Challenging Orthodoxies: Understanding Poverty in Pastoral Areas of East Africa |
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| Authors: | Peter D. Little John McPeak Christopher B. Barrett Patti Kristjanson |
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| Affiliation: | 1. is Professor of Anthropology (Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA). His research focuses on political economy and ecology, development, poverty, food security, and pastoral and agrarian systems. Recent publications include Somalia: Economy without State (Indiana University Press, 2003).;2. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration in the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (215 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA). His research interests include development economics, livestock production and marketing, land use management, poverty reduction and household decision making.;3. is the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and International Professor of Agriculture at Cornell University, and Associate Director for Economic Development Programs at the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (315 Warren Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853‐7801, USA). His research interests include poverty, hunger, food security, economic policy, individual and market behaviour under risk and uncertainty, and the interrelationship between poverty, food security and environmental stress in developing countries.;4. is the leader of an innovation initiative at the International Livestock Research Institute (Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya 00100). Her research interests include approaches for linking knowledge with action, poverty analysis, impact assessment and livestock systems development. |
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| Abstract: | Understanding and alleviating poverty in Africa continues to receive considerable attention from a range of diverse actors, including politicians, international celebrities, academics, activists and practitioners. Despite the onslaught of interest, there is surprisingly little agreement on what constitutes poverty in rural Africa, how it should be assessed, and what should be done to alleviate it. Based on data from an interdisciplinary study of pastoralism in northern Kenya, this article examines issues of poverty among one of the continent's most vulnerable groups, pastoralists, and challenges the application of such orthodox proxies as incomes/expenditures, geographic remoteness, and market integration. It argues that current poverty debates ‘homogenize’ the concept of ‘pastoralist’ by failing to acknowledge the diverse livelihoods and wealth differentiation that fall under the term. The article concludes that what is not needed is another development label (stereotype) that equates pastoralism with poverty, thereby empowering outside interests to transform rather than strengthen pastoral livelihoods. |
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