Pastoralists’ social networks manage risk in Karamoja, Uganda

The article “Friendship, kinship and social risk management strategies among pastoralists in Karamoja, Uganda” by Padmini Iyer, published in Pastoralism 11:24 (2021), describes risk-pooling friendships and other social networks among pastoralists in Karamoja. Social networks are of critical importance to manage risk in an environment marked by volatility and uncertainty. These mainly takes the form of “stock friendships”: an informal insurance system in which men establish mutually beneficial partnerships with unrelated or related individuals through livestock transfers in the form of gifts or loans. Friends accept the obligation to assist each other during need, ranging from the time of marriage to times of distress.

Anthropologists and economists claim that social networks are critical for recouping short-term losses such as food shortage, as well as for ensuring long-term sustainability through building social capital and rebuilding herds. Ethnographic data on friendship, kinship and other networks among male and female pastoralists in Karamoja showed the enduring importance of social networks in the life of Karamoja’s pastoralists today. The author argues that appreciating historical and traditional mechanisms of resilience among pastoralists is vital for designing community-based risk-management projects. She discusses how traditional safety-net systems have been used successfully by NGOs to assist pastoralists in the wake of disaster, and how the same can be done by harnessing risk-pooling friendships in Karamoja.

Posted on 15 May 2022 in Pastoralism & Culture, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition