastoralist Development Project (PDP) also has experience with provision of
mobile health services using a slightly different model. Although originally set up as a
camel improvement project, in 1993, when the mobile camps had become
increasingly immobile due to their size and services offered, a special outreach
service (SOS) was established in which project staff travelled on foot with camels,
carrying food, water and equipment, to visit nomadic populations many miles from
the nearest roads or communication lines. In 1996/97, the community-based animal
health workers (CBAHWs), community health workers (CHWs) and traditional birth
attendants (TBAs), who had been trained by FARM-Africa and other projects, were
supported to carry out these special outreach services. The foot safaris lasted 7 to 10
days and could cover up to 210 km in a radius as far as 50 km from the mobile camp.
The trained personnel treated both humans and animals when necessary and provided
extension advice in the evenings.
Evaluation of the SOS established some drawbacks with service provision. These
security, adverse weather and time required. The weather, particularly heavy rain or
prolonged drought, physically affected movement of the SOS staff and that of the
pastoralists. Trying to treat livestock or human patients early in the day or late in the
evening affected travel time and forced the teams to travel in the heat of the day. In
some cases, the team arrived at a nomadic camp to find the inhabitants ready to
migrate. Other problems included the lack of suitable hiking and camping equipment,
and how to provide a service for people who did not have cash at hand. All services
were to be paid for, and yet it was common in a remote camp to find a person or an
animal needing treatment but without available cash to pay for drugs or services.
Although the owner was often willing to pay in goats, the team had no means of
recuperating the cash. Staff had to decide whether to refuse treatment or to treat for
free and risk creating an attitude of dependency (FARM-Africa, 2002).
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Further to the SOS initiative, and in its third phase of the project, FARM-Africa
embarked on a much bigger project which trained and supported 230 CHWs/TBAs
and 160 community-based animal health workers CBAHWs to provide basic services
to their communities. The project recruited community nurses to train the CHWs and
TBAs. The service providers were given micro-enterprise management training and
encouraged to charge fees for their services. Immunization of children and the
laboratory to provide primary health care dropped because these were not sustainable.
The majority of CHWs and almost all TBAs were women. Eight women were trained
as CBAHWs. Sector based district forums were set up to discuss common issues and
approaches in training standards and curriculum content for quality control.
Encouraged by the governmental services, the project supported the formation of
village health committees to monitor and oversee the CHWs.
Of the 240 CHWs and TBAs who were trained, 60 were prepared to invest in drug
kits costing less than $200 and 72 were receiving drugs through the Ministry of
Health or chemists and providing basic services. An important function of CHWs was
to identify people with serious illnesses and refer them to well equipped clinics or
hospitals for appropriate treatment (in 1999 300 patients). CHWs were running five
government dispensaries in Marsabit and Moyale Districts, with supervision from the
project and the government, and the CHWs were providing up to 95% of all basic
health services such as treatment against malaria, diarrhoea, worms and eye
infections, effectively displacing the untrained shopkeepers who had sold drugs.
Small groups of CHWs pooled their resources together to establish six drug stores and
three village pharmacies. Although both CHWs and CBAHWs grappled with issues of
financial sustainability, some progress was made through joint ventures organised by
three or four CHWs and CBAHWs.
CHWs provided also basic advice to villagers on health and hygiene, including the
construction of pit latrines and racks resulting in a decline in hygiene-related diseases.
There was also a significant reduction in scabies, conjunctivitis and diarrhoea. 120
TBAs delivered up to 500 babies annually, with mothers were receiving ante-natal
care and advice on the importance of vaccinations (subsequently, over 90% of the
children were being taken to health centres for their vaccinations). Mothers
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18
experiencing complications were noted early and referred to health centres. The
mobile outreach camp approach which caters for pastoralists and their livestock using
community-based animal and human health workers was reproduced in Tanzania and
Ethiopia and has been scaled up through the World Bank/IFAD Ethiopian Pastoral
Development Project (FARM-Africa, 2002; Schelling et al., 2008a).
Experience in Marsabit District in Northern Kenya has shown that employing already
practicing traditional healers as CHWs and TBAs can reduce the risk of posts being
abandoned due to lack of remuneration. The best choice of community health workers
for pastoral communities is the traditional health practitioners, who are already
offering health care at this level. Once they are given a basic training as that required
for conventional community health workers, and once they are formally recognised as
‘community doctors’, they could be more productive and deliver a better quality of
care. Their training should focus on areas such as maternal and child health services,
antenatal care, AIDS prevention and education on preventive and promotive care such
as diarrhoeal disease control, as well as that of the zoonoses such as brucellosis and
anthrax. The reason for this advocacy is that traditional health practitioners are
reliable people who are already working in the community, offering the same
services. They are recognised and accepted by the community and there is less chance
of them abandoning the service, since they do not fully depend on it as a means of
living. In addition, most of them perform a dual role in both human and animal health
care. They could therefore be used for both purposes as long as they are willing to be
trained. Experience so far shows that the traditional birth attendants are willing to be
trained and the other groups (herbalists, bonesetters) are likely to support such an
initiative. These personnel can serve as a link between the health system and the
community in which they work. This link is also a point at which to establish an
intersectoral team of all stakeholders such as livestock and veterinary technicians who
have close working interest with the community (Duba et al., 2001).
Figure 5: Good Practice in Health Service Provision - External Agency
Combined complementary mobile and static health service provision may have greater impact on health of pastoralists. The combined training of community‐based animal and human health workers and traditional birth attendants should be encouraged as they could provide valuable health provision and remain within the community.
Summary Box: Good Practice in Health Service Provision – External Agency Joint human and livestock interventions can allow greater access to children within pastoralist communities as well as building up trust between service providers and community.
Health provision to pastoralists – the UNICEF Experience
Current initiatives in UNICEF programming for women and children in the health and
other sectors suggest that good practice is being implemented, however, this opinion
is based on anecdotal rather than empirical evidence. From a review of activities in
pastoralist communities being carried out by UNICEF in the HoA, it was extremely
difficult to assess the impact (and therefore potential good practice) of these
interventions as there were very few evaluations and thus very few indicators of
impact of these interventions. Impact would then necessarily inform lessons learned
which would feed back into programme design.
