Pastoralist innovation in the face of COVID-19

The article “COVID-19 and pastoralism: reflections from three continents” (2020, 25pp) by Giulia Simula et al from the PASTRES Programme of the Institute of Development Studies in the UK, was published in The Journal of Peasant Studies. Looking at five cases of pastoralism in Africa, Asia and Europe, it examines how measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the pastoralists’ mobility and production practices, marketing opportunities, land control, labour relations, local community support, and socio-political relations with the state and with other land-users and urban people. Two of the cases are in Eastern Africa: in Isiolo in northern Kenya and in Borana in southern Ethiopia.

The authors explore how pastoralists have innovated in response to the lockdown measures in order to secure livelihoods, through new forms of social solidarity and “moral economy”. They reveal how impacts and responses differ depending on class, age, wealth and ethnicity, and look at the implications for socio-economic processes and political change in pastoral settings. While the pandemic threat is real and the measures imposed are harsh, pastoralists continue to generate examples of creative innovation in everyday practice, offering wider inspiration and underlining the flexibility and resilience of pastoralism.

Posted on 20 December 2020 in Pastoral Research & Innovation, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition