Constitutional Provisions

In the early 1990s Ethiopia saw enormous political changes. Since the 1991, new political arrangements and administrative structures have been established in the country. Accordingly there have been some changes in state’s approach towards pastoral communities. The Charter of the Transitional Government was adopted in 1991 and paved the way for the establishment of a federal system of government. The change in state structure resulted in “decentralization of power and administration”. Consequently, pastoral groups have got their own regional and local self-administrations established mainly on ethnic basis. Accordingly, the two largest pastoral societies (Afar and Somali) have their own regional governments. The other major pastoral groups (i.e. Borana) have their own Zonal and Woreda administrations under the Oromiya Regional State to which they ethnically belong.

This new political and administrative arrangement can be viewed as a positive step as compared to the previous political space accorded to pastoral or marginal groups by the previous governments. In the past pastoral societies were divided into different provinces and had no their own self-administration.⁸³ In addition to self-administration, some constitutional provisions and institutional measures have been made for pastoralist societies. For instance, in the 1995 FDRE Constitution important provisions are provided. Some of these provisions mainly related to pastoralists are presented in box 3.2 below.

83 Towards the end of 1980s, the Derg regime organised an Afar administration under the “Assab Autonomous Region”, and a Somali administration under “Ogaden Autonomous Region”. However, this arrangement was viewed simply as security measure rather than a genuine response to the demands of the Afar and Somalis.

These and other provisions are general ones, of course showing the government’s position and concern towards pastoral communities. If we see, for instance article, 40, No.5 in box 3.2 above, it is an important constitutional provision which pastoralists were denied by the previous regimes. Yet its implementation is equally crucial to pastoralists. In the absence of rule of law, the provision only is not enough. Therefore, equally important is to what extent the government policies and strategies emanated from the above provisions and the like have addressed the pastoral issues and concerns in investment decisions and their implementation at the ground. In this case a member of the parliament (from a pastoral area) in Ethiopia states that, “the wind⁸⁴ is blowing in our direction, but it hasn’t rained yet” (as quoted by Markakis, 2004:25). This is to say that the actual implementation is yet to be seen. Again in relation to the importance of law interpretation a herder said this: “the law does not speak the Samburu language, or the Borana, or the Somali or the Turkana, or the Maasai” (quoted in Markakis, 2004-:22). This suggests that enacting law is not sufficient, and equally important is the actual implementation or interpretation of laws. Therefore, it is imperative here to assess to what extent the current policies and strategies in Ethiopia have addressed pastoral issues and concerns at the surface.

84 Wind in this case is an indicator of the coming rain.

Box-3.2: Some Constitution Provisions Most Related to Pastoralists:

Article 8

No.1. “All sovereign power resides in the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia”.

No.2. The “Constitution itself is the expression of their sovereignty”.

No.3. “Their sovereignty shall be expressed through their elected representatives…and …their direct participation.”

Article 40

No.5. “Ethiopian pastoralists have the right to free land for grazing and cultivation as well as the right not to be displaced from their own lands. The implementation shall be specified by law.

Article 41

No.8. “… pastoralists have the right to receive fair prices for their products that would lead to improvement in their condition of life and to enable them to obtain an equitable share of the national wealth commensurate with their contribution”.

Article 88

No.1. “… Government shall promote and support the people’s self-rule at all levels”.

Article 89

No.3. “Government shall take measures to avert any natural and man-made disasters, and, in the event of disasters, to provide timely assistance to the victims”

No.4. “Government shall provide special assistance to the nations, nationalities and peoples least advantaged in economic and social development”

No.6. “… government shall at all times promote the participation of people in the formulation of national development policies and programs, it shall also have the duty to support the initiatives of the people in their development endeavors”

FDRE Constitution, 1995

Nowadays both the state and NGOs have begun to give some attention to pastoralists’

concerns and priorities in Ethiopia. The government and policy makers also attempt to incorporate some pastoral issues in the national policies, programmes and projects. The following sections discuss some of the relevant policies and strategies and to what extent pastoral issues are incorporated in them.

