Description

Abstract: It is often presumed that pastoral societies have effective social safety nets to help protect themselves during times of stress. To address this important issue we analyzed quarterly survey data collected among 323 pastoral households residing in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia during the drought year of 2000. We wanted to quantify the extent to which the households relied on transfers of money, food, and livestock from other pastoralists as part of a social safety-net system. Our results indicate that transfers among pastoralists were very limited during this time frame. Most households appeared to rely on their own resources. In the few cases when households received transfers, they typically came from outside the pastoral sector. Related work by PARIMA indicates that a phenomenon such as drought does not affect all pastoral households in the same fashion–some households suffer much more than others. Despite variation in drought impact at the household level, the capacity for these pastoral societies to internally buffer themselves from stress seems very limited.