How do pastoralists participate in project planning and M&E?

Starting in the mid-1990s, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ, now called GIZ, with “I” standing for “International”) developed guidelines and shared experiences in participatory approaches to interacting with pastoralists in development projects, for example, in the two publications:

• Planning with pastoralists: PRA and more (1994, 99pp)
• Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) with pastoralists (2002, 89pp).

For reference by CELEP network members, these publications are now posted on this website.

The emphasis in the publications is on integrating mobile (nomadic and transhumant) pastoralists into rural development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation – particularly into land-use planning and natural resource management in sub-Saharan Africa. Examples from Eastern Africa are included.

One example of application of these methods in Eastern Africa is discussed in an article “Participatory evaluation with pastoralists in Sudan” by Almotalib Ibrahim et al, published in Participatory Learning and Action Notes 47: 61–66 (2003). This describes an evaluation involving Beja pastoralist men and women raising camels and goats in the Red Sea Hills of Eastern Sudan, who were working with the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD).

Posted on 11 November 2017 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources, Pastoralism, Policy & Power