3.3.4.2 (Rural) Development Policies and Strategies

i. The Agricultural Extension Programme. The governments’ emphasis is on rural and agricultural development. To this end the government has issued various policies, and designed strategies and programmes since 1993. The agricultural extension programme, which was initiated in 1993, focused on intensive crop production, and pastoral area issues were not incorporated in the programme (Mohammed, 2003:43). The major concern of the agricultural extension programme was to increase crop production⁸⁵. In a research report done by UNDP on “Water Points and Grazing Reserves” in Somali Region, an elder informant said this in relation to exclusion of pastoral issues: "Those who are close to the pot are always the first to enjoy the food and we are far from it" (UNDP/FAO, 1994 cited in Mohammed, 2004:5). The explanation of this remark was that the Somalis are economically and politically peripheral and as well as marginal in the national policy-making process.

ii. Food Security Strategy (FSS). The Food Security Strategy (FSS) issued in 1996, incorporates some issues, especially problems (e.g. drought) encountered by the pastoral systems. It also prescribes some interventions that include: (i) development of an early warning system relevant to pastoral systems; (ii) supplemental feeding of livestock; (iii) encouraging small-scale cereal plots in post-drought years; (iv) establishment of processing plants near to sources of supply; (v) improvement of marketing to preserve the purchasing power of households in times of crisis; (vi) encouraging diversification in local economic system (e.g. production of forage legumes adapted to arid areas); and (vii) encouraging better management of livestock focusing on calf-growth rates and management of water supplies (as quoted by Mohammed, 2003:44). This strategy document focuses on food security, and its subsequent revision provides details of above-mentioned interventions.

In 2002 the Government issued an update of the 1996 Food Security Strategy. The overall objective of the strategy is to ensure food security at a household level. The strategy rests on three basic pillars: (i) to increase the availability of food through increased domestic production, (ii) to ensure access to food deficit households, and (iii) to strengthen emergency response capabilities. It targeted the chronically food insecure, moisture deficit and pastoral areas (Sharp et al., 2003:14 in annex 1). The focus in the revised strategy is on environmental

85Sectoral policies often reflect the way of life of the agricultural highlands and neglect that of pastoralism. For instance Agriculture Development Led Industrialization (ADLI) – the general development policy of the Ethiopian government, is biased towards the highland agricultural production system and does not adequately address the pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems (Mohammed, 2004:1).

rehabilitation as a measure to reverse the level of degradation and also as source of income generation for food insecure households.

iii. The Five Year (2000-2004) Development Plan (FYDP). In the development of subsequent policies and strategies, the current government adopted the Five Year Development Plan (FYDP). It embraces three main policies and strategies: (i) Rural Development Policies and Strategies (RDPS); (ii) Capacity Building Strategy (CBS), and (iii) Strategy for Democratization (SD). The five year plan makes reference to pastoralism. The plan indicates that “the Government has a gap in its knowledge of pastoral development”, and it envisages “strengthening agricultural development activities in pastoral areas to raise the standard of living; strengthening the foreign exchange earning, and alleviating nomadic livelihoods step by step (as quoted by Mohammed, 2004:7). To this end the plan suggests interventions that include: (i) natural resource conservation, (ii) introduction of new varieties of grasses and vegetables, (iii) provision of water (iv) introduction of livestock extension programme and, (v) development of markets for dairy products (quoted in Mohammed, 2004:7). For “alleviating or improving nomadic life style”, the plan also recommends

“sustainable settlement” with introduction of small-scale irrigation. As can be seen from these suggested interventions in the five year plan, the government still focuses on provision of services, marketing, sedentarization, and crop cultivation. The idea of “alleviating nomadic livelihoods” also implies the intention of changing pastoralism into sedentary way of life.

This reflects the view of technical experts who believe that there is no future for pastoralism.

iv. Rural Development Policies and Strategies (RDPS). This policy document entails more issues on pastoral development than the preceding policy documents do, though it focuses, as usual, on crop cultivation. With regard to pastoral development this document phases its approach in (i) short and medium terms, and (ii) long-term.

