To: Chris F Baker, Rural Development, JNA

8/14/2019 To: Chris F Baker, Rural Development, JNA

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TO: Chris F Baker, Rural Development, JNA (World Bank and UN).

CC: John Pellekan, Chief of Rural Cluster, JNA, World Bank.

CC: Ministries of Planning, Pastoral and Livestock, Somaliland.

CC: C0-ordinator, Pastoral Livestock Advocates, PLA, London, UK.

From: AM Ajab, Pastoral (LS) and Development Advocate, PDA (Independent).

Subject: Rural and Pastoral Development in Somaliland/Somalia:

Date: 31/03/06

Dear Baker,

I am writing to you regarding the current precarious situation of rural and livestockproduction systems in present day Somalia/land and adjacent Somali pastoral regions of

Ethiopia and Kenya respectively.

Pastoralism is central to Somali society. It is the major source of food and income forabout 60% of the population (Meet and milk alone provide 55% intake of national calorie

intake). It is a major asset for the economy, with millions animals exported a year,accounting for 40% of Somali GDP and about 80% of hard currency earnings. Since the

collapse of the central state in 1991, in most pastoral regions, districts and localities

insecurity is still rampant and development non-existent. For decades now, prestige and

security does not come from the size of the herds, but from the ensuing insecurity-

political, conflict, social, livelihoods or otherwise.

Camels are particularly relevant to Pastoralism. Somalia has more than 6 million of them,the largest number in the world. Camel milk has nurtured, treated and blessed generations

of Somalis. It has recently been commercialized in some parts of the country, as a way toensure food security, generate income and provide a buffer against critical situations.Enterprising women have developed a complex system of processing and marketing milk.

This involves sophisticated resource management, high territorial mobility, robust

social capital and low transaction costs. Im confident youll agree with me that theirstories mirrors, if not worse, that of Iraq. A tale of pain and suffering overwhelmed by

terror and tragedy. For the moment, rural communities are dwelling on small mercies.We are alive, and these days, that is enough to ask, as one pastoral women stated.

If meaningful life is no longer possible, Ill settle for just life.

But it is a life bereft of false expectations and perceived ambitions of external

interventions, political, development or otherwise. So much of the discussions aboutdecades of wars toll on Somali society centers not on the numbers of dead, wounded and

displaced. But mainly on perceived and so-called WOT, inappropriate authority and

governance structure, support for unpopular administrations and false promises that willfail to materialize in future. The above pastoralists view is a stark reminder of the

millions whose lives have been destroyed without any physical injury or single drop of

blood shed. Needless to say, who cares and keeps count of the wounded hopes and

dead dreams? If you care and out there, please carefully read the following paras.


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Clearly, Pastoralism and pastoral LS production must be maintained and supported. Thequestion/s is/are, will present formal development and authority structures prioritize,

maintain and support them? Can one reasonably control pastoralism in protected

rangeland areas, if or where possible and when permitted? Allowing controlled use ofrangelands for and by pastoralists could be a compromise solution. Difficulties may arise

when limiting the resource use and especially when enforcing rules. To make the

pastureland areas attractive, it is necessary to adequately invest in basic pastoral socialservices, livestock infrastructure and services, mobility, protection of pastoral resources

and markets are the key factors that interest Pastoralists. Security also depends on

satisfactory mechanisms for conflict resolutions. In brief, one cannot escape to

promote the integration of protecting Pastoralism in a national/regional planning

system.

The main challenge of Somali pastoral communities is adaptation to their environment.

This environment includes health, social and cultural, economic and political realties. Yetwe know that most of the pastoral regions are subject to willful neglect, ruthless

exploitation and strong climatic changes. They have also been the subject of landgrabbing, so much uncertainty surrounds the future of Somali pastoralism. Risk is part of

pastoral way of life. But strategies used by pastoralists to cope with risks and ensure the

viability of their way of life have limits and the onus therefore is on the society to ensure

favorable security conditions for development of pastoralism. Great inequalities existamong pastoralists when faced with risks, with small herders and the very poor being the

most exposed. There is therefore a social issue to be considered in the steps taken to

promote pastoralism.

