One of the 25 selected winning development projects/SDG solutions at the Expo 2020 Dubai Global Best Practice Programme

Frequent and persistent droughts are a recurrent feature of the Karamoja Cluster, which encompasses the southwestern parts of Ethiopia, northwestern Kenya, the southeastern parts of South Sudan and northeastern Uganda. The impacts of these droughts are exacerbated by climate change, advancing desertification and the environmental degradation of rangelands. The resulting persistent food insecurity of pastoralist communities is worsened by the occurrence of transboundary animal diseases and the eruption of conflicts over natural resources within countries and across borders.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) decade-long work in the Karamoja Cluster (in particular in Uganda and Kenya) shows that interventions focusing on livestock mobility and natural resource management play an important role towards strengthening livelihoods, sustaining peace and indirectly preventing conflict. More specifically, the sustainable cross-border sharing of natural resources and the coordination of animal movements (and the services associated with it, such as vaccination and health inspection) have been used effectively by FAO and its partners to prevent and mitigate conflicts. Interventions combining a focus on livestock mobility and the preservation of natural resources with the goals of sustainable social transformation, innovation and conflict prevention have proved most cost-effective at increasing resilience.

The sharing of pastoral resources (and services) not only promotes the resilience of resource-poor communities; it also creates new opportunities for cross-border trade and opens up new markets. In addition, the sharing of resources and the coordination of livestock movements creates opportunities for coordinated and harmonized investments in cross-border areas by national and regional authorities, and vice versa. The good practice shows that bringing together communities across borders to discuss the management of resources and resolve potential conflicts leads to improved resilience and strengthened livelihoods, better natural resource management, more trade and peace.