Links between climate resilience and peace in pastoral Ethiopia

The USAID report “Lessons learned from the Peace Centers for Climate and Social Resilience: an assessment in Borana Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia” (2017, 80pp) assesses the lessons learnt from a pilot project in Borana Zone. This project tested the hypothesis that collaborative community activities to strengthen climate resilience, focused on building key institutional relationships, help prevent conflict, and that lower levels of conflict can provide the opportunity to enhance adaptation to climate change. For example, peacebuilding efforts may contribute to conditions that foster greater freedom of movement and enable better access to natural resources (such as pasture and water) that allow pastoralists to cope better with climate shocks.

Since 2014, the Peace Centers for Climate and Social Resilience (PCCSR) project, funded by USAID and implemented by the College of Law of Haramaya University, has worked with pastoralist communities in three districts in Borana Zone to address local vulnerabilities to climate change and to improve community capacity to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflicts.

The assessment is based on the concepts in the USAID Conflict Assessment Framework, which uses key analytic categories that provide a structured way to think about conflict dynamics. These include identities, societal patterns, grievances, institutional performance, key actors, and trends and triggers of conflict.

The report analyses climatic and conflict dynamics, impacts of the dynamics in social resilience, results achieved through the project activities and lessons for future planning and policy. The implications of pastoralist dropouts and their potential linkages with violence and social instability are also highlighted.

Posted on 10 April 2018 in Pastoralism & Climate Change, Pastoralism & Peacebuilding, Pastoralism, Mobility & Land Tenure