One activity which has been evaluated with respect to cost-effectiveness and overall
impact on improving the health of children is Child Health Days in Somalia. More
details of this activity and the results of its evaluation follow.
Child Health Days in Somalia (CHD)
Child Health Days in Somalia were originally organized as twice yearly outreach
events in response to the high under five mortality rates, the extended conflict and the
collapse of health systems in the country. This activity was viewed as a successful
means of delivering key child survival mechanisms and initially centred around
administering polio vaccines and Vitamin A to a large number of children at one time.
Subsequently more child survival interventions were added, including measles,
Diptheria-Typhoid-Pertussis (DTP) and Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccines, provision of
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deworming and water purification tablets, Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and the
opportunity to weigh and measure children to collect data and determine nutritional
status.
A joint WHO/UNICEF evaluation of two rounds of CHDs was carried out to
determine the average cost per beneficiary targeted and per beneficiary accessible by
each intervention, and the economies of scale and scope, the cost-effectiveness of the
CHDs and whether any additional cost-effectiveness could be achieved by using a
pentavalent DTP-Hib-HepB vaccine rather than a simple DTP vaccine.
The indicator used to evaluate impact of child survival activities of CHDs was
Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which are a measure of potential years of life
lost due to early death and potential years of productive life lost due to disability. This
analysis only includes the mortality impact and does not also include morbidity
impact. The overall cost of the intervention and the number of beneficiaries reached
was then analysed to determine the unit cost per beneficiary. Further analysis also
included the potential DALYs averted for the use of a pentavalent vaccine and cost-
benefit analysis of a more expensive vaccine.
The evaluation concluded that using CHDs as a platform for delivery of child survival
interventions in a conflict setting, despite the high operational costs, provides
excellent value for money; less than $1/intervention/beneficiary targeted. Further,
when analysed alongside other health sector “best buys” in sub-Saharan Africa such
as malaria interventions and HIV/AIDS activities, CHDs compared favourably. It was
further determined that the use of a pentavalent vaccine for both rounds of CHDs
could have had a greater impact on child mortality than use of simple DTP vaccine.,
despite the additional cost.
The following example of good practice has been included, but with the caveat that it
does not fully exemplify good practice as it has been evaluated with respect to its
achievement of target or process indicators, but not with respect to impact indicators.
In order to evaluate the impact of the distribution of mosquito nets on the incidence
and frequency of malaria and the overall improvement of child health and child
20
survival statistics in Karamoja, a further impact evaluation needs to be carried out,
preferably over a long period of time.
Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) in Karamoja
In June 2008, UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the District
Local Governments in Karamoja sub-region embarked on a Long Lasting Insecticide
Treated Net (LLIN)1 distribution exercise. The aim was to scale-up net coverage by
providing two LLINs per household in all districts in Karamoja as well carry out an
intensive BCC campaign to ensure their retention and use. The distribution exercise
took place in October and November 2008. The overall goal of the LLIN campaign
was to contribute to the reduction of malaria related morbidity and mortality in the
Karamoja sub-region by ensuring 80% of households have at least two nets,
increasing the percentage of children under five sleeping under an ITN from 7.2% to
60% and increasing the percentage of pregnant women sleeping under an ITN from
2.7% to 60%.
An evaluation survey was then carried out of which the specific objectives were:
Establish performance against distribution coverage and use targets
Determine the factors/issues that affect retention and use of mosquito nets
Comment on the effectiveness of the BCC campaign and make
recommendations for its improvement
Make recommendations on how to improve net retention and use and suggest
appropriate strategies to facilitate this.
The results of the evaluation concluded that although the distribution campaign did
not reach the performance targets originally set out, improved coverage and use of
ITNs by the target groups was achieved. Recommendations following the evaluation
also included lessons learnt on the distribution of BCC materials, the time lines
surrounding implementation of different types of activities and the establishing of
1 There is a difference between ITNs and LLINs. ITNs are pretreated nets obtained in the last 12 months or non-pretreated nets
which have subsequently been soaked with insecticide at any time. ITNs are not long lasting and therefore require re-treatment
after 6-12 months. LLINs are manufactured with insecticide embedded (factory treated nets). They are long lasting and do not
require any re-treatment. All LLINs are ITNs and not all ITNs are LLINs. The LLINs referred to in this report are those which
were given out by UNICEF during the campaign distribution. The prescribed distribution targets used the term ‘ITNs’.
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baseline data prior to onset of any intervention. All of these can prove useful in
determining an improved distribution of mosquito nets for greater coverage and
potential for achieving targets. What the evaluation did not establish was the cost-
effectiveness of the intervention and the impact of the distribution of mosquito nets on
improved health and reduction in malaria of the target population.
Some of the examples of initiatives currently being carried out such as the Mobile
Health Teams in Ethiopia which are supported by UNICEF and the Government of
Ethiopia are providing good anecdotal evidence as to their effectiveness in providing
health services to remote populations. What is needed is an evaluation of these
activities, particularly with respect to the cost-effectiveness of mobile activities and
the impact in improvement of core health indicators within the population.
Figure 6: Good Practice in Health Provision - UNICEF
Child Health Days in Somalia have been proven to be both cost‐effective and show impact in averting DALYs. Use of a pentavalent vaccine rather than a simple vaccine would further improve child survival status. Initiatives such as LLINs in Karamoja and the success of Mobile Health Teams in Ethiopia have yet to evaluated.
Summary Box: Good Practice in Health Service Provision – UNICEF
Food Security and Livelihoods
Food aid has been widely distributed in response to the cycle of droughts that are an
inevitable part of livelihood patterns in pastoral areas. This distribution has been so
prevalent and become so entrenched that it now forms part of the formal social
assistance packages that many pastoralists rely on as a regular food source. Food aid
has been provided in North East Kenya since the drought of 1996–97, regardless of
the pastoral systems’ productivity during those years. Studies examining livelihood
strategies in pastoral areas of north-east Kenya (Save the Children UK, 2007) have
found that food aid makes an important contribution to household food consumption
for all poor and middle-income households in pastoral areas in recent ‘normal’ years
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of production. Even better-off households in some areas receive food relief in a
‘normal’ year – pointing to excessive and poorly targeted food aid interventions.
