BY TEWODROS KASSA
ADDIS ABABA-The availability of a conducive policies and external interventions that centred the pastoralists’ community is important to sustainably transform their lives, experts said.
A workshop co-organized by the PASTRES and the International Livestock Research Institute titled “Pastoralism, Uncertainty, and Development Policy” is being held in Addis Ababa from March 06-08, 2023 that sought to offer a new narrative and more relevant inputs to pastoralists and their contexts.
University of Amsterdam Researcher on Pastoralism and Development Masresha Taye told The Ethiopian Herald that cultivating the pastoralists’ way of life through external interventions is important to improve their lives and resilience through providing sustainable mechanisms that control drought and drought related problems.
Currently, it is estimated that there are from 15-20 million pastoralists and semi-pastoralists in Ethiopia. However, these communities are widely affected with the growing climate change and severe droughts in the past years. “Introducing livestock insurance, availing drought resistant cattle and forage, creating enabling environment for inter and intra mobility of pastoralists through policy improvements, creating market linkage, improving access to infrastructure, early warning systems on climate change, among others are the foremost solutions to settle the lives of the pastoralists’ community,” he said.
As to him, transforming the lives of the pastoralists’ community is possible when there is an active involvement of the government, pastoralists’ community, researchers, and pertinent stakeholders through understanding the reality on the ground. Another Researcher on Pastoralism from PASTRES Tahira Mohamed said that the pastoralists’ community in the Horn of Africa (HoA) are experiencing severe challenges like climate change, consistent drought, and insecurities.
Free movement of pastoralists should not be restricted so as to save lives during emergencies and enable them access water and feed for their cattle, she said. Moreover, international organizations, the government, humanitarian agencies, and researchers should convene together and find sustainable solutions that enable pastoralists’ communities’ with stand existing challenges, she noted.
Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fishery sector State Minister Advisor Yohaness Girma (PhD) said that the Ethiopian government is implementing a pastoralists’ community development policy that was introduced last year. The policy recommends pastoralists to retain in their location and access water and other facilities, limit their cattle number, supply their cattle to the market timely, and diversify their lifestyle to practiced airy products supply, among others.
Accordingly, the workshop attracted more than 60 researchers, experts, and policy makers from 12 countries to discuss challenges faced by pastoral communities and to develop policy recommendations to not only improve the resilience of these communities but also work towards preserving diverse environments and mitigating climate change through sustainable pastoralism.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH 2023
