Providing water to pastoral communities in Ethiopia

Water development can make or break pastoral land-use systems. RiPPLE (Research-inspired Policy and Practice Learning in Ethiopia and the Nile region) and partners in Ethiopia made a synthesis of experience over the last 40 years in the water development sector in the country’s pastoral regions. It reviewed the various approaches to water development and whether lessons had been learned and approaches changed over time within the framework of national and regional policies, plans and strategies. The research aimed to identify opportunities to build and enhance the positive effects of water development for lives and livelihoods of pastoralists. The Synthesis of existing knowledge and experience revealed that many water development interventions had undermined rather than promoted development in pastoral regions, because local needs, land-use patterns, livelihood systems and ecological functions had not been sufficiently understood and considered.

Posted on 15 May 2012 in Pastoralism & Natural Resources