Hence, here are my proposed conditions to support rural development and pastoralism in

Somalia/land. The most important is to create awareness among the public and politicalbodies, on the usefulness of pastoralism and its legitimacy as a system of production, its

contribution to the economy and its place in society. In Somalilands (or regions) harshclimatic and environmental conditions where pastoralism is practiced, it is the only

sustainable food production systems. Pastoralists are the key legitimate owners and

guardians of their renewable resources. This usefulness exceeds economic productionand cannot be reduced to the number of animals owned. Advocates of rural

development and pastoralism must target public authorities and opinion leaders. Equally

important is the real urgent need to quickly address the following cross-cutting and

inter-dependent issues by both current and future development activities as a

priority:

1- Alternative cooking energy source to charcoal.

2- Production and availability of Animal feed Resources (AFR), particularly for

camels.

3- Restoration of degraded pasturelands.

4- Pastoralists access to mainstream social services, health in particular

5- Relief+Emergency contingency for food, water and folder/feed resources in


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distress periods.

6- And so on.

Ideally, the best advocates of the pastoral cause should be pastoralists. Unfortunately,

their voices are still not very audible in discussions concerning them. Policy decisions to

support pastoralism depend on the power of conviction of legitimate representatives ofpastoralists. Pastoral organizations are increasingly being set up almost every region but

representation of pastoralists should not only be the reserve of pastoral groups but must

also be part of political goodwill of decision makers at the regional and local governmentlevels. Key decision-making tools and skill must also be transferred to pastoralists.

Unfortunately, this above stated authority goodwill is not only a very distant but mostSomali officials in the current authorities, that I met recently, believes that nomadic

mobility and pastoralism is a primitive way of life and production that is bound to fade

away, overshadowed by modern societies. They think that the Diaspora refugee

communities remittances, far exceeds the importance of rural livestock nowadays.Although I completely deplore the above attitudes of those above officials, I must

concede that Somali pastoralists are undergoing rapid evolution. It would be vain toexpect substantial production benefits in environments prone to irregular climatic

patterns, but on the other hand, great progress seems possible in areas water, education

and setting up of professional organizations. This progress encompasses the conditions

of integration of pastoral communities to the rest of population. They largely depend

on political goodwill.

In addition, pastoralists and rural population are marginalized, dying in their thousands

and with their livestock in large numbers. The rest are abandoning rural life and will very

probably be tantamount to swelling the flow of the destitute pastoralists into the outlyingurban slums. The current ensuing drought which is causing havoc in the Somali pastoral

ecosystem is a living testament to my above stated assessment. For further details, please

see the attached report of my recent activities in Somaliland. More alarmingly our earlierwarnings, NOV 05, about the current situation were completely ignored by all authorities,

development organizations and others, with few exceptions. Traditional livestock rearing

strategy makes no attempt to anticipate the risk of drought, probably because it was not

so important before the drop in average rainfall over the last thirty years or so (around50% less rain). If current trends continues regions rural productions system/s wouldcertainly come to abrubt ending and the end of pastoral livestock

production/rearing. Needless to say, the region becoming a big refugee camp, to say

the least.

Dear colleague, what ever the future holds for hard working pastoralists and theirunproductive urban parasites in Somaliland or otherwise, we must act fast to address

current priority needs in order to, for the time being, stabilize rural livestockproduction systems in Somaliland/region. This will be beneficial to all concerned SH

and actors. The main characteristics of risks faced by Somali pastoral communities are


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many. Among them are climatic, health, land, political, economic, lack of responsible

authority and general insecurity. But my current concerns and comments are mainly

with current mindset of Somali authorities, Development strategies, interventions

(or lack of them), priorities and biases.

What relevance does the notion of a project have for pastoral development? When wealready know that the pastoral system in its entirety does not follow the logical

framework of project activities. Current major projects do not take pastoral strategies into

account. Somali authority officials, External experts and their local counterparts colludeand often join in producing simplistic, sometimes harmful and inappropriate approaches.

What can an external expert do in couple of years project duration, who has just arrived

in the country and being dependent on co-operation from so called authority structures

which prevent their effectiveness in most cases. During my recent deployment inHargeisa, Somaliland (2005), I noticed most project durations are a year maximumand, this ensures that they do nothing. These experts spent a couple weeks here and

there, without understanding a single word of the language and set off to write their

reports on extremely complex pastoral realities which even the non-pastoral nationals,official or otherwise, have difficulty understanding. It is also evident that the increasein the number of fictitious organisations, project activities, reports and discussion

projects capable of absorbing the entire development budget with nothing to show

for it any where let alone in the BUSH.

