Realities in the life of pastoral community

Gemechu Tussa

There are a large number of pastoral communities in Ethiopia. They derive their income from keeping domestic livestock reared in traditional ways.  However, that large community had been marginalized in the previous regimes. It was post 1991 particularly in the past fifteen years these communities got desirous attention. The government has conducted a number of projects that it believed could improve their livelihoods.  

According to recent researches, the pastoral community have settled in two thirds of the Ethiopian land mass that is more than 63 per cent of the land is covered by the pastoral community, which includes areas in the Eastern, North-eastern, Western and Southern parts  of the country.

The pastoral community is rich in livestock. It contributes 40 per cent of the cattle, 75 per cent of the goats, 25 per cent of the sheep, 20 per cent of the equines, and 100 per cent of the camels, according to recent study. It is vivid that Ethiopia is an agrarian economy.  As a result, it has repeatedly affected by drought.  The pastoral areas in Ethiopia are characterized with high livestock mortality which often results in threatening viability of pastoral livelihood, famine and deaths in human population.  

The 1973/74 drought had devastatingly affected the pastoral community in Ethiopia.  Historical documents show that 72 per cent of the cattle herd, 45 per cent of sheep, 34 per cent of goats and 37 per cent of camels were decimated only in the Afar pastoral areas. The 1983-85 had also a severe impact on the pastoralist community. The Borana pastoralists in southern Ethiopia lost 50 to 60 per cent of their livestock inventory in that drought.  It was clear that the pastoral communities were affected by those droughts more severe than the other areas of the country for various reasons.

There were different reasons for the highly liability of the pastoral community in the recurring drought in Ethiopia. One of these was lack of political commitment and in fact the then governments paid no attention to the pastoral community. Besides, there was poor infrastructure in those pastoral areas. 

The pastoralists were the most marginalized group of people in the country. The pastoral communities had little access to basic public services such as education and health.  The he people had no chance access aid in cities.

The pastoral communities in Ethiopia were also marginalized from any political participation in their country that their democratic and fundamental rights were violated.  Besides, they had a very low representation in the national political processes. The Ethiopia pastoralists were ignored and forgotten while they had been suffering of various problems before the Ethiopian Constitution guaranteed them equal opportunity to other Ethiopians.

Post 1991, the Ethiopian government has been working strongly to change that livelihoods of the pastoral communities. In the past twenty five years there are a lot of incredible changes in those areas.  The pastoralists have been benefiting from the country’s development.

On one hand the pastoral communities have their own budgets which they allocate for various developmental activities. On the other hand, there are a lot of mega projects in those areas financed by the Federal Government of Ethiopia. These projects have two major objectives: to benefit the pastoral community residing in the sites and to enhance the economic development of the country.

In fact, these mega projects have been benefiting the people residing in those areas.  The benefits are of different kinds in fact that could vary from project to project. Firstly, the people residing in the respected areas could be benefited from these projects through employment. A number of pastoralists have got job opportunities in those mega development projects.

Secondly, the people could get access to health, education and some social services as these institutions are built in connection to these development projects. Thirdly, there are also human development through technological transfer and trainings while executing these mega projects.

Obviously, the government has been taking various measures so as to facilitate social transformation and foster human development in the pastoral community in to the semi-industrial community. These projects have also helped the residents to get water for their agriculture.  They can then improve their products through three harvesting periods per year, which significantly support in facilitating the entire plan of the government to enhance irrigation systems.

Besides, these projects have significantly contributing not only in bringing the scattered community together but also in fostering government plan in resettling pastoralists so that they could lead stable life.  Previously, pastoral development has never been part of the national development plan in Ethiopia until recent years. There was no government or body with a mandate to plan and implement developments to improve the livelihoods of the Ethiopia pastoralists.

Unlike the previous regimes, the current government has incorporated and executed pastoral development in its first national Growth and Transformation Plan.  However, there is still a need to do more. That is why the government has incorporated a plan to change the livelihood of the pastoralist communities extensively in the second Growth and Transformation Plan.

The plan explores how to promote inclusive growth in the Ethiopian pastoralist areas and social protection, food security, trade and investment in those areas so as harness and strengthen food security and nutrition for populations living in pastoral areas in short term and alleviating poverty through fast sustainable economic growth in the long term.

One of the significant measures is investment to improve the quality and quantity of livestock in the pastoral communities.  A large number of pastoralists have benefited from government’s resettlement programs.  The pastoralists in the lower Omo Valley, for instance, had no permanent settlements.   Rather they had been moving from one place to another place in search of animal water and grazing land.

What the government has been  doing since the beginning of the first national Growth and Transformation Plan was bringing the mobile and scattered  people  one permanent place where they can be helped for their basic needs and live in a stable situation. The program contributes pastoral communities to come to a permanent village where they could get schools, health institutions and other societal services.

It is public secrete that the government of Ethiopia has been striving to alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable economic development; thereby, accelerating the development of the pastoral community in the past five consecutive years of the first Growth and Transformation Plan execution periods.  

The mega  projects have intended to change the lives of the pastoralist communities. The people are well aware of that fact so that they   have been taking part in various activities to back the completion of the projects. In the last twenty five years, the government has been striving to alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable economic development.

Being recognizant of the importance of the projects, the residents in all areas take part in the construction work and even more, they will get employment opportunity after the factory is erected. Moreover, the pastoralist communities will benefit from the irrigational developments along with the construction.

The government planned and has been working to transforming the pastoralist community to the level where they can enjoy the fruits of the development of the country.  Several community-centered multi-million birr infrastructural developments for the community have built in connection to the construction of the sugar factories.

The government has also been spending a huge amount of money in the settlement program aimed to enhance the betterment of the lives of the  pastoralists. They have got access to education, health and clean water to the best interest of their children and the women. The Ethiopian government has been working hard to transform the lives of the pastoralist community to a stable and better way spending a huge amount of money in the settlement program as it strongly believes and determines to respect the rights that the pastoralist communities need to have access to education, health and clean water.

It is know that the Government provided pastoralists with the right to free land grazing and not to be displaced from their own lands without their wish. It also provided them fair prices for their products that would lead to improvement their livelihoods. Ethiopia has the largest wealth in connection to livestock, the largest in Africa, with 30,000,000 cattle; 24,000,000 sheep; 18,000,000 goats; 7,000,000 equines; 1,000,000 camels and 53,000,000 poultry according to recent studies.

The production from cattle has been estimated to be 620,000 tons of meat; 244,000 tons of milk; 24,000,000 tons of manure and 2,400,000 hides annually.  It is also evident that the pastoral area is where the majority of livestock have been living.

In this case, the government of Ethiopia has exerted efforts towards creating conducive atmosphere to the pastoral communities.  Therefore, pastoralists have been enjoying the developments in Ethiopia in the past twenty five years and will be continued in the times ahead especially in the coming five consecutive years of the execution period of the second Growth and Transformation Plan of Ethiopia.