Peter D. Little

Avoiding Disaster: Diversification and Risk Management Among East African Herders

This article addresses processes of livelihood diversification among pastoralists in the rangelands of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The objectives of the article are threefold: (1) to suggest a theoretical framework for addressing income diversification among pastoralists with reference to current literature and databases; (2) to present a case study on pastoral income diversification based on preliminary field research in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia; and (3) to summarize current understandings of pastoral diversification while pointing to additional empirical research needs. By showing how comparative analyses in the region have been constrained by theoretical and data deficiencies, the article explores ways in which income diversification differs by what are termed conditional, opportunity, and local response variables. Climate, distance to market towns, gender, wealth, and education are attributes covered by these variables and discussed in the article. The conceptualization and case study provide useful bases for conducting comparative research on pastoral diversification in East Africa specifically, and in sub-Saharan Africa generally.

Assessing the Value of Climate Forecast Information for Pastoralists: Evidence from Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya

Climatic variability exerts tremendous influence on the livelihoods and well-being of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa. Recent advances in climate forecasting technologies have raised the intriguing prospect of reasonably accurate forecasts of coming seasons’ rainfall patterns. We explore the value of such external climate forecast information to pastoralists in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya using data collected using both open-ended, qualitative methods to identify and understand indigenous climate forecasting methods and quantitative data collected using survey instruments. On balance, climate forecast information does not seem a limiting factor at present in pastoralist communities in the Horn of Africa.

'Moving in place': Drought and poverty dynamics in South Wollo, Ethiopia

Abstract This article discusses the impact of drought on poverty dynamics in the South Wollo area of northeastern Ethiopia. Using both survey and anthropological/qualitative data covering a six-year period, the paper assesses which households were able to hold on to assets and recover from the 1999–2000 drought and which were not. It suggests that while the incidence of poverty changed very little during 1997 to 2003 despite the occurrence of a major drought, the fortunes of the poorest improved, but not enough to keep them from poverty. The study concludes by asking how current policies affect patterns of poverty and inequality and what might be done to improve welfare in South Wollo.

Absentee herd owners and part-time pastoralists: The political economy of resource use in northern Kenya

The prevalence of absentee herd ownership in Africas pastoral areas is increasing. Its presence has important implications both for local resource management systems and for research programs that address pastoral ecology and related topics. This paper examines patterns of absentee herd ownership in the Baringo District of northern Kenya. This region has been the source of much debate regarding herder “mismanagement” of range lands. Three categories of absentee herd owners are discussed in the paper: (1) ranchers, (2) livestock traders, and (3) townsmen. It is suggested that the blame for some of the apparent resource mismanagement in the region may lie more with actors in these categories than with the pastoralists themselves. Data collected during an 18-month period in 1980–1981 on pastoral ecology, grazing patterns, and tenure institutions are presented in support of the argument. The paper concludes with a comparative analysis of contemporary resource management strategies in pastoral Africa, emphasizing that: (1) the Baringo case is not an isolated anomaly, and (2) a new orientation toward pastoral studies is warranted.

Understanding and reducing persistent poverty in Africa: Introduction to a special issue

Abstract This paper introduces a special issue exploring persistent poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. As a set, these papers break new ground in exploring the dynamics of structural poverty, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis and adopting an asset-based approach to the study of changes in well-being, especially in response to a wide range of different (climatic, health, political, and other) shocks. In this introductory essay, we frame these studies, building directly on evolving conceptualisations of poverty in Africa.

Livestock Markets and Risk Management Among East African Pastoralists: A Review and Research Agenda

This paper provides an overview of the state of the livestock marketing channel in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, based mainly on secondary data, examines the relevant literature dealing with risk in livestock markets in sub-Saharan Africa, determines critical livestock marketing research needs in our study area of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya and introduces a conceptual framework that we think can usefully guide further empirical research. We also examine methodologies that could be used to evaluate the market risks faced by pastoralists.

Risk and social change in an African rural economy : livelihoods in pastoralist communities

1. Introduction 2. Culture, History, and Political Ecology 3. Livestock Markes 4. A Risky Region 5. Changing Livelihood Strategies 6. Household and Intra-Household Patterns 7. Development Priorities? 8. Conclusion

Conflictive trade, contested identity : The effects of export markets on pastoralists of Southern Somalia

“This man-made catastrophe has been driven by the most readily available resource in Somalia—arms” ( The Sunday Times , London, 30 August 1992, p. 9). The lush wetlands and rich pastures of the Lower Jubba Region, replenished annually by the flooding of the Jubba River and nearby streams, define some of the finest livestock-producing areas of Somalia and of eastern Africa generally. Blessed with relatively good access to water and blanketed with perennial grasses and other vegetation, the area is home to literally hundreds of thousands of domestic animals, particularly cattle. Some of the more important seasonally flooded rangelands and water points, such as those around Afmadow town, figure strongly in local myths and oral historical accounts, and for any herder traveling across the dry, barren lands west of the region they seem like “the promised land” (Schlee 1989; Chevenix-Trench 1907). It is little wonder, therefore, that the conflict and turmoil recently characterizing this region stems in part from struggles over these lands and over the valuable commodities that they produce. A focus on the cattle trade and the social relationships in which it is embedded helps to explain 1) how the pastoral sector operated prior to the recent tragedy, and 2) how recent alliances and conflicts in the area are based at least partly on this commerce. It also provides an excellent lens for exploring some of the relationships that have so tragically exploded, pitting clan against clan and herder against merchant.

Pastoralist Livestock Marketing Behavior in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia: An Analysis of Constraints Limiting Off-take Rates

Pastoralists in East Africas arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) regularly confront climatic shocks that plunge them into massive herd die-offs and loss of scarce wealth. One of the most puzzling features of pastoralist behavior in times of stress has been their relatively low and non-responsive rate of marketed off-take of animals when faced with likely losses to herd mortality. As Figure 1, from Desta (1999), finds in 17-year herd history data from Borana pastoralists in southern Ethiopia, mortality always exceeds net sales as a share of beginning period herd size, with the latter never exceeding three percent and moving hardly at all in response to shocks to rangeland carrying capacity that cause regular spikes in mortality rates. This case might be more pronounced than others, but the basic pattern is widely believed representative of herd dynamics and marketing patterns among east African ASAL pastoralists.

Woman as Ol Payian (elder): The status of widows among the Il Chamus (Njemps) of Kenya

During the last century the Maa‐speaking Il Chamus of Kenya have gone from irrigation farming to a pastoral economy based on small stock and cattle kept primarily for their milk. The author of this article contributes to a more nuanced picture of the “pastoral woman” by illustrating how widowhood changes those patterns of behaviour that the Il Chamus normally expect of women at particular life‐stages. He also considers the changes that widows are increasingly coming to face due to present‐day increases in non‐pastoral demands for labour, economic diversification, and the formalization of resource control.