CELEP at Tropentag 2018 in Ghent, Belgium
The Tropentag is an annual development-oriented and interdisciplinary conference on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management and rural development. The theme of the Tropentag this year, hosted by the University of Ghent in Belgium on 16–19 September 2018, was Global food security and food safety: the role of universities.
CELEP co-organised a pre-conference panel on “Values of pastoralism, with a focus on Eastern Africa”, chaired by Koen van Troos, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) Belgium (Focal Point of CELEP), and a Tropentag conference session on “Pastoral Systems”, chaired by Ann Waters-Bayer, Agrecol Association, Germany (member organisation of CELEP).
Invited speaker: Michael Ochieng Odhiambo: Pastoralism in Eastern Africa: policy and institutional challenges, opportunities and responses (abstract)
Michael Ochieng Odhiambo is a lawyer who founded and served as first Executive Director of the Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE), a regional policy research and advocacy NGO based in Nakuru, Kenya, now the focal point of CELEP in Eastern Africa. He continues to associate with the Institute as a member of the Board. He was also a founding National Coordinator of the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) and a founding member and Executive Director of the Drylands Learning and Capacity Initiative for improved policy and practice in the Horn of Africa (DLCI).
Since 1999, Michael has been actively involved in policy research, analysis, advocacy, training and capacity development with a focus on land, natural resources and environment. His main interest is the use of policies, laws and institutions to secure livelihoods of smallholder producers and to promote sustainable rural development.
He has extensive experience in working with pastoral and agropastoral communities in the Horn of Africa. In this connection, he has advised and supported UN agencies, donors, international and national non-governmental and community-based organisations on pastoralism and policy-related issues all over the Horn of Africa, with assignments in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. He has at various times conducted policy research and analysis, training and evaluations for the European Union, the African Union, FAO, the World Bank, UNDP, DFID, USAID, Oxfam, NPA, NRC, IWGIA and Cordaid. He is currently Director of a policy think-tank in Kenya called People, Land & Rural Development (PLRD).
Abstracts of oral presentations:
Erick Omollo, Oliver Wasonga, Yazan Elhadi, William Mnene: Is fodder production in the drylands profitable? Analysis of fodder value chain in southern Kenya
Maria Victoria Larrateguy, Antonia Braus, Anegela Schug, Kassim Youssf Abdala, Abdikareen Essa, Maurice Kiboye: One Health approach: key function in project activities in food security and safety in Somaliland
Guyo Roba, Marbareta Lelea, Brigitte Kaufmann: Linking pastoralists to markets: understanding the role and working conditions of local traders in northern Kenya
Benjamin Warth, Carsten Marohn, Folkard Asch: Grassland functions improve a mechanistic crop model to assess savannah crop encroachment and overstocking impacts
Posters
Kate Kuntu-Blankson, Rolf Sommer, Ronald Kühne, Ilona Gluecks, Sylvia Nyawira, Johannes Isselstein:
Model-based assessment of grazing impact on soil carbon stocks and dynamics of a Kenyan rangeland
Ann Waters-Bayer, Wolfgang Bayer, Margareta Lelea, Koen Van Troos, Ken Otieno: Pastoral dairy development for food security and food safety in Eastern Africa: challenges and potentials
Amit Kumar Basukala, Michael Bollig, Clemens Greiner, Hauke Peter Vehrs, Frank Thonfeld: Spatio-temporal analysis of land use land cover change in East Pokot, Kenya
Luc Hippolyte Dossa, Rodrigue Cao Diogo, Kerstin Brügemann, Katja Brinkmann, Andreas Buerkert, Eva Schlecht: Analysing pastoral resources use and regional livestock mobility in West Africa for improved livelihoods: an interdisciplinary study of African and German universities
Ditmar Bernardo Kurtz, Marcus Giese, Folkard Asch, Uta Dickhoefer: High impact grazing enhances grass forage quality in northern Argentina
Posted on 20 September 2018 in News, Pastoralism, Policy & Power, Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition, Value of Pastoralism