Formal emergency responses and development instruments have for too long focused
on food-based social assistance packages to pastoralist communities with the
assumption that it will reduce vulnerabilities. It has been argued that this continued
delivery of inappropriate emergency assistance has not strengthened pastoralists’
resilience to shocks – and indeed has worked to undermine local coping strategies.
Current emergency responses are designed primarily to save lives and often have the
perverse effect of encouraging people to remain in places that cannot sustain them;
decades of almost continuous food aid, water trucking and other last-resort emergency
inputs have led to the mushrooming of settlements, associated degradation of the local
environment and decreased access to dry season pastures (Chinogwenya & Hobson,
2009). Food aid should be a safety net of last resort but has become the safety net of
first (and in some cases only) resort .
For the purposes of this review paper, Food Security initiatives focusing on
livelihoods’ contributions have been reviewed and not nutrition programmes which
focus on supplementary feeding as the main strategy for improving nutritional status.
Food security programmes represent a more holistic, livelihoods analysis approach
and look to secure the longer term nutritional status of the population, rather than
those focusing on supplementary feeding, which although saving lives, should only be
used in emergency situations. It can be argued that used in isolation, supplementary
feeding programmes do little more than allow pastoralists weather the lack of food
within their communities and when discharged, patients return to the same conditions
from which they came, with little improvement in their ability to provide food for
themselves as their livelihood status (income and the ability to buy food, livestock
able to supplement their diet with milk and other livestock products) has not changed.
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External Agency Experience in Food Security
Pastoralist Areas Coordination Analysis and Policy Support (PACAPS) Early Warning/Early Response (EW/ER) Mandera Triangle strategy for pastoral communities
The Enhanced Livelihoods in the Mandera Triangle (ELMT) is the operational arm of
the Regional Enhanced Livelihoods in Pastoralist Areas (RELPA) initiative funded by
USAID. The program specifically supports results to: (i) protect livestock-based
livelihoods in emergencies; (ii) enhance livelihoods through improved livestock
production, health and marketing; (iii) enhance natural resource management; (iv)
strengthen alternative livelihood strategies; (v) strengthen capacity of customary
institutions in peace building, civil governance and conflict mitigation; and (vi)
strengthen the pastoralist area “voice” in dryland policy formulation and
implementation (Nicholson & Desta, 2010). With respect to enhancing livestock
livelihoods, the programme focuses on improving livelihood security for pastoralist
populations by enhancing coordination of regional partners to support timely and
harmonised livelihoods-based cross-border relief and resilience building
interventions. These include improving regional EW/ER analytical approaches with
better coordination of information and data which can add value to existing national
and local EW information bases.
Crucial to this is application of a livelihoods framework which uses as its base the
Household Economy Analysis to disaggregate the population by where they live
(geographical zone), wealth and asset classification and their seasonal access to food,
income and change in expenditure patterns. This livelihoods analysis also employs the
use of a seasonal calendar which map predictable weather patterns, livestock
condition and reproduction, livestock products and prices and the prices and
availability of other commodities such as grain. The calendar can then be reproduced
with respect to a change in weather variables such as the failure of rains and the
impact this has on the other livelihood variables to suggest entry points for not only
response activities but for capacity building and resilience activities within the
community to offset the more disasterous effects of a drought-related famine.
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If an adequate early warning system is in place and sufficient knowledge regarding
pastoralist seasonal production systems exists, strategies sucha as the protection of
core breeding herds for recovery, the timely selling of livestock with regard to their
condition and market prices and the monitoring of grain prices for stocking can be put
into practice early enough for the population to cope with drought. The timeline for
implementation of interventions such as fodder supply, veterinary health care, water
provision and the selling of livestock are not determined by a humanitarian
intervention timetable, but by the pastoralist seasonal calendar, thereby building the
capacity of the community to cope and withstand. Decisions surrounding these types
of interventions must take place well in advance as the time lag from decision taken to
implementation of activities can be instrumental in excerbating vulnerability. It is for
this reason that the seasonal calendar plays a crucial role as events are known and
predictable, based on early warning systems.
It is important also that any pastoralist livelihoods interventions designed to build
resilience and capacity are multi-sectoral. With the use of a seasonal calendar,
opportunities for WASH and nutrition interventions also become clear and can
contribute to better prepared communities. The optimal point for targeting
interventions is dependent largely on accurate regional data, which sometimes differs
from national available data in its detail and must be reviewed frequently.
An evaluation of the ELMT programme activities was carried out in January 2010.
This evaluation revealed that although the programme was somewhat successful in
protecting livelihoods in the Mandera Triangle region through its interventions, the
number of those affected by the programme was far too few. The evaluation stated
that key challenges to the implementation of activities were in addition to poor rains
and rising insecurity in the program areas making operational activities difficult, the
coordination of partnerships between the various institutions and governments proved
hard to achieve, the unrealistically short time frame (2 years), high staff turnover and
donor conditions often hampered project achievements more. It did state, however,
that given a more realistic time frame and established networks and coordination, the
basic tenets of programme operation could prove valuable in protecting vulnerable
livelihoods (Nicholson & Desta, 2010).
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Save the Children’s Africa Regional Pastoral Initiative - Pastoral Health and Nutrition Initiative (PHNI): Milk Matters
Save the Children USA and UK (SCUS/SCUK) and the Feinstein International Center
(FIC) at Tufts University joined efforts on a venture called Milk Matters to explore
interventions related to one of the most important component of children’s diets:
human and animal milk. This initiative included a review of the relevant literature and
studies that were carried out in the pastoralist population of Ethiopia.
