Pastoralists: East and Southern Africa region

Hunter-gathering is a process of rapidly collecting and collating information, experiences and contributions. In a workshop setting, hunter-gatherers self-select a topic they are most interested in championing and work together in groups to produce a short report (2-6 pages) by the end of the workshop – groups and topics are decided upon on the first day. Most pastoralists in East Africa inhabit arid climates that are water scarce and prone to frequent droughts and at times severe flash floods. Droughts and flooding have been increasing in severity and frequency in the region over the past few years. The recent El Nino drought in the Horn of Africa, for example, decimated livestock and pastoralists are still struggling to recover. Additionally, pasture lands have been slowly reducing over time. There are several factors for this including: increased population and overgrazing; encroaching desertification; pasture lands (in some cases) taken over by government for large-scale farming projects, e.g. sugarcane fields in Northern Ethiopia. All these factors have led to chronic water scarcity, high malnutrition rates and poor hygiene leading to a high disease burden from WASH related diseases.