The Role of Indigenous Social Institutions on Pastoral and Agro-pastoral Households Access to and Control over Livelihood Assets; Evidences from Somali Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

In both pastoral and agro-pastoral communities there is almost always strong inter-dependence and co-operation among households based on indigenous social institutions. However, those lucrative indigenous institutions are not known to the outsiders and this study filled this knowledge gap in literatures. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select study participants. Data were gathered from households using FGD, interview, key informant interview and case study to attain the objectives of the study. The study revealed that, mutual support is important in terms of each households survival in a challenging and risky environment conditions. Households recover and rehabilitated from social, economic, and environmental predicament of drought likewise develop resiliency heavily through assistance from within the group to help them survive and recover. This spirit of mutual cooperation and assistance operates in both bad and normal years. Mutual cooperation welfare schemes including tacsi based, guus, alabari, duco, mareeg-caydheed are of the most important intuitions being practiced in the study area to sustain livelihoods of the community.

There is growing empirical evidence that social capital contributes significantly to sustainable development of pastoralist and agro-pastoral community. These indigenous welfare schemes should be integrated with formal guidelines and directives of intervention for sustainable development of the community.