Earlier on this is worded as ‘Building the human resources development and implementation capacity that centers on the lifestyle and work culture of pastoral communities’ (p.32).

This sectoral strategy is justified on the basis of the following premises:

1. ‘the pastoral people have been excluded in the past from the development process. Furthermore, their livelihood, i.e., animal husbandry has been undermined severely’;
2. ‘activities that could sustainably solve the problems of the community have not been undertaken; and the focus has been on solving immediate problems’;
3. ‘a sense of dependency has been taking roots [sic] in some areas which have been encouraged by those local and foreign parasitic non-governmental organizations who use this activity as [a] source of income’;
4. ‘it is necessary that continuous activities that help pastoralists develop their hardworking spirit and commitment be undertaken so that they will develop their resources on their own’;
5. ‘pastoral areas are weak in human resource, organization, working process, and implementation capacity building institutions’;
6. ‘our human resource development shall center on the entire pastoral population as a whole’.

The strategy is described as designed to act on these premises with the following measures:

1. training pastoralists ‘continuously on the various policies programs, and packages’ to improve their skill and build their capacity;
2. strengthening pastoralists’ ‘implementation capacity … with the collaboration of universities and education and research institutions’;
3. providing ‘children of pastoralists [with] incentives and special support to sustainably solve the capacity problem’;
4. giving leaders in pastoral areas ‘the capacity to lead with skill and knowledge of the changing and growing need of the pastoral people’.

COMMENTARY

1. A change from the past. The opening premise of this sectoral strategy is that pastoral development so far has been undertaken without consideration of the people in pastoral systems, and that, as a result, their livelihoods have suffered: ‘The pastoral people have been excluded in the past from the development process … their livelihood, i.e., animal husbandry has been undermined severely’ (p.71). In order to rectify this mistake, this strategy intends to ‘conduct human resource development and capacity building activity … based on the work culture and livelihood of pastoralists’.
2. Not on the basis of pastoral systems. Despite its opening premise, the description of this strategy falls short of mentioning how, this time, investment in human resources in pastoral areas will be ‘based on the work culture and livelihood of pastoralists’. Instead, the emphasis seems to be on a narrow interpretation of ‘implementation capacity’ as the capacity ‘to implement the pastoral development strategy’, and on training pastoralists through ‘various policies programs, and packages’ (p.72). Presumably, ‘the various policies’ are part of the ‘sectoral policies and strategies’ that Specific Objective (b) intends to ‘revise in light of the livelihood basis and ecology of pastoralists’ (p.26). While this strategy builds on the innovative and crucial premise that it necessary to base pastoral development on the livelihood of people in pastoral systems, the task of developing such a premise into a coherent set of activities appears to have been left with the regional states.

a. Develop the human resource at higher level in skill and attitude (p.73) »