MOBILE PASTORALISM AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AMONG RURAL FULANI COMMUNITIES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

This study makes a spatial analysis of mobile pastoralism and socioeconomic problems among rural Fulani communities in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study assesses the socioeconomic characteristics of mobile pastoralists; identify the length of stay of mobile pastoralists in their host communities and identify socioeconomic problems confronting Fulani herdsmen in their economic activities. A multistage sampling technique was employed to sample 740 Fulani herdsmen from twenty Fulani settlements and from four adjoining villages. Descriptive statistical techniques such as tables cross tabulations, percentages and graphs were employed to analyze the demographic characteristics of the pastoralists, length of stay in their host communities and other sources of income. Matrix scoring was used to rank the socioeconomic problems identified. The results revealed that the mean average age of sampled respondents was 44.8years, 83.8% married and average household size of 11people. Dwindling pasture, land degradation and drought were the most pressing socioeconomic problems identified. The study concludes by recommending adult education for the Fulani pastoralists as this will assist in enhancing and improving the socio-economic life of the mobile pastoralists.

Learning to Resist(ance) in Gujarat

The Banni grassland, of Gujarat state of western India, has emerged as a site of multipronged contestations over land and livelihoods. Structural transformations seek to refashion Kachchh’s economy, society, and nature along capitalist and neoliberal lines threatening the livelihood of the 25000 mobile pastoralists inhabiting the grassland. Embedded within this context, the Salim Mama Youth Course, initiated through the a collaboration between local civil society, research and academic organizations, trains the youth in the region to recognize connections between pastoralism and their ecosystems. It achieves two main goals: firstly, the course attempts to secure the long-term sustainability of the grassland by developing the technical know-how of the youth as well as generating enthusiasm for pastoralism. Secondly, it contributes to the ongoing resistance against state induced corporate capture both practically, by providing information and tools to sustain contestations, and ideologically by reimagining the role and value of pastoralism in the region. This article unpacks the pedagogical approach of the course as a form of active and positive grassroots resistance against neoliberal environmentalism.

Life Skills Education in Ethiopia: Afar Pastoralists’ Perspectives

Pastoralists constitute a large proportion of the population of Ethiopia, representing an estimated 14–18% of the population (MoE, A standard and manual for upgrading Alternative Basic Education (ABE) Centers, Level 1–4 to Level 1–6. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2018a). The provision of formal education through a school-based delivery model has failed to deliver the desired outcomes for Afar children and youth in terms of inclusion and participation, and quality of and relevance of education in support of building pastoralists’ skills for life and thriving. Formal education for pastoralists should be concerned with curricular relevance as experienced from the perspective of the pastoralists’ daily reality and extant knowledge that is well-adapted to environmental conditions and emphasizes collective community wellbeing (Krätli & Dyer, Mobile pastoralists and education: strategic options. International Institute for Environment and Development, 2009). This chapter explores the ways in which the current curriculum in the Afar region addresses Krätli and Dyer’s (Mobile pastoralists and education: strategic options. International Institute for Environment and Development, 2009) four dimensions of curricula necessary for pastoralist education to be considered relevant. It also explores key stakeholders’ perspectives about which life skills matter most to the Afar pastoralist community and the extent to which the current curriculum reflects and incorporates these skills. This chapter offers a new perspective on how to reconceptualize and teach these skills through the education system, highlighting recommended adaptations to the curriculum aligned with national and international development goals and notions of quality and relevance. These adaptations respond to the knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, mobility patterns, and calendars grounded in pastoralist populations’ values to maintain a complex and sustainable equilibrium among pastures, livestock, and people.

Horses and Habitations: Iron Age Rock Art from Fortified Hilltop Settlements in the Wadi Draa, Morocco

The article presents important results from the Middle Draa Project (MDP) in southern Morocco related to two mid-1st millennium CE hilltop settlements (hillforts) that were associated with significant rock art assemblages. The combination of detailed survey and radiocarbon dating of these remarkable sites provides a unique window on the Saharan world in which the pecked engravings, predominantly of horses, were produced. As the horse imagery featured on the walls of buildings within the settlement, the radiocarbon dating around the mid-1st millennium CE can also be applied in this instance to the rock art. The rarity of rock art of this period within habitation sites is also discussed and it is argued that its occurrence at both these locations indicates that they had some special social or sacred significance for their occupants. While it is commonplace for rock art of this era, featuring horses and camels, to be attributed by modern scholars to mobile pastoralists, a further argument of the paper is that the desert societies were in a period of transformation at this time, with the development of oases. The association of the rock art imagery with sedentary settlements, where grain was certainly being processed and stored, is thus an additional new element of contextual information for the widespread Saharan images of horses and horse and riders.

