OCHA Humanitarian Newsmaker: Vol 1, Issue 5 - Jul 2007

In this issue:

- Pastoralists from across Africa to initiate discussions aiming at AU Summit in 2008

- 'Lot of work ahead' for UNAU hybrid peacekeeping mission to Sudan

- Civil-Military relations interview: 'We must be considered impartial' says Medecin sans Frontieres

- IGAD takes a blow with Eritreas' withdrawal

- Insecurity hampers humanitarian work in Central African Republic

- Follow-up to these developments and more regional humanitarian information: http://ochaonline.un.org/rocea

- To use links in this PDF document: Select Text and copy search string into browser.

All Africa - Kenya

Pastoralists Meet Policy Makers to Seek Recognition

Separate worlds will meet when nomadic pastoralists and government policy makers from across Africa come together in Shaba National Reserve in Isiolo, Kenya, on 7-11 July. The gathering is intended to kick-start discussions leading up to an African Union (AU) Summit in July 2008, when heads of AU states are expected to agree a pastoralist policy for the African continent.

Millions of pastoralists across Africa live in remote areas away from political and economic cent res, often leaving them marginalized to policy making processes. The pastoralists will therefore seek to highlight the plight of their communities plagued by conflict, natural degradation and recurrent climatic shocks and demand recognition and influence on policies that directly affect their lives. Today, there is a tendency to rely on emergency aid when crises occur, instead of tackling the root causes of pastoralists' problems.

The outcome of the meeting is expected to be an agenda for discussions in countries with pastoralist communities over the coming year to produce the groundwork for a continent-wide policy framework.

The AU's Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), and UN OCHA Pastoralist Communication Initiative (UN OCHA-PCI) are jointly organizing the event, which will run over four days with pastoralists meeting in advance in a tented camp in the Shaba Reserve from the 7 July. Representatives of the media are invited to participate in the unique gathering.

http://www.pastoralists.org