This document provides an overview of gender issues related to pastoral development in Ethiopia. It discusses pastoral women's livelihoods and capital assets, including financial (livestock ownership and control), human (health, education), social, natural, and physical. It notes that pastoral women experience double marginalization. While policy supports gender equality, implementation challenges remain and national statistics show disparities between men and women. Factors like drought, conflict, commercialization, and sedentarization impact women and men differently and can change gender roles and relations. Overall, the document analyzes the complex situation of pastoral women and opportunities and barriers to improving their livelihoods and status.

1. Gender Issues and Pastoral Economic Growth and Development in Ethiopia
Cathy Watson
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
January 2010
Acknowledgements: This paper was written as a background note for a study of “Pastoral
economic growth and development in Ethiopia” that was commissioned by the Department
for International Development (DfID) at the request of the Government of Ethiopia. The author
assumes full responsibility for the views and contents expressed in this paper.
Introduction
This Concept Note considers gender issues in pastoral development in Ethiopia based on an
analysis of pastoral women’s livelihoods, preceded by a brief overview of some of the key
issues facing women in Ethiopia nationally.
Women’s rights in Ethiopia are supported by law and a number of key policy documents,
including Article 35 of the Constitution, the revised Family Code, the National Policy on
Women, and the National Action Plan for Gender Equality, linked to Pillar 4 of the Plan for
Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP): ‘unleashing the
potential of Ethiopia’s women’. 1 Ethiopia is also signatory to various international
instruments. 2 As such, the policy framework for gender issues in Ethiopia is very positive,
and is supported by key structures such as
the Ministry of Women’s Affairs; the Box 1: Selected Gender Indicators for Ethiopia
• Gender-related Development Index (GDI): 142
nd
placement of Women’s Officers in each
out of 157 countries
Woreda administration; and target quotas for • Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM): 84th out
council membership. of 108 countries
• Maternal mortality: 673 deaths per 100,000 live
However, despite this, national statistics for births (2005)
gender equality in Ethiopia do not paint a • Violence against women (including FGM): affects
very positive picture (see Box 1 3). Ethiopia’s 73% of women and girls
• Early marriage: 75% of girls marry before age 17
policy provisions for gender equality are • Combined gross primary, secondary and tertiary
therefore very positive but huge challenges enrolment ratio as % of male: 76.4% (2004)
remain in the implementation and application • Girls’ secondary attendance: 23% (2000-2007)
of these policies in order to lead to effective • Average adult literacy: women 34%; men 49%
change for most of Ethiopia’s women. 4 (notably worse in rural and remote areas)
• Political representation (1999):
o Members of parliament: 42 (8%)
Ethiopia’s Pastoral Women and their o Regional councils: 13%
Livelihoods o Woreda councils: 7%
Ethiopia’s pastoralists, like pastoralists the o Kebele councils: 14%
world over, remain at the margins of national • Women’s Officers in local government: generally
economic and political life. However pastoral underfunded and lacking support from male
colleagues.
women are ‘doubly marginalised’ since they
experience the discrimination and marginalisation described above, while also living in
remote, under-serviced areas, leading a lifestyle that is misunderstood by many decision
makers.