I understand most Somaliland citizens/livestock do without basic mainstream supportservices and amenities. However, the obvious and apparent neglect, isolation and

treatment against ER and SH by development actors are not only very distressing and

upsetting for all concerned. But they are also unjustified and repugnant to alldevelopment values and principles. Extreme poor conditions across the board in ER, from

the burden of disaster to water access, poverty and education rates, confirm ER as an

example of the disaster that can result when environmental weaknesses, poverty,poor/weak governance and stagnant development collide with each other. It is also a

reminder of how, in those parts of S/L that lie on the vulnerable fringes of the

development spectrum, environmental degradation and societal collapse often go hand inhand. If there is anything called complex, multiple and extreme vulnerability, its

what I saw in ER capitals Burao, Erigavo and Las Anod- and their pastoral/rural

districts and localities. The real urgent need to change course and seriously address

those issues before its too late.

All current development activities are urban biased and will continue to do so unless thecurrent JNA team addresses the issue head-on. The list of concerns is very long. Despite

our continued track record in contributing a lot in Somalilands development activities, Iam really disappointed the lack of co-operation and support from implementing agencies,

with very few exceptions. I am not writing to either lecture you, nor to apportion blame

or to come hard on development institutions and Somaliland authorities. But to share withyou and others alike, our past undeserved experiences with above actors and, most

importantly, the worsening plight and predicaments of pastoral and rural communities in


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the HORN. This issue in discussion has reached a very critical stage which requiresurgent and concerted actions. The failure to act now would tantamount to

irreparable damage and perhaps the end of rural production systems.

In my honest opinion, we need to prioritize the following issues:

1- Pressurizing regular Somali authorities to realize their responsibilities to rural and

pastoral communities indispensable importance as the sole bread winners. We developed

tactics in direct actions lobbying and campaigns targeted at individual officials,influential individuals and other actors, which were fruitful in most case, often for social,

tribal or cultural reasons unperceived by foreign development officers or not tackled by

local development officers so as to avoid likely recriminations by some authority official

and to avoid underlying political issues. Difficulties emerge particularly when allocatingprojects and agreeing on priority regions and sectors. We can be effective in easing above

problems provided we are informed, supported I our activities and most importantly

retaining our independence form all others. Hence, it is essential to imbed such a role

in all future development activities policy and funding regime from the outset,starting with your current JNA assessment.

2- Developing appropriate mechanisms for co-ordination, information sharing and

monitoring of all rural projects. This is to eliminate distrust, mismanagement and

collusion of authority/development officials to embezzle funds

3- Last but not least, to ensure that the current JNA team, rural development cluster, must

prioritize core issues and needs of pastoral LS producers in all its assessment and

recommendations to DONORS in Rome later this year.

Neglecting and ignoring the present plight of the most resourceful and resilient, but very

vulnerable and marginalize, Somali pastoral society, is not an option. Forcing andoppressing them to accept meaningless and biased structures that successfully failed to

recognize or prioritize the basic needs/rights of their subjects, will not work either. The

solution is to respect their wishes, give them appropriate support and assistance todevelop their effective local structures and systems to improve their lives for the better.

As well as challenging and reforming present formal structures to recognize the purpose

of their existence and responsibility to service all local SH, fairly and equally, and defend

their common public needs and interests at all times. This is particularly so and needed toreach rural SH, Pastoralists, in the present weaknesses or absence of formal structures in

main rural districts and pastoral localities. Unless we reverse ongoing and unwarranted

biases by both local and external formal structures/officials against rural communities,tribes and LS producers. It is extremely difficult to achieve, if not impossible, any

meaningful and sustainable development, stability and security, political or otherwise. Istrongly believe that above is the main underlying root cause of ongoing conflict and

instability in the region, among others. A key issue often missed or avoided by most

urban SH, formal officials in particular, on the expense all SH and, most alarmingly,

Pastoralists.


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In the light of the above, it is very essential for us to meet and further discuss all relevant

issues concerning rural sector and pastoralism, and how we can support each other to

advance our common interest of safeguarding the future of pastoral livestock productionsystem for present and future generations of Somali society. Since time is of an essence

and problems increasing by the day, the sooner we meet the better. The easiest place to

meet is in S/L or Kenya. All our advocates are experienced professionals in their ownfields, focused and defend common public needs and interests which benefits

everyone and SH regardless of their nationality, tribe, region, political and religious

affiliation.

Any other assistance rendered to us regarding above issues would also be appreciated.

Await your positive and urgent response.

Thanking you in advance for your co-op.

Regards, Ajab.

Documents

To: Chris F Baker, Rural Development, JNA