Fostering cross-border dialogue to strengthen traditional livelihoods

For rural and pastoral communities in cross-border regions, restrictions on mobility as well as limited resources can pose a major challenge to livelihoods. Coupled with the impact of climate change and intercommunity tensions, the situation can rapidly hamper the whole region’s economic and social well-being.

In the Greater Karamoja Cluster (GKC), a largely pastoral region spanning Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda, increased drought and its peripheral situation has resulted in underdevelopment and occasional conflicts between communities in different countries. To address these challenges in a sustainable way, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has initiated a people-centred coordination strategy aimed at mitigating conflict and strengthening traditional channels of knowledge and resource sharing.

Selected as one of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Best Practices, the FAO’s initiative, built in partnership with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), encourages the sharing of natural resources and the coordination of livestock movement across the GKC by working with communities as well as relevant national and regional agencies. By leveraging traditional pastoral practices of coordination and sharing, the strategy improves resilience and strengthens livelihoods all while preserving natural resources.

With the help of the exposure from Expo 2020 Dubai, the successfully implemented initiative can certainly be scaled up and highlight the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in action and how community-level initiatives can have wide-ranging regional effects.

The Expo 2020 Dubai Innovation Series is a weekly blog series highlighting some of the creative and world-changing innovations that are being showcased via Expo 2020 Dubai’s programmes and pavilions.