Capital Assets: Financial Capital
Understanding pastoral women’s access and control over livestock - a key financial asset
for pastoralists - requires moving beyond the concept of ‘ownership’ to a more complex set
of rights and responsibilities, often overlooked by planners. While in most pastoral societies
1

2. the final decision to dispose of an animal by sale, gift or slaughter rests with the male head
of household, his wives and even his daughters may need to be consulted and can exert a
considerable amount of influence over this decision, related to both the origins and status of
the individual animal (part of a woman’s bridewealth; a key milking cow, etc.) and also to the
woman’s degree of ‘informal power’ (see Social Capital below). Disposal rights are therefore
complex, and are also connected to women’s access rights to the products of any particular
animal. Even customary pastoral inheritance law, which in most pastoral groups passes
livestock automatically along the male line, may entitle a widow to keep the livestock given to
her as gifts by her husband during their marriage. 5
Milking is generally carried out by women and girls in most though not all Ethiopian pastoral
groups, and the milk once obtained is generally in the exclusive control of the women. 6 They
decide on the distribution between: family consumption; conversion into other products such
as ghee; gifts (to maintain social relationships); and sales. Depending on the terms of trade,
the energy conversion rate from milk to grain can be up to 14 7 so many pastoral households,
particularly the poorer, rely on sales of milk for their subsistence. At the same time, male
heads of household may influence levels of milk offtake to ensure that livestock productivity
goals are also met. 8 In this way, the ‘ownership’ of livestock products is also a set of rights
and responsibilities, a complex mix of access and mediated control between women and
men, although women undoubtedly exercise more control over livestock products than over
livestock themselves. Women generally control the cash income they receive from sales of
milk, although if the business increases significantly in size this may change, while cash
income from the sale of livestock is generally controlled by men. 9
Other financial assets include hides, skins, and handicrafts which can be sold when
markets are available and accessible. 10 This trade is affected by poor processing and poor
quality final products, 11 as well as by the small number of micro-finance institutions and other
financial services in Ethiopia’s pastoral areas. Because of existing cultural norms, lack of
numeracy and literacy, and a general gender bias in the financial sector, pastoral women’s
access to such services is even more limited than pastoral men’s.
Capital Assets: Human Capital Box 2: Selected Human Capital Indicators for Pastoral
Box 2 presents a summary of key indicators Women in Ethiopia
• Infant survival rates: males have 22% higher
for pastoral women’s health and chance of surviving to age 5 (Somali)
12
education. In addition, pastoral women’s • Children’s access to health services: boy children
workload is acknowledged to be higher than are more likely to be taken to a health centre when
men’s in most pastoral areas, although the sick, while a girl child may be fed herbs and other
disparity varies between pastoral groups and traditional remedies
with season. Women’s control over their own • Life expectancy: 47 for women; 53 for men (Afar)
• Population disparity: women = 44% of population
labour varies with cultural norms, the (Afar and Somali); national average 49.5%
gendered division of labour in their particular • Ante natal care access: 15% (Afar) and 7%
society, and according to their status and (Somali); 28% national average
social capital. This also applies to their ability • Contraception use: 4% (Somali); 15% national
to control the labour of others, in particular average
that of the other women and girls in their • FGM practice: 97% (Somali); 74% national average
Health clinic in community: 12%; nearest average
household (see Figure 1 below). distance to health clinic 36km (Somali)
• Limitations on women’s access to health care also
Pastoral women’s human capital includes include cultural norms about women travelling
their knowledge and skills on animal health alone and consulting male attendants
and husbandry, livestock management, • Girls’ school attendance: 3% (Borana)
• Adult women with no education: 89% (Somali)
2 • Adult literacy: women 5%; men 23% (Somali)
• Constraints to girls’ education (in addition to
accessibility): cultural attitudes to educating girls;
heavy workloads at home; early marriage; FGM;
parental concern for the girls’ personal security.

3. natural resource management and environmental conservation, much of which is
unrecognised both by outsiders and sometimes within their own societies. Their human
capital may however be limited by their lack of knowledge of the market economy and their
rights under national law. In spite therefore of their indigenous knowledge, strong capacities
and resilience, pastoral women begin life with less human capital than their male
counterparts and rarely get the opportunity to redress this balance.
Capital Assets: Social Capital
Social capital is particularly important for pastoralists compared to other livelihood groups,
since their production systems depend heavily on cooperation and joint management of
shared resources. Contrary to common understanding, pastoral women exercise a
significant amount of ‘informal power, 13 connected mostly to internal rather than external
decision making, and focusing largely on their ability to influence men. It is subject to a
number of variables, such as a woman’s age, her husband’s social standing, the number and
age of her sons, and in some societies her ability to speak well and exhibit wisdom, as well
as her relationship with other members of the family, see Figure 1.
