CAROLIN WALDCHEN - UNOCHA - SIM FINDINGS: SIM LAUNCH, 29 June 2010

Government representatives, UN partners, NGO colleagues, and member of the civil society: welcome to the launch of Security in Mobility.

The documentary we have just watched echoes the voices of pastoralists from the Horn and East Africa. It brings the challenges of adapting to climate change for the Turkana, the Karamajong, the Masai and the Somali pastoralist from the remote border regions of Kenya to Nairobi, and to the rest of the world.

Ladies and gentlemen - this is about the survival of the only livelihood system that has, for centuries, dominated the drylands of the Horn of Africa. It is a regional humanitarian, security and environmental concern.

I am pleased to present a brief summary of the Security in Mobility initiative and findings. My colleague will then elaborate the recommendations and the way forward.

PARTNERSHIP & GOALS

In January last year, UNOCHA, IOM, UNEP and ISS formed the "Security in Mobility Partnership" or SIM - with the overall aim to advocate for safe movement of pastoralists within and across borders in support of climate change adaption. As we have seen in the interviews of the documentary, each agency has brought a different angle of the same problem to the table.

Together, the members of the SIM partnership have the following three objectives:

1. Firstly, to promote pastoralist mobility as a climate change adaptation strategy

2. To advocate for the reconciliation of regional security concerns with pastoralist livelihood and mobility needs, and finally

3. To support governments in the region to develop a regional normative framework on safe migration for pastoralists finally

STRATEGY

Our methodology was based on consultations with communities and local authorities and I just want to stress how important the methodology of community consultations has been for this process: Pastoralist communities in all regions assessed, expressed a lot of frustration about their lacking capacity and ability to speak on their own behalf, which has exacerbated their marginalization at best - and at worst, has led to wrong or ad-hoc interventions. So the idea of SIM was to really gain the perception of those pastoralist communities who are particularly affected by the combination of climate change, insecurity and challenges to migration

REGIONS & SIMILAR CHARACTERISTICS

Our consultations covered the Karamoja the Masai and Mandera- Somali cluster. While each of these regions faces particular challenges they also share similar characteristics:

- They have a history of marginalization and show high levels of poverty.

- According to KFFSG 2010 Short Rains Assessment, parts of Northeastern Province, Eastern Province and Rift Valley are in a phase of 'Acute Food&Livelihood Crisis'.

- And in THIS challenging context, high numbers of refugees have been hosted for many years both in Turkana and Garissa

- Limited security provisions in these regions is coupled with the proliferation of small arms among pastoralists. Many pastoralists interviewed felt that being armed is currently the only way to safeguard their livestock and their lives from attacks by other armed groups

CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS

What clearly came out of the consultations, as you have heard in the documentary, is that pastoralist communities are well aware of the changing weather patterns - the increasing unpredictability and extremities. There was a consensus among the 3 clusters that 2009 had been the worst drought in the last 40 years or longer, and that the increasing frequency and length of drought is prolonging their recovery period, which is never long enough before the onset of the drought. In addition, drought is often followed by flooding, as was the case this year.

This awareness of climate change does not, or rather, in the current context, cannot translate into SUSTAINABLE, autonomous climate change adaptation:

CHANGES IN MIGRATION PATTERNS

Seasonal migration in search of water and pasture is inherent in the pastoralist livelihood system and has been practiced for centuries -- So what has changed?

Testimonials from the field revealed that the disruption of predictable weather patterns has gone hand in hand with changes in traditional migration patterns

Pastoralists in all three regions argued that they are forced to migrate with their livestock much more often than usual, further than usual, and to places outside of their traditional grazing areas where they compete and often fight with other communities over resources, often loosing their livestock and even their lives. There is currently no framework that ensures their security and protection during migration !

SOMALIA

For example, last year's persistent drought, has forced many herders from all over Northeastern Kenya to migrate deep in to Somalia - to Lower Juba, staying for up to half a year. This even includes pastoralists who are not linguistically or clan affiliated with the population on the other side - which, as we were told, is an entirely new phenomenon. (Borana, Oromos).

MAASAI

Similarly, as we have already heard in the documentary, drought has pushed Masais to coastal regions in Kenya and deep into Tanzanian territory - to places they had never been to before, and that are inhabited by other ethnic groups.

KARAMOJA

In the Kenya-Uganda border region the resource-driven conflict between the Turkana and the Pokot has permanently displaced thousands of people who have become pastoralist dropouts.

So to sum up the issue of migration what came clearly out of our community consultations, is that these changing patterns of mobility have emerged as local strategy of climate change adaptation. Safe mobility, is key to the survival of their livestock herds, and by extension, to their survival.

CHALLENGES TO MOBILITY

However, what SIM consultations also revealed, is that pastoral mobility is challenged on various grounds. This is limiting their ability to adapt to climate change in a sustainable manner. Some of the factors restricting mobility include - unfavourable policies, new administrative boundaries, changing land usage, violent conflict over resources, cattle-rustling, and human-wildlife conflict.

MANDERA

In the larger Mandera for example, resources used to be, for the most part, shared. As highlighted in the documentary, the mushrooming of urban settlements, and recent subdivision of districts has made pastoralist migration in Mandera more insecure and more prone to conflict, because of issues of control over locations & natural resources.

TURKANA

In Turkana, the creation of new districts has resulted in an even stronger sense of ethnic ownership of resources. As you can see from the map, the larger Turkana, Pokot, Samburu, Isiolo and Marsbit record the highest numbers of pastoral fatalities in Kenya.

MAASAI

In the Masai cluster, it is the increasing subdivision of group ranches, i.e. private ownership of land, and wildlife conservation parks that are challenging pastoral mobility

OTHER ISSUES

Next to this crucial issue of safe mobility and migration in the context of climate change it is important to point out that the complex crisis in the pastoral regions comes as a result of long-standing social, economic and political marginalization, which has gone hand in hand with a lack of support and investment in the pastoral production system .

This has left pastoralists at the margins of development, unable to maintain their traditional livelihood without falling into the poverty trap, and creating an environment in which alternative livelihood options are few. Most communities consulted have, over the last decade or longer, been at least to some extent, dependent on food aid and water trucking - essentially unsustainable, short-term interventions that don't empower communities and build local capacities and livelihoods.

CONCLUSION

If there is one thing I would like you to take away from our consultations and this presentation, it is that pastoralist communities demand and require support for facilitated, safe migration, within, and especially, across borders.

As one pastoralist elder in Warankara, near the border to Somalia put it: We go where the clouds are; if that is within Kenya, or across, in Somalia or Ethiopia. We will not survive without moving".

I will now hand over to my colleague who will present a call for action, advocating for an integrated, comprehensive response to the climate change-migration-and security nexus.