Battling women’s double marginalisation in pastoral societies

While pastoralists have become increasingly vocal at global level, pastoralist women are still insufficiently heard despite their key role in value-chain development and in dealing with climate change, food insecurity and inadequate land rights. Pastoralist women are often disadvantaged by limitations they face within their own societies, and their participation in decision- and policy-making is constrained. Yet they increasingly take a stand and develop innovative approaches to defend their rights. Awareness on these topics needs to be raised so that the important role of pastoralist women is recognised more widely.

This is why the Coalition of European Lobbies for Eastern African Pastoralism (CELEP) and the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub (PKH) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) decided to organise jointly a session on women’s empowerment in pastoralist societies at the European Development Days, Europe’s leading forum on development. During a 75-minute session, speakers discussed challenges faced by pastoralist women and what solutions the women come up with to address them and, in particular, how the women can be supported through an enabling policy environment. You can find a detailed report of the session here and pictures in our gallery.

Posted on 12 June 2018 in CELEP Documents, News, Pastoralism, Gender & Youth