Figure 1: Women’s influence in their community - Turkana, Kenya 14
Pastoral women’s customary institutions, often overlooked, build on and enhance this
power. 15 Pastoral women also have informal but effective communication networks to share
information with each other and within the community. 16 However, their formal public role
remains constrained and their political participation is very limited. In 2006 there was only
one woman among the 160 members of the Somali Regional parliament, and only 356
women were elected out of 3,309 councillors in the 2005 district elections. 17 Nationally there
are five women MPs from pastoral areas, three of whom now sit on the Pastoral Affairs
Standing Committee which until 2005 was all male. 18
Since pastoral women’s informal power is based largely on their relationship to men, in
particular their husbands, it therefore follows that women-headed households can be less
powerful socially. Female-headed households remain relatively rare among mobile
pastoralists: 5% of one sample in Somali Region (compared to 13% in the urban centres). 19
Women-headed households in urban and peri-urban settings may enjoy relative economic
freedom compared to their married mobile counterparts but at the same time are likely to
suffer from diminished social standing as they cannot exercise their informal power as
described above, particularly if they are poor. They also are likely to experience more
poverty relative to their counterparts who remain in mobile pastoral systems.
3

4. Capital Assets: Natural Capital
Major decisions about the use of key natural resources are generally negotiated through
indigenous mechanisms such as the clan or territorially-based institutions. Women’s
influence over these management decisions is therefore largely on the basis of their informal
power as well as the roles that they play within the management mechanisms. Day-to-day,
pastoral women play a significant role in natural resource management, through their use of
firewood, wild fruits, fodder and water. They also play an important role in managing the
forest and its products, including non-timber forest products (NTFPs). 20
Significant changes in natural resource management, e.g. land demarcation or enclosure,
have an impact on gender relations, particularly if women’s role in NRM is overlooked. For
example, the women were not involved in the decision to enclose plots of communal
rangeland in Harshin, a process which is also increasing their workloads. 21 Subdivision of
pastoral land in Kenya has significantly disadvantaged pastoral women: over 99% of Group
Ranch members are men. 22 Land registration is underway in Ethiopia but has not yet been
applied to most communal pastoral land. Early impact analysis of this process in agricultural
areas indicates that the issuing of title deeds to wives as well as their husbands has the
potential to increase women’s access and control over land, although this needs to be
supported with education about rights and a degree of cultural change. 23
Capital Assets: Physical Capital
Because of their remote location, pastoral areas generally suffer from poor public
infrastructure such as access roads, means of transportation and communications
systems. This affects all pastoralists, although women’s access may be further constrained
by cultural norms and social expectations. Pastoral women use and control a number of
private producer goods, including responsibility for building and maintaining the houses.
As well as a productive asset, a woman’s hut can also represent a social and personal space
symbolising her control over the food supply. Other physical capital such as milking tools and
processing equipment, gourds, containers, and jewellery, may be used as financial capital
for sale, and may also confer social status. 24 Where ‘modern’ or non-pastoral physical assets
such as mobile phones and radios are acquired by pastoralists, they are generally controlled
by the men, as among other livelihood groups.
Vulnerability Context
The key shocks and trends affecting pastoral populations in Ethiopia impact differently on
men and women, and can also change gender roles and relations. One of the common
consequences of drought (and climate change) is the migration and/or splitting of the
pastoral household. If men move away with the livestock women have reduced access to
livestock products and may have to depend on firewood collection and other income
generation activities. They may also lose some of the social power that is mediated by their
menfolk. Workloads increase for all, particularly women, as water, grazing and fuelwood
become more difficult to find. If the men migrate for wage labour as a drought strategy, the
women are left with the extra burden of managing the stock, which may however increase
their decision making power and social status, at least temporarily. Migration and separation
can also increase women’s personal vulnerability: with the absence of their male family
members women are less protected and may be vulnerable to attack when they search for
firewood or water, or supervise livestock. In situations of conflict, this vulnerability is greatly
increased.
4

5. Women are frequently marginalised in the process of commercialisation. It is generally
recognised that women’s income generating activities are often taken over by their husbands
if they grow beyond a certain size – often when they shift from focusing on
subsistence/feeding the family to larger scale businesses. This may even apply to the
marketing of livestock products such as milk, over which women have customary control. In
some pastoral areas in the Horn and East Africa the commercialisation of milk production
has reduced this control and milk production and marketing has been taken over by men
because the women lack the time, capacity, mobility or social authority to continue or expand
their involvement, or their husbands become more interested as more income is
generated. 25 In other cases men may object to their wives growing independence and try to
prevent it. 26 Increasing market opportunities for livestock products therefore has the potential
to increase pastoral women’s economic status but does not necessarily mean that they will
be able to take advantage of these opportunities. Developing milk markets may also
negatively affect nutrition levels in the household, and/or the productivity of the livestock, as
more milk is taken off for sale. 27
On the other hand, in some of Ethiopia’s pastoral areas, increasing diversification is
enhancing the economic status of some pastoral women and challenging the status of men:
as livestock become less important to the household economy, particularly in peri-urban
and/or more sedentarised households, women engage in income generating activities (sale
of firewood and handicrafts, petty trading etc.). In Somali and Afar Regions some pastoral
men see non-livestock productive activities as low status, preferring to chew khat and leave
their wives to provide for the family 28while in Borana, women are increasingly involved in
agriculture but without a corresponding increase in their control of the income derived from
cultivation. 29
Sedentarisation, either as a result of diversification and/or impoverishment, is a growing
trend that can have both positive and negative impacts on pastoral women. While there are
more opportunities for income generation in urban and peri-urban settings (and in theory for
enhancing human capital through improved access to health care and educational
opportunities), female-headed households in these settings may also suffer from a loss of
social status through a reduction in the influence they would wield as pastoral wives. Married
women who settle near urban centres while their husbands remain mobile with the livestock
(and usually another wife) may be able to make more of these economic and service
opportunities whilst retaining social status as a married woman. A few women do succeed in
establishing businesses in livestock trade or other economic activities, but most tend to
remain small scale because of the cultural and social limitations placed on women, and the
private sector remains largely male-dominated, with few women entrepreneurs. 30
Policies, Institutions and Processes
In spite of specific policy provisions for pastoral women (for example among the objectives of
the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 31) there is a general recognition that much
government and non-government development has failed pastoral women in the past in
terms of both their strategic and their practical needs, and that the greatest challenge
remains with regard to implementing these objectives on the ground and increasing women’s
awareness and knowledge of their rights and supporting policies.
Indigenous institutions in Ethiopia’s pastoral areas, including women’s institutions, provide a
status and standing for pastoral women but at the same time many indigenous public
decision making processes formally exclude women. Modern institutions such as local
5

6. government structures are similarly male dominated and often exclude women further
because they ignore and consequently undermine the ‘informal power’ that women can exert
through customary channels. Other aspects of indigenous pastoral culture continue to be
sanctioned by pastoral societies even though they affect women negatively, for example
culturally accepted violence against women, such as FGM, marriage by abduction, early
marriage, enforced cross-cousin marriage (in Afar), and widow ‘inheritance’. Many pastoral
women remain ignorant of their rights under national law and lack the knowledge and/or
capacity to challenge these practices.
Key Conclusions and Policy Recommendations
Pastoral women in Ethiopia have different livelihood strategies and varying livelihood capital
assets according to their degree of sedentarisation. More mobile pastoral communities may
be seeking to enhance their pastoral livelihoods and to a certain extent to diversify them,
while sedentary or semi-sedentary women in the peri-urban and urban areas (ex-
pastoralists) are generally seeking alternatives to pastoral livelihoods, although some may
maintain linkages with the mobile livestock sector as well.
Conclusions and Recommendations with regard to Mobile Pastoral Women
Many of the recommendations below are in line with the specific objectives of the National
Action Plan for Gender Equality relating to pastoral women, but these plans have yet to be
effectively implemented and in general ignore the importance of recognising and building on
pastoral women’s mobility in order to enhance their capital assets:
• Pastoral women play an indispensable role in mobile pastoral economies, not only
through their labour but also through their access to and degree of control over livestock
and other pastoral financial capital. This contribution is rarely quantified, although it can
be assumed that it makes up a significant part of the direct and indirect measurable
contribution of pastoralism to the Ethiopian national economy valued at USD 1.6 billion. 32
• In spite of this significant economic contribution by pastoral women, there is little support
to mobile pastoral women’s financial capital in Ethiopia, such as the provision of micro-
credit or support to markets. 33 Micro-credit has been successfully provided to semi-
sedentary women’s groups in southern Ethiopia, as discussed below, but few schemes
reach the more mobile women.
• Initiatives to build pastoral women’s financial capital need to recognise that women’s and
men’s livelihood strategies may vary according to their different livelihood goals and
priorities. Women’s production objectives may focus on feeding the family, and hence
aim to maximise milk offtake either for consumption or for sale, while men may aim to
retain milk for livestock consumption in order to maximise herd productivity to increase
livestock sales for cash. Similarly women may prioritise addressing livestock diseases
that affect income (e.g. mastitis) while men may prioritise diseases with high mortality
rates. 34
 Improved markets and value chains for milk (and to a certain extent for other
livestock products, and goods such as NTFPs) should be developed to enhance
women’s incomes and financial capital.
 However, three important caveats should be taken into account: first that
increasing milk offtake (even if the proceeds are spent on grains) may have a
negative effect on child nutrition, particularly in poorer families35; second, that milk
offtake needs to be balanced against overall herd productivity; and third that
increasing market opportunities does not automatically result in benefits for
women if they do not have the social and financial capital to maximise them.
6

7.  Market development has historically focused on fixed access points: ‘in general,
governments have attempted to adapt pastoralism to services rather than services
to pastoralism’. 36 However, pastoral women may be best served by mobile rather
than fixed markets. There already exist linkages between markets and mobile
pastoralists – for example mobile livestock brokers or traders, and bush taxis that
collect milk for transport to local towns. There is potential for these types of
linkages to be enhanced to the benefit of mobile pastoral women and their
marketing priorities. Sedentary peri-urban women’s groups could be connected
with mobile pastoral women (either individuals or groups) for milk marketing, for
example commissioning the bush taxis or using donkeys for transport. Collection
points for milk marketing could be mobile rather than fixed; and training on basic
hygiene (for example the use of aluminium cans instead of plastic containers)
would extend the shelf life and quality of the milk and thus increase the price. 37
 These and other initiatives to develop pastoral women’s financial assets should
begin with the premise that support should be mobile and flexible, and also take
into account the complex nature of livestock and other asset ownership in the
pastoral sector.
• Failure to recognise and build on women’s informal power, indigenous institutions and
communication networks will further undermine them and erode women’s social capital.
This capital is key to building up their other capital assets and enabling them to access
services and other goods.
 Collective action (creation of women’s groups etc.) can help to strengthen social
capital, but where possible should build on existing networks and institutions rather
than creating new institutional arrangements.
 Raising awareness about women’s rights with regard to gender-based violence
and harmful traditional practices (according to current national laws and policies)
should use women’s networks and institutions, as well as involving men and their
institutions.
• There is an urgent need to build pastoral women’s human capital, with health and
education as priorities, including basic adult literacy and numeracy.
 For many pastoral women, mobile services are the only means whereby they will
be able to improve their health and education status. Some Alternative Basic
Education (ABE) schemes exist in pastoral areas of Ethiopia 38 but few are really
mobile and move with the pastoralists themselves. 39 The children of mobile
families thus have to choose between school and family/pastoral life; and mobile
women are denied access to basic adult education.
