Social protection in pastoral areas

This paper argues that a coherent social protection framework is a fundamental need for pastoralists in eastern Africa and calls for a tailored approach to social protection for pastoral communities’ one which recognises the context of pastoral livelihoods and views social protection through a livelihoods framework. It proposes the integration of four pillars of social protection (assistance, services, insurance and equity), where equity is paramount at every level of intervention.

The paper divides social protection providers into two major categories: informal and formal. Informal providers of social protection are communities and external social networks, such as family members, relatives and other social systems outside pastoral systems. Pastoralists have developed strong informal social protection networks based on religious, clan or family affiliations. These have always played a vital role in ensuring pastoralist livelihoods have remained viable through the chronic shocks inherent to pastoral lifestyles, but informal social mechanisms are now under increasing pressure. Formal providers of social protection are governments, private sector, humanitarian organisations and local and international donors.

As the paper shows, formal social protection providers concentrate on the provision of assistance and services (originally designed for sedentary populations), whilst social insurance and equity in pastoral communities are non-existent. General recommendations for improving social protection provision for pastoralists are set out according to both informal and formal providers.

Abdirahman Ali and Matthew Hobson, Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) - April 2009