West Africa Regional Pastoral Programme

Introduction

Livestock farming provides a livelihood for nearly 30 per cent of the population of the Sahel region and is a major pillar in the national economy for countries in the area. 

The Sahel, an excellent area for livestock farming, has been affected over the last few decades by inadequate and sporadic rainfall.   As a result there has been a gradual erosion of essential pastoral resources set against an unfavourable political, economic, and social background.

Farming communities in the Sahel lack recognised representative organisations and are often not in a position to defend their interests as a group.  These nomadic and semi-nomadic communities need to be supported by a strong and dynamic civil society on a national and sub-regional level, which can promote their rights. Livestock farming organisations are not properly organised. In general they lack capacity in terms of advocacy, lobbying, communication and networking to influence policies at a national and regional level.

Improving living conditions for pastoral populations cannot be achieved without the involvement of strengthened organisation that can put forward the interests of their stakeholders and ensure their integration amongst other social groups.  This is the trend that Oxfam and its allies are trying to reverse with the Regional Pastoral Programme.

The Regional Pastoral Programme

The Regional Pastoral Programme was founded as a result of mutual interest amongst Oxfam’s local partners in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. These partners wanted to deal with the issue of livestock marketing with the adoption of national and sub-regional strategies to secure pastoral incomes and strengthen their organisations. 

To realise this vision a consortium of technical and financial partners has been put in place. This includes: the European Union, Oxfam GB, Novib and ACORD Sahel 1. The West African Regional Pastoral Programme has a 15 year plan and seeks to increase access for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to markets and basic services, at local, national and regional levels through a viable, solid organisational infrastructure capable of influencing policy.

What we do

The Regional Pastoral Programme is delivered through the following areas:

• Supporting the emergence and strengthening of pastoral organisations so that they can legitimately represent pastoralists amongst the local, national and cross-border decision-making bodies 
• Developing the capacity of pastoral organisations to influence policy through networking
• Supporting initiatives for the inclusion of pastoral communities to encourage their involvement in the decision-making processes on decentralisation, democratisation, market access and securing livestock products 
• Contributing to securing the livelihoods and living conditions of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists through better access to basic services, and to local and regional markets
• Carrying out research and activities on the effects of climate change on the lives of pastoralists (small-scale producers) and of livestock farming on the ecological environment

Programme partners and target groups

Billital Maroobe Network

Created by our three local partners, the Billital Maroobe Network (meaning ‘Promotion of Animal Herders in Peul) is the official voice of pastoralists in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

The network enables pastoralist groups to share knowledge, experience and up to date information and informs them about their rights. It also advocates on behalf of pastoralists to ensure that their needs are taken into account in national and regional policy making. This is a major long-term step in tackling the lack of organisation and limited political influence that keep pastoral communities in poverty.

Currently, the Billital Maroobé network  brings together the following pastoralist organisations:

• Association pour la Redynamisation de l’Elevage  (AREN) in Niger: 28,000 pastoralist members
• Amadane/Tassaght (Mali) : 4600 pastoralist members
• CRUS (Burkina Faso) composed of 62 unions which regroup 1176 grassroots agro-pastoralist groups
• UDOPER (Union Nationale Des Eleveurs des Petits Ruminants) in Benin with 30,000 members
• Other associations from the sub-regional network that are organised into country platforms (Mauritania, Senegal and northern Nigeria) and have more than 120,000 members

Women represent close to 52 per cent of members of the network. The final programme beneficiaries are mainly the livestock farmers of the Sahel, which are made up of Peulh, Arab/Moor and Tuareg communities. They are nomadic or semi-nomadic and move from one place to another according to a calendar that depends in part on the kinds of livestock they have as well as the seasons. The group of indirect beneficiaries is made up of populations that are not yet members of the network and other producer associations. This important secondary group that will benefit from the consequences of our advocacy work is estimated to comprise 15 million people in the Sahel.

Programme activities

In collaboration with our local partners, we support pastoralist communities to:

• improve their livelihoods through better access to local and international markets
• improve management of precious natural resources like water
• ensure access to basic services
• help strengthen women’s position within and outside of their communities
• support pastoral land tenure, climate change and management of natural resources

Other key elements of the programme approach and strategy are advocacy, campaigning, research and capacity building of partners in co-ordination with other programmes.

Programme impact

The Regional Pastoral Programme has considerably improved revenues and changed certain behaviours and practices amongst livestock farmers at national and regional level through:

• Better access to certain basic services (greater health coverage for herds through the creation of vaccination fairs and the availability of various input products, transfer of skills to the livestock farmers)
• Securing livestock markets and the creation of an information system on the markets at different levels
• Reducing conflicts through intercommunity dialogue
• Involvement of pastoralists in the drafting and implementation of laws and regulations that concern them (pastoral code in Niger, agricultural orientation law and decree of application for the pastoral charter in Mali)
• Expanding the network to four new countries (Benin, Mauritania, Nigeria, and Senegal) in a new dynamic partnership
• A transition phase, which has cleared the way for a structured network that is capable to negotiate directly with financial partners

Back to Mali in depth overview

Back to Niger in depth overview

Last updated: November 08