Regional Pastoral programme

The Sahel regions of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are home to over two million livestock herders, or pastoralists. Their traditional roaming lifestyle – moving from place to place to find water and food for their animals – has been developed over centuries and is perfectly suited to these semi-arid lands that are no good for rain fed agriculture.

However, inspite of the fact that pastoralism is amongst the main economic activities of all three of these countries, amounting in total up to 15 per cent of annual GDP, pastoralists remain a minority group in the countries they live in and little services are provided by national Governments to attend to their basic needs.

Oxfam's work

We have developed a cross border programme in the Sahel region of West Africa with two main objectives.

1. Firstly, we aim to help pastoralists to develop their own organisations through which they can represent themselves and their values, and come to understand, articulate and value their rights.
2. Secondly, we aim to influence those in power to be more responsive to pastoralist concerns.

At the same time, we recognise that these objectives cannot be met without addressing some of the more immediate problems affecting pastoralist’s lives.

In collaboration with our local partners, we also support pastoralist communities to:

• improve their livelihoods through better access to local and international markets,
• improve management of precious natural resources like water,
• find alternatives to violent conflict,
• help strengthen women’s position within and outside of their communities.

Oxfam works with three local partners:

• Tassaugt (or ‘Link’ in Tamacheq) in the Northern Gao region of Mali,
• AREN (Association to Revive Herding in Niger) in the Western Tillaberi region of Niger,
• and CRUS (Regional Committee of Producer Groups in the Sahel) in the Northern Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

Impact of the programme

Since its launch in 2002, the Regional Pastoral Programme has had significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of over 500,000 pastoralists and their families.

Today, more women participate in income-generating activities, livestock markets and local pastoral organisations.

Pastoralists now contribute to local tax, and have better access to a growing range of basic services.

More importantly, the programme has also led to the creation of an official regional pastoral network, Billital Maroobe.

Billital Maroobe

Created by our three local partners, the Billital Maroobe Network (meaning ‘Promotion of Animal Herders in Peul) is the official voice of pastoralists in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

The network enables pastoralist groups to share knowledge, experience and up to date information, informs them about their rights, and advocates on behalf of pastoralists to ensure that their needs are taken into account in national and regional policy making.

It is a major long-term step in tackling the lack of organisation and limited political influence that keep pastoral communities in poverty.

The future

Over the next five years, Oxfam will build on the success of the first phase of our Regional Pastoral Programme, including extending the Billital Maroobe Network to another three countries in West Africa.

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Last updated: March 06