Pastoralist communities have always used a number of traditional coping mechanisms — migration, mobility and raiding — to reduce the hazards imposed by an unpredictable environment. However, a variety of additional problems such as population growth, economic stagnation, land annexation, ethnic tensions and sedentarization have weakened these traditional coping mechanisms. As a result, pastoralist mobility has become increasingly associated with the search for income-generating activities rather than pastures for livestock. According to UNSO, an increasing number of people in Africa are seeking to escape from risky farming on dry and degrading land by migrating, temporarily or permanently, to urban areas in search of work. Consequently, IFAD has found support for alternative income-generating activities to be a vital part of an overall drought-mitigation strategy. The provision of credit for microenterprises increases the pastoralists’ livelihood options, thereby improving household food and economic security.

Critical elements in the development of successful income-generating activities include:

• a sustainable rural finance service capable of promptly delivering loans of appropriate size and duration to meet client needs;
• small and homogeneous groups trained to successfully manage group affairs, credit and, in certain areas, common input supply and output marketing systems; and
• overall improvement in market conditions, including better access to information and reduction of transport costs.

Many of IFAD’s activities under the Special Programme for Sub-Saharan African Countries Affected by Drought and Desertification (Special Programme for Africa) offered valuable lessons in the implementation of components aimed at drought mitigation and recovery. In particular, income-generating activities, which were included in 80% of the projects, were a major focus of the second phase. It was discovered that opportunities for income generation (for example, by small-scale food trading and processing of small farmyard livestock) existed in the project areas, and support for these activities rapidly reduced the drought recovery time for many households and communities.

The Special Programme for Africa implemented these elements through the following activities:

• studies undertaken with client group participation to determine the type and duration of credit and training needs, as well as market information requirements;
• development of a viable grouping system for channelling loans to individuals; and
• analysis of the willingness and ability of formal financial institutions to serve small borrowers and provide support for involving banks in a broader income-generation support system.

Relevant IFAD Projects