 Health and education services should build on pastoral women’s indigenous
knowledge and skills, which are frequently overlooked and therefore undermined.
In some areas women have already been trained as Community Health Workers40
and Traditional Birth Attendants, and in some cases as Community Animal Health
Workers. 41 Given the cultural barriers to women attending health centres staffed
by men, training female Community Health Workers presents a vital mobile option
for improving pastoral women’s health.
 The possibility of training women community workers in other sectors should also
be promoted, in order to build on their skills, facilitate their access to other women,
and enhance their social capital at the same time. 42
• Although the PASDEP document appears broadly supportive of pastoralism as a
livelihood strategy, the government’s implicit policy of sedentarisation will have significant
implications for pastoral women and gender relations in the future. While sedentarisation
offers potential opportunities for some women, the general trend in other pastoral areas is
7

8. that most women are further disadvantaged, both socially and financially, by a reduction
in their mobility.
• Specific changes in land policy (such as registration and/or enclosure) have significant
impacts on women and their access to and control of natural capital.
 Land registration in mobile pastoral areas must take account of women’s need to
access and control natural resources and include women’s names on any title
deeds.
 The impact of any registration process should be carefully monitored, including
learning lessons from existing registration schemes in sedentary agricultural
areas.
Conclusions and Recommendations with regard to Sedentary, Ex-pastoral Women
• Building the financial capital of sedentary women requires less focus on livestock
production and more on alternative livelihoods:
 Opportunities for women to develop small businesses should be increased, for
example for trade in milk, NTFPs, hides and skins, and livestock, as well as petty
trade.
 Micro-finance should be made available to support these businesses
 Experience has shown that collective action provides women with more financial
security as well as with social support. There are positive examples of sedentary
and semi-sedentary women’s groups in southern Ethiopia establishing successful
group or individual businesses and savings and credit schemes. 43
• However, sedentary ex-pastoral women can have very low social capital which may limit
the extent to which they can develop such businesses, particularly if they are heads of
households and from the poorer wealth groups.
 Interventions focusing on ex-pastoral women should ensure that female-headed
households are included and are given the support needed to enable their full
participation.
 Increasing women’s skills and knowledge (for example basic literacy and
numeracy, business skills) also helps to increase their confidence and enhances
their social capital.
• Although their human capital needs may not be as great as that of mobile pastoral
women, ex-pastoral women remain severely disadvantaged in their access to health and
education services.
 Health and education services should continue to expand in pastoral areas,
including in the urban centres to service the sedentary populations.
 Affirmative action to overcome barriers to women’s and girls’ access and uptake of
these services should be undertaken in terms of quotas and awareness raising.
Women in pastoral areas in Ethiopia remain caught in a ‘double bind’: ‘as pastoralists, they
are victims of social, economic and political marginalization, and as women they suffer
inequality in accessing resources, social services and participation in decision-making’. 44 In
order to overcome this challenge, gender issues need to be mainstreamed at all stages of
policy development and implementation. The ‘twin-track’ approach to mainstreaming
involves specific activities focusing on women’s needs (such as described in the
recommendations above) together with gender analysis and awareness in all initiatives, not
only those relating to women. The capacity of policy makers, researchers and implementers
to include detailed gender analysis of women’s livelihoods in their assessment, planning and
implementation should be enhanced, supported by appropriate gender disaggregated data.
The opportunity for developing a national forum for women from pastoral areas should also
be thoroughly investigated.
8

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of Ethiopia UN-OCHA, Addis Ababa
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Ababa
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developing secure livelihoods in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia – a summary paper by Mary Ann
Brocklesby, Mary Hobley and Patta Scott-Villiers
Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia (2008) Promoting Gender Mainstreaming within Pastoral Programs and
Organisations: A Generic Guideline in partnership with Oxfam GB, Addis Ababa
Patterson, Kristen P. (2007) Integrating Population, Health and Environment in Ethiopia Population Reference
Bureau, Washington DC
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Children, Addis Ababa
Save the Children USA (2007) Pastoralist Review: Save the Children USA’s work in the pastoral areas of
southern Ethiopia Save the Children USA and USAID, Addis Ababa
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Study commissioned by the World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism
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10

11. Notes
1
FDRE 2006a; FDRE 2006b
2
Including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the African Union’s Declaration on
Gender Equality in Africa, and the Millennium Development Goals.
