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Applying the approach in the Horn:
Kenya: Where both government and civil society are well established, but where cronyism and corruption mar their cooperation, the strategy will be to work with an alliance of civil society groups, who can ensure representation of pastoralists and communication between pastoralists and government. One alliance has rallied around the formulation of the World Bank-sponsored Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which will define the allocation of forthcoming government anti-poverty budgets.
Ethiopia: Where government is strong and pastoralist organisations weak, it will be useful to follow an approach modelled on the "Shirika" experience in Kenya - engaging people from local government, the NGO community and the pastoralist sector to explore together whether they would benefit from adopting the communication approach. The government of Ethiopia is also preparing a PRSP, and pastoralists and government may wish to use this as the focus of their consultations together. The challenge is for the pastoralists to work with local and central government to strengthen economic and nation-building efforts.
Somalia and Somaliland: There is a long way to go before the emerging administrations, civil society and outside facilitators can be strong and diverse enough to achieve full representation and communication. However, there are some excellent initiatives on the table, notably those put forward at the Kenya Shirika in October 2000, where the administrations have opened their doors to invite dialogue with pastoralists and other marginalised peoples. Facilitators need to offer impartial services now to help strengthen civil society to respond to these openings.
Source: Institute of Development Studies, "Pastoralism and Policy in the Horn of Africa"
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