In short and medium terms, emphasis is placed on improving pastoral systems to ensure food security and sustainable development. In this regard the policy document states that, “since the livelihood of the people is based on pastoralism, our development endeavor and activities must be based on it (i.e. pastoralism)” (FDRE, 2000a). The policy document also suggests the opportunity to undertake certain agricultural activities when families are settled in one area for several months. Having pointed out the imbalance between stocking rates and the provision of water and pasture during the dry season, the policy puts priority on ensuring water supply in different selected places. The policy also recommends rangeland management and conservation based on traditional management systems. In general for short and medium terms, the RDPS focus on improving livestock husbandry basing efforts on a wide range of traditional knowledge. To this end the policy recommends: (i) preparing a package that can strengthen people’s knowledge of livestock husbandry; (ii) training extension workers and provision of extension services focusing on the indigenous knowledge, (iii) provision of veterinary and livestock development extension services which go well with pastoralists’

mobility; (iv) creating an efficient livestock marketing system that can make pastoral systems market-oriented (FDRE, 2002a:141-142).

The long-term aspect of RDPS focuses on sedentarization of pastoralists based on the development of irrigation (FDRE, 2002a). It states that “unlike of highlanders, settlement in pastoral areas is a question of changing people whose life has long been rooted in pastoralism,

into cultivators who have to learn the ways of sedentarization” (FDRE, 2002a:145). In RDPS

“it is emphasized that, though it takes a long time, settlement is a must in order to bring about accelerated and sustainable development aimed at improving the livelihood of pastoralists”

(FDRE, 2002a:146-147). Thus RDPS envisages the preparation and implementation of settlement programmes that focus on extensive training on settled farming system to be given to pastoralists and undertaking the settlement activities step by step.

In the RDPS, there seems be a contradictory ideas between prescriptions given in short and medium terms, and those in long-term. In the first case the RDPS recognize pastoralists’

livelihoods and pastoralists’ wide range of traditional knowledge and thus envisage the need to improve the pastoral way of life. In latter case (i.e. in the long-term aspect) of RDPS, total sedentarization of pastoralists and total transformation of way of life is envisaged. This implies that pastoralism (mobility) is not either desired or needed in the future. It also implies the preference for settled agriculture or crop cultivation. However, this prescription for settling pastoralists is questionable. Firstly, the policy does not make distinctions between different types of the pastoral system (‘pure’ pastoralism, transhumance and agro-pastoralism) which pastoral groups alternate or combine them depending on the circumstances. Secondly, it is difficult to imagine total transformation of a pastoral way of life through settlement or sedentarization, as pastoralism is not simply an economic activity to the pastoral groups. It rather involves social, cultural, psychological and political aspects. Therefore, it is simplistic to think that a pastoral way of life can be transformed through a settlement programme.

However, it doesn’t mean that settlement or sedentarization is not taking place in certain contexts. At this time there are pastoral groups or households who take up cultivation and sedentarization as adaptive strategy based on their choice (or decision) and as they find it desirable. And for that matter pastoralism is not static, it is under transformation, but by its dynamism and adaptive mechanism rather than by “planned intervention”. Yet it is difficult to envisage settlement or sedentarization as a fixed programme to all forms of pastoralism⁸⁶. Moreover, the previous attempts to resettle pastoralists also proved difficulty or failures. For instance, in the 1980s and early 1990s, international NGOs in collabouration with government organizations (e.g. Ministry of Agriculture) attempted to implement resettlement programme in the Borana zone. However, the programme was not successful since it ignored a range of factors including indigenous pastoral land tenure and resource use pattern, socio-cultural setup, economic and political organizations (Getachew, 2002a). A failure case has also been recorded in attempt to settle the Afar pastoralists in the middle Awash. This is already discussed in section 3.3.2.3.

v. Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). Poverty reduction strategy is the most recent government document of tackling poverty, and conditional for debt relief and concession loan. It was issued in 2000 as the Interim-Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (I-PRSP) and was