The review examined the literature in major databases to accumulate knowledge and
experience on improving the health and nutritional status of children in pastoral
settings. Although most of the agencies involved were based in Addis Ababa and
therefore more relevant to Ethiopian pastoralist populations, the information and
learning can be of value to other HoA populations, given that the context does not
differ substantially between popoulations. The aims of Milk Matters were:
• To identify interventions that lead to an enhanced supply of animal and breast milk
for children in pastoral communities across seasons and wealth groups, thereby
leading to improved nutritional status;
• To support implementation of effective interventions at a large-scale;
• To advocate for policies that promote healthy and well-nourished children in
pastoral communities and influence the implementation of the Government’s national
Nutrition Strategy accordingly;
• To communicate the results to a broad audience of pastoral communities,
government institutions, researchers and practitioners.
One of the activities that took place under the Milk Matters initiative was a study
which aimed to ask pastoralist women and men in the Shinile and Liben Zones of
Somali Region what they think about the important causes of child malnutrition, links
between child nutritional status and milk supply, and ‘best bet’ interventions for
addressing malnutrition in their communities. It used recognized participatory
methods such as matrix scoring, seasonal calendars and ranking to produce detailed
information on how young children were fed, the reasons behind the choice of foods
used, and on seasonal trends and relationships.
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The results of this study were as follows and much of the information and data
gathered should be used to inform food security programmes in pastoralist areas.
1. The demand and perceived benefit of animal milk for young children is high
and generally much higher than that for cereals. The milk of camels and goats is
held in particularly high regard; linked to these animals’ ability to produce milk
through the dry season, the perceived health benefits of the milk and the taste.
2. The large contribution that animal milk makes to the dietary intake of young
children in the study communities is startling. When milk is available it is
added to most complementary foods in both Liben and Shinile, and during
a normal wet season the average milk intake of a one year old provides
about two‐thirds of the mean energy required and 100% of the protein
required by a child of this age.
3. Season plays a crucial role in milk supply and by the end of a ‘normal’ year
milk intake of young children has reduced by more than 70%. In a drought year
this reduction in intake was far more pronounced. By the end of a drought year
milk intake in young children had fallen to negligible amounts in both areas.
4. When milk is in short supply it is replaced, in the most part, by an increase in
grain consumption, and by the end of a long dry season or drought year the
grain is cooked and consumed with little else but water. Such a severe reduction
in milk intake has a serious impact on dietary quality by reducing the amount of
high quality protein, fatty acids and micronutrients that young children
consume.
5. Study participants perceived a direct and important association between reduced
milk intake and weight loss among their young children. The ‘the suffering due
to lack of milk’ is known by local people as the pre‐cursor to malnutrition as
they define it. In future it will be important to examine the implications of this
seasonal availability of milk for patterns of nutritional status as defined by
international indicators and how this overlaps with pastoralists own definitions
of malnutrition in this context.
6. In the opinion of the pastoralists that participated in this study, the most
effective way to improve availability and access to milk for young children
is clear; that is through the maintenance of the health and nutritional
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7. Many of the programs that might fall into the broad categories discussed are not
new, and there is already some evidence that they can lead to real improvement
in livestock health and milk production. There is far less evidence however of
any impact of such interventions on the nutritional status of children, and it is
here that more work is needed.
8. Given the issue of milk access for young children during late dry season and
drought, especially access to camel milk, it is possible that the benefits of
interventions that aim to improve child nutrition such as veterinary care for
camels or camel restocking would not be fully captured in terms of milk
consumption by children at critical times. This points to a need to review these
projects and look more carefully at ways to ensure that milk reaches young
children when they need it most (Sadler & Catley, 2009).
As the study indicates, improvements in the health of animals will have direct bearing
on improvement on the nutritional status of the population, particularly that of
children. Interventions targeted at livestock with respect to a seasonal calendar will
have an enormous impact on the maintenance of adequate milk production and
enhanced nutrition.
Disaster Risk Reduction in Mitigation of Food Insecurity in Ethiopia
In the past, pastoralist area development had received relatively little attention from
policy makers, and pastoral peoples were largely economically, socially, and
politically marginalized. Key development issues in these areas include: (i) land
tenure security for grazing land and encroachment by sedentary populations as well as
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large scale development schemes, poor access to public services, especially health and
education, (iii) restrictive livestock marketing policy and poorly developed support
infrastructure and services, (iv) vulnerability to drought shocks, (v) environmental
degradation, in particular of rangelands; and (vi) violent conflicts related to natural
resource management. The severity of their socio-economic situation, in particular
regarding food security, prompted the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to intensify its
search for sustainable development strategies in these areas from 2002 onwards.
The GoE’s current vision for addressing development in pastoral areas is explicitly
addressed in a separate section of its national Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(PRSP) of September 2006: “Ethiopia: Building on Progress – A Plan for Accelerated
and Sustained Development to End Poverty” (PASDEP). The section on “Pastoralist
Livelihoods and Development” acknowledges the previous marginalization of
pastoral populations and recognizes that pastoralist populations are among the poorest
of the poor in Ethiopia. It proposes a range of livelihoods and service delivery
interventions to address this situation.
In 2003, the GoE initiated the Pastoral Community Development Program (PCDP), a
fifteen-year Program designed to empower communities, district (woreda) and
regional governments to better manage local development in pastoral areas, with the
aim of increasing, stabilizing, and diversifying incomes, improving infrastructure, and
increasing access to public services. The PCDP seeks improve in a sustainable
manner the livelihoods of pastoralists living in the arid and semi-arid Ethiopian
rangelands. The Program works through a community-based development planning
process linked to a Community Investment Fund (CIF), which flows through local
government. PCDP also supports a participatory disaster management program to
reduce the risk of pastoral communities to drought and other natural threats to
livelihoods. These efforts are reinforced through policy research and applied technical
research into dryland agriculture and natural resource management.
This approach to participatory community-based development has been initiated
successfully in 32 pastoral woredas in four regions during Phase I of the PCDP. In
view of the long-term nature of supporting community empowerment, local
government strengthening, as well as policy reform for these remote areas, the World
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Bank initiated a 15-year, three-phase Adaptable Program Lending (APL). The
International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has co-financed the first
phase of the Program.
While significant progress has been made in the first phase of the PCDP, much
remains to be done to expand the project geographically, and to consolidate
community empowerment, local government strengthening and disaster risk
management efforts initiated thus far in 32 pastoral woredas.