3
Box 1 data sources: UNDP 2008; Patterson 2007; FDRE 2006a; WomenWatch (undated); FDRE 2008b; FDRE 2006b; World Bank 2009;
Pastoralist Consultant International 2009; UNICEF 2009
4
CEDAW 2002; FDRE 2006b
5
Hundie and Padmanabhan 2008
6
Emana et al undated
7
Coppock 1994
8
McPeak and Doss 2006
9
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008, Watson 1989
10
The market for handicrafts is largely limited to those areas such as South Omo which are frequented by tourists, together with limited
opportunities afforded by traders supplying shops in Addis Ababa. South Omo received over 200,000 tourists in 2005/6 (Oumer and Ali
2007)
11
Flintan 2007
12
Box 2 data sources: Catley et al. 2008; Devereux 2006; Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008; FDRE 2008a; FDRE 2006b; Sadler et al. 2009;
Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia 2008; Ridgewell et al 2007; Mamo 2007
13
Watson 1988; Watson 1989; Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008; Pastoralist Consultants International 2009; Hatfield and Davies 2006
14
Source: Watson 2003
15
Hatfield and Davies 2006; Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008. Examples include Alokita in the Karimojong Cluster (Watson 2003), Ischar in
Somali (Devereux 2006) and Siiqee in Borana (Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia 2008)
16
Pastoralist Consultants International 2009
17
Devereux 2006
18
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008
19
Devereux 2006
20
Oumer 2007
21
Oumer 2007
22
Flintan 2007
23
Holden 2008
24
Flintan 2008
25
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008
26
McPeak and Doss 2006. In this study in northern Kenya, reasons for the men’s reluctance to support their wives’ milk marketing
included: the desire to preserve more milk for the livestock; concern about women’s control of the income from the milk sales, which is
generally spent in the town on the same day; and fear that the women will develop relationships with men in the town.
27
Sadler et al. 2009
28
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008; Devereux 2006; Alemu and Flintan 2007
29
Mamo 2007
11

12. 30
Pastoralist Communication Initiative 2007
31
The Nap-Ge objectives include increasing pastoral women’s access to and control over resources, special service packages for pastoral
women (extension, education, health, credit etc.) and projects to reduce pastoral women’s workload (FDRE 2006b)
32
‘Direct’ contributions of the Total Economic Valuation (TEV) include sales of livestock and livestock products and the subsistence value
of livestock products. ‘Indirect’ contributions include inputs to agriculture and tourism, and dryland products. Direct and indirect
contributions that cannot be measured and therefore are excluded from this calculation include employment, animal management and
rangeland management skills, environmental protection, socio-cultural values and indigenous knowledge (SOS Ethiopia 209)
33
Adrian Cullis, pers.com.
34
Heffernan 2002
35
Sadler et al. 2009
36
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008
37
Wayua et al. 2008
38
Save the Children 2007; Pastoralist Concern Association Ethiopia 2006
39
Adrian Cullis, pers. com.
40
The WHO has recently ratified the dispensing of antibiotics to treat childhood pneumonia (a key contributor to child morbidity) by
community health workers. However the Ethiopian Government is currently reluctant to authorise community workers to dispense
antibiotics (Kate Sadler, pers.com.). Lessons from the change in policy towards Community Animal Health Workers may perhaps be
applied here to bring about a similar policy change with regard to human health and facilitate an expansion of the role of (particularly
women) community health workers.
41
Action Against Hunger 2005
42
For example, women paralegals have been trained with some success in some pastoral communities in West Africa (Flintan 2008)
43
Coppock et al. 2006; Coppock et al. 2007
44
Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008
12