Challenges in studying pastoralist conflict in southern Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Government continuously calls for policy-relevant research, but the attempts to fill the evidence gap cannot ignore the political economy and power dynamics in the country. The article “Fundamental challenges in academic–government partnership in conflict research in the pastoral lowlands of Ethiopia” (2019) by Mercy Fekadu Mulugeta et al., published in the IDS Bulletin 50 (1) on “Exploring Research–Policy Partnerships in International Development”, discusses challenges to an impactful partnership with government, drawing on the experiences of the conflict working group in the project “Shifting In/equality Dynamics in Ethiopia: from Research to Application” (SIDERA). The authors argue that research should empower communities; however, for Government, research is a tool to buttress efforts to “secure” and “pacify” the lowlands to eventually facilitate extraction of resources. The article addresses the lack of consensus on basic concepts such as conflict. The authors argue that conflict is a rational response to environmental change and state-led dispossessions while, for Government, it is an expression of pastoralists’ “backwardness” and “irrationality”. The development of a meaningful partnership in this context depends on navigating meanings and power relations.

Posted on 13 June 2019 in Pastoralism & Peacebuilding, Pastoralism, Policy & Power