Figure 7: Good Practice in Food Security and Livelihoods Interventions - External Agency
Government of Ethiopia’s Pastoral Community Development Program seeks to empower communities, district (woreda) and regional governments to better manage local development in pastoral areas, with the aim of increasing, stabilizing, and diversifying incomes, improving infrastructure, and increasing access to public services. The PCDP seeks improve in a sustainable manner the livelihoods of pastoralists living in the arid and semi‐arid Ethiopian rangelands.
Summary Box: Good Practice in Food Security and Livelihoods Interventions – External Agency Use of tools such as Livelihoods Analysis Frameworks, Household Economy Analysis and the seasonal calendar, including mapping patterns of income and consumption can greatly assist in timely interventions which are implemented before the crisis begins and not in response to an emergency – DRR programming Interventions that ensure a priority in animal interventions at times throughout the year with fodder and water provision can greatly improve child nutrition by sustained milk production – Milk Matters
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Education
External Agency Experience
Tent Schools in Iran
The tent school system in south and south-west of Iran among Qashqa’i has now
operated for over 50 years, and has successfully educated several generations of
nomadic children. There are approximately a quarter of a million Qashqa’i in Iran
who migrate between summer and winter pastures seasonally but while in either
pasture, move very little.
The tent schools were started by Mohammed Bahmanbaigi in the 1950s who was
determined to preserve the nomadic way of life for the Qashqa’i people and saw
schools and education as a way of supporting this strategy. He first drafted a literacy
plan to teach the Qashqa’i basic literacy skills. This was followed by the
establishment of a Teacher Training School, an Elementary School, a Middle School a
High School, a general Technical School and eventually, a Carpet Weaving School.
The schools relied upon teachers from a nomadic pastoral background who were
trained, equipped with a white schooling tent and teaching materials who joined a
group of pastoral households. There was an almost equal enrollment of girls and boys
and after 5 years of elementary education, graduates of this program could continue at
a boarding school.
The Qashqa’i benefited tremendously from formal education. Not least, they benefited
from being able to participate in modern Iranian society; some became state officials
with government jobs, they learnt about their civil rights and how to defend
themselves in the modern legal system, and even while seeking to preserve their own
cultural identity, established a sense of nationalism.
In countries where pastoralism is viewed as a respectable way of life such as in Iran or
Mongolia and in programmes which are supported by indigenous teachers paid by the
government, interventions such as tent schools have been successful. In addition,
when compared to the migratory movements of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa, this
society generally only moved twice a year, thus facilitating the establishment of
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almost sedentary schools, albeit in areas which were very remote. Although many
people benefited from this educational system, one of the concerns that has been
voiced by former scholars is that, like their pastoralist counterparts in the Horn of
Africa, they felt they sacrificed some of their opportunity to amass knowledge on
indigenous herd management skills and animal husbandry and care by being in school
(Shabazi, 2006).
Distance Learning for Women in the Gobi Desert
Open and distance education (ODE) was introduced into Mongolia through donor-
funded projects and international consultants for the first time in the 1990s as a
response to economic crisis and subsequent social consequences. A non-formal
education project was started for 15,000 nomadic women (anticipating government
policy for targeted support for women through the National Plan of Action for the
Advancement of Women). Literacy levels were high due to education provided during
the socialist period in Mongolia and the targeted areas for educations were livestock
management and processing of animal products; family care; literacy support;
survival skills; income-generation using locally available raw materials; and basic
business knowledge for a new market economy (Robinson, 1999).
The project relied upon dissemination of information and lessons broadcast from the
central government owned radio station in Ulaanbaatar and three provincial radio
studios which in turn reached six provinces. Weekly radio programmes were
broadcast nationally and supplementary materials were produced at the local level.
Printed booklets were produced including topics such as family planning. A teacher-
training programme was developed and local tutors (‘visiting teachers’) were trained -
each responsible for about 15 learners. These teachers travelled around mainly by
horse, camel or occasionally by motor-bike. Learner support was provided through
visiting teachers, local meetings and at district centres, there was a set of project
booklets and other learning materials, information leaflets, posters, and craft
exhibitions in district centres.
The radio programmes were generally well received and attracted a large audience.
These were supplemented by group learning which provided an opportunity for
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tutoring and demonstration, and the exchange of ideas and news. The project also
flourished at local level and is an example of implementing a decentralised education
programme in a country which was accustomed to highly centralised educational
provision and control. Radio proved very effective in providing topical programmes
and in reaching large numbers of learners rapidly though economic problems limited
access. Print production was less speedy which can be attributed to the fact that many
producers were novices, with little access to computer technology.
Some of the limitations of the project were that the quality of material varied widely
and the delivery of the printed materials was often delayed. In addition, there was
sometimes a lack of coordination amongst those responsible for the radio broadcasts
and those responsible for the printed materials. In addition, although the project was
intended to reach women and cater specifically to their needs, some of the materials
were written by urban men who lacked the necessary skills to impart the knowledge
(Robinson, 1999).
One of the major failings of the project was that it proved largely unsustainable by the
state following the conclusion of donor funding. Some local initiatives supported by
committed individuals with sufficient resources within the specific communities were
able to continue but the major components of the programme finished.
‘The unusually long experience of Mongolia regarding education for pastoralists
suggests that education can be practically organized for pastoralists. The more
pertinent question is whether such success is possible in a market economy where
other values strongly prevail’ (Demberel & Penn, 2006), (or in a developing economy
where other priorities take precedence). Nonetheless, if radios are made available to
pastoralists and are easily and cheaply maintained, activities such as these have the
potential to take place in pastoralist societies in the Horn of Africa. A more detailed
proposal of such a programme in Kenya can be found in Towards Education for
Nomads: Community Perspectives in Kenya, by (Birch et al., 2010).
