NAIROBI, Kenya (IRIN) - Like drought, pastoralism does not recognise national borders. That is why the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is planning to launch a regional project to help give 20 million pastoralists in the Horn of Africa a greater say in drought emergencies by building on existing response mechanisms. "We are not giving out bags of food. We are not giving out water pumps. We are just building community," said Alastair Scott-Villiers of IDS, a research institute that is part of the UK-based University of Sussex.

Scott-Villiers and other researchers recently went on a UN-sponsored tour of the Horn of Africa region as a last step towards implementing their project, to include Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The initiative, funded by the UK government's Department for International Development, and supported by the UN Office for Regional Humanitarian Coordination in Addis Ababa, is based on the results of a meeting (a shirka) held in Isiolo, Kenya, in September 2000, between people who come from or are working in the Somali and Borana areas of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The aim of the project is to build communication and community networks among marginalised pastoralists throughout the region, between pastoralists and governments, as well as between local, national and international organisations. Among the goals are: training, greater participation of pastoralist civil society in national poverty policy plans, adjustment of international agency policies to strengthen understanding of pastoralists, improving the climate for economic development in the pastoralist sector and achieving better access to government resources.

"Over the centuries, pastoralists in the Horn of Africa have developed and evolved a system that maximises production, while ensuring environmental stability in the lands they inhabit. Removing some of the obstacles that prevent pastoralists from maximising their economic, environmental and social contributions to the nations of the Horn of Africa would have a significant dividend," IDS said in its report, "Pastoralism and Policy in the Horn of Africa". "Simple strategies have the potential to generate revenue, reduce conflict and reduce the enormous effort and wastage of perpetual emergency relief measures that are currently the norm."

Scott-Villiers said in the 1980s there was an "unmitigated disaster" in northern Kenya, during the drought emergency response, when the input of pastoralists was ignored in the relief effort. He said pastoralists were told to stop their nomadic lifestyle, which is their traditional coping mechanism, in order to receive aid. They could no longer pursue their traditional ways of maintaining their livelihoods, and were forced to become agriculturalists, which was not very successful.

"At the end of the day, it is easier not to talk to people... to deal with [the emergency] and go away again," said Scott-Villiers. "It is much more difficult to come in and talk to them and build bridges."

Kenya has taken steps to close the communication gap in areas where other countries in the Horn of Africa have not. The Arid Lands Resource Land Management Project helped organise the Pastoralist Thematic Group, which came up with the Pastoralist Poverty Reduction Strategy. It is part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, PRSP (click here for more information on the PRSP), required by the World Bank. If successful, pastoralists can begin influencing government policy and the distribution of resources. Pastoralists already have a voice in Kenya's government through the Pastoralist Parliamentary Group.

"When you do start getting pastoralists in the government, and as parliamentarians, you realise that things are improving," Scott-Villiers said. "It is an investment into the future. If you do it now, you are going to reap the benefits very quickly."

He said he hoped to bring Ethiopian pastoralists to Kenya to learn from their counterparts here, or to bring Kenyan pastoralists to Ethiopia to help spread the word about the potential for change in the pastoral sector in the Horn of Africa.

"If you want to get change, the change has to come from the international community to change the way they are working," Scott-Villiers said. "The government has to take responsibility for food-insecure groups, and listen to them. Pastoralists have to be given a chance to direct what is happening in those areas, and then you will start seeing noticeable improvements."

For more information on the IDS-UN pastoralism project, contact the UN Office for Regional Humanitarian Coordination, PO Box 5580, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Telephone +251 1 444083.

See also, Applying the Approach in the Horn