The context of famine in Turkana has changed in recent years as the role played by livestock raiding in contributing to famine has increased. External responses to famine in Turkana have largely been drought driven, for example, food assistance and livestock restocking programmers, which have failed to meet the real needs of herders. The role of armed conflict in the form of raiding has been overlooked as a common feature of societies facing famine and food insecurity. The traditional livelihood-enhancing functions of livestock raiding are contrasted with the more predatory forms common today. The direct impact of raiding on livelihood security can be devastating, while the threat of raids and measures taken to cope with this uncertainty undermine herders' livelihood strategies. Self-imposed restrictions on mobility negatively affect the vegetation of both grazed and ungrazed pastures and restrict the available survival strategies. Predatory raiding leads to a collapse in the moral economy. Some implications of this for relief and development policy are considered, including approaches to conflict resolution.
Summaries The long‐persisting and erroneous conception of famine among the pastoral Turkana of Kenya as an essentially ‘drought‐driven’ event has given way to growing recognition today of the key role which livestock raiding plays in the breakdown of coping strategies. However, this article argues that the phenomenon of cattle raids per se is not the problem. Rather it is the fashion in which raiding has been transformed over the years, from a quasi‐cultural practice with important livelihood‐enhancing functions, into more predatory forms driven by an economic logic and modern forms of violence. This article seeks to understand predatory raiding and its effects in terms of the changing functions which raiding serves within pastoral society and, increasingly, outside it. The article uses a model of armed conflict and livelihood vulnerability to illustrate how violence and the threat of violence interact with drought to undermine the coping strategies of herders.
Political governance and state effectiveness are enjoying something of a resurgence in aid‐policy debates. While adherence to the principles of the Paris Declaration may be necessary for developmental progress, there is a growing recognition that politics is the ultimate determinant of developmental outcomes. This article argues that a political governance sensibility harnessed to the Paris principles may be the best and only hope for developmental progress in the twenty‐first century. But it has challenging implications – not least for development professionals and agencies, who will find themselves requiring new and unfamiliar skills.
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