Figure 8: Good Practice in Provision of Education - External Agency
Summary Box: Good Practice in Provision of Education to Nomadic People Tent schools in Iran have proven to be successful in providing education to nomadic people. One of the differences between these communities and those within the HoA are that they migrate in predictable patterns, usually twice a year, allowing the tent schools to become semi‐permanent. Evidence has shown that education programmes for pastoralist societies are successful when pastoralism is accepted and endorsed by respective governments as a viable way of life. In addition, the content of the curriculum and the perception of its relevance to pastoralists’ way of life and value systems is crucial to ensuring prioritization by nomads. Distance education programmes using radio broadcasts were successful in reaching women in Mongolia. Its sustainability, however was largely dependent on donor funding and the major components finished once funding stopped. This type of initiative could be replicated on a decentralized level in the HoA, provided that radios were cheap to operate and maintain and infrastructure was sufficient.
Education - UNICEF Experience
The examples of education projects that are more discussed following demonstrate
increased access to education for nomadic children and in particular, nomadic girls.
What is lacking, however, is any evaluation of baseline figures against actual children
attending and qualitative analysis of pastoralist perceptions of relevance of curricula
and impact of education on core indicators.
North-eastern Province Girls Scholarship Education Program in
Kenya
The NEP girls’ scholarship program has had the single most significant positive
effects on girls’ education in NEP’s history and perhaps the indirect benefits might
never be measured. As an exit strategy and ensuring sustainability of program in
future, UNICEF in collaboration with MOE and Ministry of State for the
Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid lands (MDNK OAL) is working on
the establishment of a quasi-government “Northern Kenya Education Trust- NoKET’
- to address both secondary and tertiary education for girls from ASAL districts.
NoKET has a Board of Trustees drawn from leading Kenyan professionals,
marathoners; conservationists, politicians, educationists, all of whom come from or
work with nomadic communities. This Trust will open up the program for more
beneficiaries from larger nomadic communities as well as support tertiary education.
34
In order to institutionalize the affirmative action exposing nomadic girls to very good
performing schools, a tripartite MoU has been signed between the Ministry of
Education, MDNK OAL and NoKET. This MoU ensures 200 instead of 60 slots for
nomadic girls in good performing national and provincial schools to girls from 10
nomadic counties nationally and increases university admission for more females
from nomadic communities.
Flexible Approach to Basic Education (FABE) in partnership with
Africa Educational Trust (AET), Horn Relief and Save the Children
in Puntland
FABE is a flexible and sustainable system for delivering basic education to children
in nomadic and pastoral areas, which uses local NGOs and builds capacities within
the communities. Representatives from 60 nomadic and pastoral communities across
Puntland met with regional education officers and discussed the needs of the children
within regarding education and have advocated for a suitable programme which deals
with imparting skills particular to their communities. The Ministries of Education
have improved capacity to meet the needs of the subject communities. Appropriate
materials in numeracy and literacy have been developed which are culturally
appropriate. Exams for literacy, numeracy and life skills suitable for pastoralists have
been developed in conjunction with the National Examination Boards and
administered in 50 communities. Baseline studies and community needs assessments
have been undertaken by local partners in conjunction with local communities along
with regular meetings with community elders or village committees to ascertain
needs, concerns and opportunities, the results of which feed back into the steering
committee. 3000 children have completed 12 months of Level One Basic Education in
literacy, numeracy and life skills using appropriate curriculum developed with
communities’ input.
Pastoral Youth Leadership in Puntland in partnership with Horn
Relief
Building on the work that Horn Relief has been doing in the disputed region of
Sanaag in the north, UNICEF has been supporting the Pastoral Youth Leadership
35
(PYL) project. The project reaches out to older nomadic youth in five pastoralist
communities by providing a basic education through a curriculum that has been
locally developed. The project focuses on nomadic/pastoralist youth aged between
14–25 years who desire to pursue education but have never had an opportunity due to
lack of money, educational opportunities or other underlying inhibitions. This work
has directly benefited 1,429 learners (851 females).
The main objective of the PYL curriculum that was revised under the leadership of
the Puntland Ministry of Education is to enable the participants to create awareness
among community members in the areas of human health, animal husbandry, natural
resource management and leadership/governance. Apart from PYL centres (454
learners) already using the PYL curriculum materials directly, there are six primary
schools in the region that benefit from the PYL curriculum materials, through
integration and infusion, to complement the Puntland National Primary School
Curriculum (NPSC). The PYL curriculum therefore provides relevant reference
material which can be used to enrich the official and harmonized curriculum used in
formal and non-formal schools in agro-pastoral and pastoral nomadic communities
throughout Puntland.
The projects assist the participants in training in order to improve livelihoods through
capacity building, transitioning into formal education and joining technical/vocational
training institutes for further education.
The project also came up with a centralized and moderated examination that leads to
certification by the Ministry of Education. There were 158 candidates (134 females)
from six PYL centres who registered for the first examination. Currently there are 83
PYL graduates that have transited to primary schools and formal education. Five PYL
graduates who had moved up to the secondary school had taken their national form
four examinations with four scoring grade C and one scoring grade B. This shows that
the PYL curriculum is relevant to the needs of the learners and that it does offer the
pastoralist children an avenue to continue in the formal system and to the higher
levels of education.
36
In addition, the PYL project promotes participatory action research method and social
mobilization as a means of addressing issues that are relevant to the nomadic lifestyle.
The key event for this in remote nomadic areas is through the Camel Caravan Pastoral
Community Survey that has been organized in two parts. In the first part youth from
PYL lived and moved with the pastoralists on a camel for a period of 1 month putting
in practice the skills and knowledge acquired from PYL project in the areas of
leadership, human health, animal husbandry and natural resource management. They
also shared knowledge and skills between the PYL students or graduates and the
pastoralists and organized focus group discussions. The Camel Caravan participants
also took the opportunity to sensitise parents and leaders and encourage them to take
advantage of education services available in agro-pastoral communities for their
children when they pass time during the extreme drought periods. In the 2nd part of the
Camel Caravan, complementary information was gathered through administering a
small 10 day household survey on PYL thematic areas.
One of the key recommendations of the exercise and the Camel Caravan report is that
broader baseline data is needed on the pastoralist communities and their needs and
that interventions are needed to improved sustainable livelihood options for
pastoralists/nomadic people. It is also clear that more coordinated collaboration
among sector stakeholders is necessary to support education of Somali nomadic
pastoralist children.