Evaluation of the feasibility and sustainability of the joint human and animal vaccination and its integration to the public health system in the Danamadji health district, Chad

Background One Health approaches such as the Joint human and animal vaccination programmes (JHAVP) are shown to be feasible and to increase health care access to hard-to-reach communities such as mobile pastoralists. However, the financial sustainability and the integration into the public health systems at the district level of such programmes are still challenging. The main objective of the present study was to give insight to the feasibility and financial sustainability of JHAVP integrated as part of the public health system in Chad. Methods We conducted a mixed methods study using semi-structured key informant interviews, focus group discussions and budget impact analysis. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were analysed regarding the feasibility and sustainability of the implementation of JHAVP in Danamadji health district in Chad. Feasibility was further analysed using three dimensions: acceptability, implementation, and adaptation. Financial sustainability of JHAVP was analysed through budget impact analysis of implementation of the programme at district level. Results The acceptability of this approach was regularly assessed by immunization campaign teams through evaluation meetings which included pastoralists. The presence of authorities in the meetings and workshops of the programme had an incentive effect since they represent a mark of consideration these populations generally declared to be lacking. The coordination between the public health and veterinary services at central and decentralized level seemed to be a key element in the success of the implementation of the programme. Regarding financial sustainability, the total incremental budget impact was 27% slightly decreasing to 26% after five years, which accounts for up to one third of the total budget of the district health office. Also, given that most of the costs for each round are recurrent costs, efficiency gains from scale effects over time are limited. Conclusion Based on these findings, we conclude that for JHAVP to be routinely delivered at the district health level, a considerable increase in financial resources would be required. The district could benefit from joint immunization to maintain contact with mobile pastoralists to promote the use of available immunization services at district level.

Pastoralists and the State ... and 'islamic State' On Eastern Niger's Frontier: Between Evasion And Engagement

In the current situation of militant Islamist groups encroaching on peripheral areas of different Sahelian states, mobile pastoralists are often accused of sympathising or collaborating with jihadists. Examining this phenomenon with a focus on eastern Niger and in the context of the Boko Haram crisis in the Lake Chad basin, this article relates it to the debates about incorporation and evasion of pastoralists with regard to state and society, and frontiers and borderlands as spaces not only of difficult governance but also of economic and political opportunities.

Evaluation of the Feasibility and Sustainability of the Joint Human and Animal Vaccination and Its Integration to the Public Health System in the Danamadji Health District, Chad

BackgroundOne Health approaches such as the Joint human and animal vaccination programmes (JHAVP) are shown to be feasible and to increase health care access to hard-to-reach communities such as mobile pastoralists. However, the financial sustainability and the integration into the public health systems at the district level of such programmes are still challenging. The main objective of the present study was to give insight to the feasibility and financial sustainability of JHAVP integrated as part of the public health system in Chad.MethodsWe conducted a mixed methods study using semi-structured key informant interviews, focus group discussions and budget impact analysis. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were analysed regarding the feasibility and sustainability of the implementation of JHAVP in Danamadji health district in Chad. Feasibility was further analysed using three dimensions: acceptability, implementation, and adaptation. Financial sustainability of JHAVP was analysed through budget impact analysis of implementation of the programme at district level.ResultsThe acceptability of this approach was regularly assessed by immunization campaign teams through evaluation meetings which included pastoralists. The presence of authorities in the meetings and workshops of the programme had an incentive effect since they represent a mark of consideration these populations generally declared to be lacking. The coordination between the public health and veterinary services at central and decentralized level seemed to be a key element in the success of the implementation of the programme. Regarding financial sustainability, the total incremental budget impact was 27% slightly decreasing to 26% after five years, which accounts for up to one third of the total budget of the district health office. Also, given that most of the costs for each round are recurrent costs, efficiency gains from scale effects over time are limited.ConclusionBased on these findings, we conclude that for JHAVP to be routinely delivered at the district health level, a considerable increase in financial resources would be required. The district could benefit from joint immunization to maintain contact with mobile pastoralists to promote the use of available immunization services at district level.

Nomadic Digital Ethnography and Engagement

The availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as cell phones, WIFI connections, and social media has broadly changed communication norms amongst mobile pastoralists. Scholars and development organisations have reported on the end results of digital tools, for example by examining the ability of governments and development organisations to send early-warning weather reports through enhanced cellular access; the use of SMS to engage in deliberative polling; and the use of WIFI connections to provide banking services. However, researchers have not yet fully addressed how these tools are changing the communicative norms and ethnographic research methods used between researchers and mobile pastoralists. These changing communicative norms embed relations that inform academic understanding of the opportunities that arise from the interplay of complex forms of social and economic variability as experienced by herders.<br/> This paper draws from the fields of Communication and Anthropology to understand how these same ICTs have changed the complex communication between herders and researchers through the establishment of new communicative networks. I ask how new communicative networks impact on both existing and emerging ethnographic research practices and how the emergent 'digital field' of research might open space for new communicative networks and research projects. Then, I propose that digital ethnography may be one way in which both herders and researchers can respond to variability while establishing research projects wherein herders are recognised both as participants in a research project and as co-producers of knowledge.