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Changing Livelihoods and Risks in the Arid Lands

The 2013 meeting of the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group focused on the evolving livelihood strategies in the arid lands of the Horn of Africa. It examined the impact of socioeconomic transitions such as the shift from mobile pastoralism to sedentary lifestyles, and the implications for vulnerability and risk during crises like drought. Key topics included the varying resilience of different pastoralist groups, the significance of livestock in the economy, and the need for effectively tailored humanitarian responses to diverse community needs. Insights emphasized the importance of education, gender roles, and innovative approaches in linking relief and development.

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Changing Livelihoods and Risks in the Arid Lands

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  1. Changing Livelihoods and Risks in the Arid Lands Food Security and Nutrition Working Group Meeting, 18th April 2013

  2. Purpose • Growing evidence of dynamic changes in livelihood strategies in the arid lands of the HoA (cfCatley et al ‘Moving up or Moving Out etc; “Changes in the Arid Lands” research); • What does this mean regarding risk and developmental humanitarian response?

  3. Changes in wealth differentiation and livelihood strategies Source: Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, 2011 • Ex-Pastoralists: • Few or no livestock • Sedentarised • Dependant on aid: • food assistance and • social protection • >50% of population • Future prospects??? • Diversified Pastoralists: • Few small ruminants • Other sources of income • Sedentarised • Highly vulnerable • about 25% of population • Pastoralists: • Traditional or commercialised • Mobile/ absent • Cashing in on increased meat demand • Highly drought resilient. • About 25% of popn.

  4. Future = commercialization and trade, domestic + export = continued use of mobile livestock production systems Future = “traditional” pastoralism and mobility Future = exits and protracted destitution for some = alternative livelihoods for others Future = added value on livestock products = diversification

  5. Game Changers • Shift from rural and mobile to settlements and urban/ peri-urban • Commercialized animal rearing • More diversified and cash-based livelihood strategies, and employment (formal/ informal) • Emphasis on transition and educating young people into more stable and lucrative livelihoods (across all groups ?)

  6. What does this mean for risk? For example in the case of drought… • Who are the vulnerable? • Diversified pastoralists? • Ex-pastoralists who are very poor? • Commercial pastoralists? • Children in school? • Women in small settlements?

  7. What are they vulnerable to? Still in the case of drought… • Livestock Disease? • Market prices? • Availability of labour? • Fodder? • Water? • Conflict? • Being pulled out of school?

  8. What does this mean for Risk? Despite the major ‘game changers’: • Livestock remains the predominant economic activity in the arid lands; • Most people interact to some extent, directly or indirectly with the livestock trade - expanding rangelands concept: this is a very powerful way to spread risk; • Increasing population… fewer natural resources but growing economic opportunities.

  9. What does this mean for humanitarian response? • Conventional Responses: • Livestock off-take • Livestock health (vaccination, de-worming etc) • Humanitarian Food Assistance: in-kind food; increasingly cash transfers; conditional/ unconditional; • Water trucking (human and livestock use); • Fodder provision for livestock (unusual); • Are these ‘fit for purpose’ for un-homogenous communities in the ‘new’ livelihood and risk environment?

  10. What does this mean for humanitarian response? New ways of doing business… • Big Issues: Linking relief and development • Importance of understanding the context in terms of changing livelihood strategies and risk: action research; • Importance of understanding aspirations for the future, and especially transiting from traditional livelihoods: can we provide a ‘soft landing’? • Importance of keeping kids in school • Gender: with changing livelihood strategies, what new roles for both women and men? What are the opportunities? • Social Networks with people living in different locations doing different things: how to help to spread the risk?

  11. What does this mean for humanitarian response? • No Regrets Approach • Income and employment • Opportunities around expanding/ contracting social protection safety nets (risk financing model)? • Surge model for nutrition (and more?) • Livestock/ crop insurance. • MORE (Over to you!)

  12. Times they are a-changin’: Can We Keep Up?

  13. What does this mean for humanitarian response? • Over-arching Question: Livelihoods are changing rapidly in the Arid Lands: What does this mean regarding risk and humanitarian response? •  In the 'new' livelihood and risk environment, Who is vulnerable and to What? (reference to the slide on the different groups: ex-pastoralists, diversified pastoralists; commercial pastoralists, kids in school; women in small settlements etc + the sub-hazards like price rises, conflict etc.) • What does this mean for Risk? i.e. probability of the risk of death? Risk of Destitution? Risk of hardship? • Are the traditional humanitarian responses and the drought management cycle 'fit for purpose' given all this change? • What are the opportunities for 'doing business differently'? What can be done to scale? Can humanitarian and development actors tap in and help support the existing risk-spreading strategies (expanding rangeland concept)?

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