Horn Relief is ensuring the sustainability of this project through engaging Community
Education Committees, community members and Community Based Organizations
and eventually transferring the management of PYL classes to them in 2011.
Alternative Basic Education Centres in Karamoja, Uganda (ABEK)
UNICEF and the Government of Uganda have been working together since 1998 to
provide an alternative form of education for the children of Karamoja. From 2005
data there was a total population of 303,694 children of school going age in the then
three districts of Kotido, Moroto, and Nakapiripirit. Out of this number only 90,317 or
29.73% were attending school.
37
UNICEF, to better focus its work and provide support to district local governments in
Karamoja, commissioned a comprehensive study (Kariuki, 2006) in 2006 of pre-
primary and primary education in Karamoja. This study was expected to provide a
deeper understanding of issues affecting educational participation in Karamoja, a
detailed review of current interventions including those in related sectors and provide
an updated and substantive baseline survey and an analysis of the status of education
in Karamoja, through a consultative process.
The study found the following factors affecting participation in education in
Karamoja:
Pastoralist indigenous culture, lifestyle and economy (Demand side)
There is a high demand for children’s household labour in caring for livestock
where they have clearly defined roles.
Education curriculum may conflict with pastoralist lifestyle due to the
inflexibility of school timetable and calendar. Consequently there is high
absenteeism and irregular attendance.
The community may not recognize the long-term value of education as they
struggle for daily survival. Many of the children, especially girls, drop out.
Lack of access to both formal and non-formal education (Supply Side)
Lack of schools and long distances for children, in some parts of Karamoja
ABEK centres not available in all sub-counties
Many schools do not have the full range of classes
Inadequate number of classrooms in some schools
Quality – Formal Education
Inadequate teacher numbers, especially trained teachers
Low teacher morale, owing to insecurity and poor support system
High rate of absenteeism among teachers and pupils
Insufficient teaching/learning materials
Poor school management and supervision
Quality - ABEK
Facilitator absenteeism, mainly owing to distances and irregular payment of
salaries
Number of hours per day, facilitator-student contact time
38
Inadequate monitoring and supervision of instruction and learning outcomes
Consistency and follow up of completion of modules
Learning Outcomes
Poor learning outcomes for children and community
Relevance and use of the skills acquired in school in the community
Key Challenges
Insecurity: affects enrolment and attendance by both teachers and pupils and
contributes to increasing in poverty and makes it difficult to attract staff to work
in the area.
Poverty and inability to meet education costs and the opportunity costs of sending
children to school.
Food insecurity, affecting enrolments and attendance.
The study also concluded that addressing the challenges facing education in Karamoja
will require more than education sector interventions. The nature and extent of the
problems facing education are diverse and intricately interlinked with challenges that
confront development in the sub-region and need a multi-sectoral and holistic
approach. Further, the physical, social and political marginalisation must be dealt
with.
Figure 9: Good Practice in Provision of Education - UNICEF
39
Summary Box: Good Practice in Provision of Education to Nomadic People ‐ UNICEF The Pastoralist Youth Leadership (PYL) programme in Puntland has been successful in providing alternative education to older nomadic youth who have missed out for various reasons. The aim of the programme is to teach curriculum that is relevant for these communities; human health, animal husbandry, natural resource management and leadership/governance. Over half the beneficiaries so far have been girls and many have transitioned to further formal schooling. Key challenges facing children taking part in Alternative Basic Education in Karamoja centre around insecurity, which affects enrolment and attendance by both teachers and students, poverty which makes justifying the opportunity cost of lost home labour difficult in favour of school and food insecurity, which affects enrolment and attendance.
WASH Activities
There is a notable absence of examples of WASH activities taking place for nomadic
people other than the transport of water for people and animals during emergencies
and the provision of Aquatabs during Child Health Days in Somalia. This applies both
to external activities and to UNICEF activities. Within agencies outside UNICEF,
there are interventions ongoing such as the rehabilitation of berkeds in Somalia and
the establishment of fixed water points near Primary schools but it would appear that
not a great deal of investment or analysis has been made in this sector to specifically
target the needs of nomadic populations. This applies both the analysis required to
plan activities and the evaluation of interventions to determine their effectiveness for
ASAL areas.
Most WASH activities carried out by external agencies are implemented under the
auspice of livelihood activities or emergency response. More work needs to be carried
out using the seasonal pastoral calendar as described in the Food Security section of
this paper to implement WASH interventions to build capacity within the population
to increase the ability of livestock to continue to be productive and provide milk and
meat during the dry season.
For UNICEF, cooperation with livestock agencies and others currently engaged in the
mapping of water points and the analysis of usage of these points in the HoA could
lead to more intelligent targeting of interventions and resources. UNICEF is the
global WASH cluster lead agency and should be closely involved in developing good
practice for WASH interventions for populations in ASAL regions. An example of
this type of leadership could be to develop guidelines on water trucking and transport
outside of emergency scenarios. These interventions could greatly increase the ability
of the people of the ASALs to withstand the effect of drought and forestall famine.
40
Figure 10: Good Practice in WASH interventions
Summary Box: Good Practice in WASH Interventions There is a notable absence of WASH activities for pastoral populations. Most activities fall under emergency response (water trucking, water vouchers). Guidelines for these emergency situations need to be developed. Implementation of WASH activities should be strategic and in keeping with livelihoods strategies such as maintenance of condition of livestock to continue milk production and offset potential human nutrition deficits in dry season. Any interventions in this sector must involve livestock agencies such as FAO and others and take into account a multi‐sectoral perspective.
Social Protection
Social protection is defined as a basic human right that strengthens the social contract
between the state and its citizens (Ali & Hobson, 2009). Social protection leads to
social development – a cornerstone of economic advancement and political stability.