86 Some researchers (Alula, P., 2003, Cliffe et al., 2002) provided recommendations by assessing the previous settlement programs of the mid 1980s in Ethiopia. For instance, (i) “there is a case for learning from spontaneous migration which privileges social relations with local people, and maintains linkages between settlement and home areas, rather than seeking to create rigidly planned isolated units” (Alula, P., 2003). (ii) Having recommended implementing a pilot program to test the viability of alternative models of resettlement in the future, “Cliff, et al (2002:15) warn that it is important to “proceed with caution and a high degree of doubt about the appropriateness and specific value of resettlement” (cited in Sharp et al., 2003).

open to public discussion and consultation until the mid 2002. As raised during the public discussion on I-PRSP, the coverage given to pastoral development issues remained minimal.

It had a very weak section on pastoralism, thus failing to adequately address one of the major sectors of development of the country (Mohammed, 2004). Few lines that deal with pastoral interventions are superficial and illustrate the persistent knowledge gap in this area (World Bank, 2001). The strategy foresees “improving the welfare of pastoral people by increasing productivity and minimizing risk through infrastructure development, improved market access and other support” (World Bank, 2001:16). Finally the PRS document is incorporated into the government’s programme named “Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP)” which was issued in July 2002 and submitted to the World Bank.

vi. Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP). The SDPRP document identifies many issues pertinent to pastoral areas and pastoralism. It also mentions the socio-economic and institutional constraints affecting pastoral development. These included (i) ecological constraints (erratic rainfall, persistent drought, inadequate pasture and water); (ii) poor facilities (health and education services as a result of mobility, poor livestock health services, and poor market outlet owing to absence of roads and information); (iii) weak institutional support (conflicts and tribal disputes, poor governance and gender insensitivity);

and (iv) lack of clarity of vision and strategy for pastoral development (donor driven, non-sustainable programmes and projects, inadequate consultation and involvement of pastoral communities in the project design and implementation) (FDRE, 2002b:72). SDPRP also envisages similar approaches to pastoral development that are described in the Rural Development Policies and Strategies mentioned above. In fact SDPRP recognizes the complexity and the challenge of settling pastoralists as it involves culture change and takes a long time. Yet SDPRP envisages sedentarization as an approach to pastoral development. The strategies to be adopted include (FDRE, 2002b:73):

i. Sedentarisation of mobile pastoralists on voluntary basis.

ii. Consolidate and stabilize those who are already settled or semi-settled through improved water supply, pasture and social services.

iii. Carefully select viable and reliable river courses for future sedentarisation based on irrigation, and link these places through roads and other communication lines.

iv. Provide mobile social services including health and education holistically for those that continue to be mobile.

In addition SDPRP also envisages technical interventions/support in pastoral development.

These are summarized as follows (FDRE, 2002b:74):

i. Improve water supply and irrigation development. Water harvesting; construct water points adjacent to range resources for dry season utilization; river/stream diversion; supply appropriate crop varieties; etc.

ii. Livestock and range resources development. Improve the indigenous breeds and veterinary services; forage production; livestock marketing; strengthen livestock EWS; initiate and conduct community-based rangeland management demonstration practices, etc.

iii. Strengthening infrastructures and institutional support. Improve road, communication, and market; access to education, training, health services;

strengthen and revitalize local traditional institutions; encourage the establishment of viable pastoral associations; establish research institutions and rural technology promotion centres; provision of appropriate and strong extension services, etc.

The objectives of pastoral development are (i) to improve livestock productivity through irrigated pasture, environmental rehabilitation, and improved animal health services, and (ii) explore market outlets and integrate livestock production into the national economy (FDRE, 2002b:73). In general the government policy focuses on sedentarization of pastoralists and provision of technical support to producers. Thus Ethiopia’s statement on pastoral development policy forecasts phased voluntary sedentarization along the banks of the major rivers as the main direction of transforming pastoral societies into agro-pastoral system and sedentary life (MoFA, 2002, as cited in Markakis, 2004:13). The pastoral policy is described briefly in the following section.