This study looks at the challenges facing the livestock trade between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. It addresses capacity building needs for pastoralists, traders and exporters to become more competitive, as well as priority interventions for water infrastructure development/rehabilitation and fodder production.
This edition of Nature & Faune journal explores the intricacies of sustainable pastoralism and rangeland management in Africa. It contains articles on the realities of livestock production in Africa, including: extensive rangeland conditions; rangeland ecosystems and sustainability; wildlife benefits and conflicts in pastoral systems; land tenure systems in pastoral settings, forest feed for livestock; animal disease control; agro-silvo-pastoralism; and impact of livestock on water and soil degradation. This lends support to the initiative of encouraging the United Nations to designate 2020 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
The Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO) is the first programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Eastern Africa specifically designed to foster peace and food security at scale. FNS-REPRO employs a livelihood and resilience-based approach in some of the least stable regions, where interventions are normally exclusively of a humanitarian nature. Its design allows FAO and partners to set good examples of how to build food system resilience in protracted crises and strengthen cooperation across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus towards this end. This report provides the results of analyses conducted during FNS-REPRO’s inception phase in Somaliland, with the aim to inform its area based interventions, thereby creating a common understanding of the context, and both the challenges and opportunities therein. The context analysis informs and co-creates design, approaches and operational responses, thereby also strengthening the FNS-REPRO learning agenda and evidence-based programming - focused on seed sector development. The publication provides a baseline for the four-year programme in Somaliland, together with the Resilience Baseline (RIMA) report.
Meat, Milk & More: Policy Innovations to Shepherd Inclusive and Sustainable Livestock Systems in Africa highlights options for sustainably promoting growth in the livestock sector, drawing from what four African countries—Ethiopia, Mali, South Africa, and Uganda—have done successfully in terms of institutional and policy innovation as well as programmatic interventions. By adapting these lessons to countries’ specific contexts and scaling them up across the continent, African governments can meet their national and international commitments to agricultural growth and transformation.
The regional animal feed action plan was formulated through a consultative and participatory process building on experiences and lessons learnt by wide spectrum of key stakeholders in public and private sectors, notably, policy makers, traders, pastoralist and farmers' organizations, civil society, NGOs, and the development partners. It builds on the earlier consultative experience sharing workshop on feed by USAID, ILRI, IGAD and FAO in the region. The plan provides broad opportunities for partnerships with producers, governments, and private sector, development and humanitarian organizations at the national and regional levels. It provides a guided approach to collectively tackle the problems of animal feed and pave the way for sustainable production of quality animals and products while improving competitiveness, profitability and ensuring sustainable feed resource management for the entire Eastern African region. The aim of the action plan is to provide guidelines to communities, countries, private sector and livestock stakeholders to optimally utilize the available feed resources in East Africa to increase the supply as well as improve the quality of animals, products and by-products and to maximize the economic and social benefits of the livestock sector.
Beni-Amer cattle owners in the western part of the Horn of Africa are not only masters in cattle breeding, they are also knowledge sovereign, in terms of owning productive genes of cattle and the cognitive knowledge base crucial to sustainable development. The strong bonds between the Beni-Amer, their animals, and their environment constitute the basis of their ways of knowing, and much of their knowledge system is built on experience and embedded in their cultural practices. In this book, the first to study Beni-Amer practices, Zeremariam Fre argues for the importance of their knowledge, challenging the preconceptions that regard it as untrustworthy when compared to scientific knowledge from more developed regions. Empirical evidence suggests that there is much one could learn from the other, since elements of pastoralist technology, such as those related to animal production and husbandry, make a direct contribution to our knowledge of livestock production. It is this potential for hybridisation, as well as the resilience of the herders, at the core of the indigenous knowledge system. Fre also argues that indigenous knowledge can be viewed as a stand-alone science, and that a community’s rights over ownership should be defended by government officials, development planners and policy makers, making the case for a celebration of the knowledge sovereignty of pastoralist communities Praise for Knowledge Sovereignty Among African Cattle Herders ‘This book greatly contributes to the limited literature on theoretical discourses and practices on indigenous knowledge of livestock herding communities in the Horn of Africa. It discusses knowledge heritage and sovereignty through the presentation of valid empirical evidence, and its subsequent relevance in nurturing sustainability of knowledge systems to enhance lives of pastoralists in Africa and beyond.’ Samuel Tefera PhD, Assistant Professor and Asian Desk Coordinator at the Centre for African and Oriental Studies, Associate Dean for Research and Technology Transfer, College of Social Sciences, Addis Ababa University ‘The author has worked with our Beni-Amer pastoral communities in Eastern Sudan and Western Eritrea for over 30 years and this book is the first of its kind in documenting our practices, knowledge systems, heritage and way of life.’ Mustafa Faid and Mohamed Ali, Leaders of the of the Pastoral and Environmental Association Kassala State (PEAKS) ‘A riveting and rare book! Zeremarian Fre guides you along the sandy [dusty] tracks and grassy pastures that the Beni-Amer and their herds have been softly tracing over time all through the Horn of Africa. One of the virtues of the book is that it illustrates vividly and in clear language how their continuous self-built endogenous knowledge on agro-pastoral life is not only at the core of their survival and the survival of their herds, but more importantly a powerful weapon in facing and resisting multiple aggressions . . . Ground-breaking and a huge achievement.’ Yves Cabannes, Emeritus Professor of Development Planning,, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL ‘The book underlines the importance of enriching and utilizing the unrecognized, yet valuable scientific knowledge and practices that are deeply rooted in pastoral traditional expertise about their own environment and breeding practices. It is an important publication that reflects Dr Fre’s expertise and long term research in the region and thus, it is a significant addition to the African library.’ Hala Alkarib, Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) ‘This fascinating book not only gives a unique insight into the knowledge and practice of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa from the author’s first-hand experience, it also provides an incisive critique of the multiple dimensions of knowledge, paying tribute to the sovereignty of indigenous knowledge. It has a timely relevance for global sustainability that will appeal to a wider readership.’ Nicole Kenton, International Development Consultant, former long serving senior staff member of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) ‘The book covers several intertwined issues relevant to contemporary development policy and practice. It goes beyond the rural-urban and peasant–nomadic livelihoods dichotomy by shedding more light on the inter-linkages within the multiple livelihood systems within the Horn of Africa and globally. A rich evidence-based resource for academics, development partners and social movements for promoting and designing state policies that embrace pastoralist aspirations.’ Bereket Tsegay MA, PhD candidate, Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) ‘Dr Zeremariam Fre has done a wonderful job of placing at the centre of this book the Beni-Amer pastoralists, the world they inhabit and the knowledge they use to navigate and thrive in it. The lessons contained in this book go beyond pastoralism; it is a must read for anyone serious about understanding the importance of located knowledge in the innovation and development process.’ Yusuf Dirie, PENHA Research Fellow and PhD researcher at the University of Sussex
Once again, the Horn of Africa has been in the headlines. And once again the news has been bad: drought, famine, conflict, hunger, suffering and death. The finger of blame has been pointed in numerous directions: to the changing climate, to environmental degradation, to overpopulation, to geopolitics and conflict, to aid agency failures, and more. But it is not all disaster and catastrophe. Many successful development efforts at ‘the margins’ often remain hidden, informal, sometimes illegal; and rarely in line with standard development prescriptions. If we shift our gaze from the capital cities to the regional centres and their hinterlands, then a very different perspective emerges. These are the places where pastoralists live. They have for centuries struggled with drought, conflict and famine. They are resourceful, entrepreneurial and innovative peoples. Yet they have been ignored and marginalised by the states that control their territory and the development agencies who are supposed to help them. This book argues that, while we should not ignore the profound difficulties of creating secure livelihoods in the Greater Horn of Africa, there is much to be learned from development successes, large and small. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars with an interest in development studies and human geography, with a particular emphasis on Africa. It will also appeal to development policy-makers and practitioners.
The Nile is the world's longest river and sustains the livelihoods of millions of people across ten countries in Africa. This book provides unique and up-to-date insights on agriculture, water resources, governance, poverty, productivity, upstream-downstream linkages, innovations, future plans and their implications.
On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously changing landscape. And agriculture continues to absorb a disproportionate share of the damage and loss wrought by disasters. Their growing frequency and intensity, along with the systemic nature of risk, are upending people’s lives, devastating livelihoods, and jeopardizing our entire food system. This report makes a powerful case for investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction – especially data gathering and analysis for evidence informed action – to ensure agriculture’s crucial role in achieving the future we want.