In the Horn and East Africa, social protection providers fall into two main categories:
informal and formal. Informal providers are communities and external social
networks such as family members, relatives and other social structures outside
pastoral systems. Strong informal social protection networks based on religious, clan
or family affiliations have always played a vital role in pastoral communities, and
protect livelihoods against the chronic shocks inherent in the drylands. However,
these informal support networks are under increasing pressure. Formal providers of
social protection are governments, the private sector, humanitarian organisations and
local and international donors. This group of actors primarily concentrates on
providing assistance and services originally designed for sedentary populations, with
little consideration for the specific needs and vulnerabilities of pastoralists. Social
insurance and equity are practically non-existent.
Experience of External Agencies
A tailored approach to social protection for pastoral communities is required – one
which recognises the context of pastoral livelihoods and views social protection
41
through a livelihoods framework which integrates the four pillars of social protection
(assistance, services, insurance and equity), where equity is paramount at every level
of intervention.
Some of examples of social protection interventions appropriate to pastoralist needs
are livestock insurance, providing business training to explore income diversification
options, providing safety nets such as cash distribution during times of stress and
increasing the ability of pastoralists to be represented in national legislative
frameworks and local bodies such as school and water management committees.
Livestock and Health Insurance
Insurance schemes for livestock health and loss during droughts and dry seasons
could prove valuable in helping pastoralists cope in times of stress and improve the
ability of communities to reduce livestock losses. In order for these to be successful,
however, governments need to be involved in encouraging the private sector to fund
these schemes and ensuring appropriate regulation which does not hinder
implementation.
Some of the examples of types of insurance schemes are those that operate as animal
health protection instruments in cooperation with veterinarians and agro-vets and
ensure the affordability of drugs for animal care. Others could involve a mechanism
for index insurance schemes which incorporate variables such as weather and
livestock mortality. The testing of schemes developed for sedentary livestock keepers
could also be piloted to learn how these might be adapted to nomadic areas.
Training for Income Diversification
Increasing the ability of pastoralists to be less reliant on livestock as the only source
of income could enhance their ability to withstand famine caused by livestock losses
by allowing them to supplement their diets with purchased commodities. Products
such as leather, dried meat and other livestock based goods which can be sold would
improve their ability to purchase and store grain for use in dry seasons. In addition
business training could allow nomadic people to understand market mechanisms
42
better and capitalize on destocking prior to a dry season by selling animals at the best
price possible.
Safety Net and Cash Assistance Programmes
Agencies such as SCUK have worked with pastoralist communities in Ethiopia,
Kenya and Somalia training them in community-based targeting methods which allow
them to identify the poorest and most vulnerable to receive cash transfers or other
emergency aid. There is also work ongoing in the private sector with mechanisms
such as M-pesa and other similar instruments which allow remittances to reach remote
areas. The Ethiopian Pastoralist Safety Net Programme (PSNP) and the Kenyan
Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) also look at ensuring that the most chronically
vulnerable have access to assistance during times of acute vulnerability.
If properly implemented and monitored these types of cash assistance programmes
could allow pastoralists to weather times of stress as a stop-gap method, rather than an
emergency response mechanism which does not contribute to building capacity or
resilience within the community in the longer term.
Figure 11: Good Practice in Social Protection Interventions
43
Summary Box: Good Practice in Social Protection Interventions Most social protection programmes in ASAL areas currently supported by UNICEF are part of emergency response mechanisms. These include cash transfers for food and vouchers for water. Social protection programmes form the basis for building resilience and capacity within the community to withstand shocks. These include animal health and livestock insurance index schemes, business and entrepreneurial training for income diversification and better access to markets and some cash and safety net mechanisms which are designed as stop gap measures before the crisis occurs, rather than an emergency response.
Recommendations The following are recommendations for improving UNICEF’s programming for
pastoralists, focusing on the method of delivery of the intervention, which is particular
to a remote pastoralist context and also on the content of the intervention.
1. Interventions should be implemented within the context of pastoralist
livelihoods. An analysis tool should have been administered prior to the
planning and design of the intervention which looks carefully at the timing of
the activities and ensures a multi-sectoral, multi-agency approach. Ultimately
all interventions should be focused on building resilience and capacity within
the communities to withstand shocks in times of acute vulnerability. Some of
the interventions required will involve a shorter-term DRR approach and
others will be designed for the longer term and be less response-oriented.
2. Dual animal/human interventions particularly with respect to health activities
could improve access to populations. For example, dual animal/human
vaccination campaigns could increase numbers of children reached if
pastoralists perceive additional benefit for their livestock.
3. All interventions must involve close monitoring of activities with the data
acquired being fed back into regional and national systems. Analysis of this
data should feed back into planning and design of subsequent interventions to
continually improve. Evaluations must be routinely carried out involving a
cost-effectiveness and cost/benefit analysis as well as impact analysis against
core sectoral indicators. These evaluations must be widely distributed and
available to improve future programming.
4. UNICEF must also ensure that planning tools such as the UNDAF, CPAP,
Annual Review and Mid-term Review are used to not only reflect pastoralist
requirements in programming, but also reflect monitoring of success of these
strategies.
44
Figure 12: Schematic for Good Practice
45
Good Practice in Programming to Build Capacity & Resilience
Protect Pastoral Assets and Livelihoods
Reduced Risk Focus of Programming
Partnerships with Livelihoods Agencies Regional Advocacy Knowledge Sharing Knowledge Management Multi-sectoral multi-agency
Livelihoods analysis Risk assessments Integrated use of monitoring data – external and internal Impact evaluation Research to inform evidence base
Regional Platform
Education Pilot and field test for best delivery methodology Curricula content relevant to livelihoods – ie., climate change, household economics, livestock husbandry, hygiene education,
Health One Health - Dual livestock/human interventions – opportunities to interact more with community, more monitoring and evaluation Use of CHDs as entry points for multiple interventions
WASH Dual animal/human focus – water provision for both Hygiene education Guidelines for emergency water provision (trucking, vouchers)
Nutrition Interventions which take into account seasonality of livelihoods Dual animal/child interventions
Social Protection Cash transfers for cyclical debt Destocking – use of culled livestock for nutritional supplementation
Dual animal/human interventions in health, nutrition, WASH and social protection increase entry points for implementation and monitoring and increase knowledge management/sharing.
GOOD PRACTICE
Ways to Enhance Better Use of Data
Ways to Acquire Better Data
Better programming
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