Peterson Mucheke/BORESHA project
The borderland areas covering Gedo region in Somalia, Mandera County in Kenya and Dollo Ado woreda in Ethiopia collectively form part of the Mandera Triangle. The Populations of this area are predominantly pastoralists and riverine farming Somali communities. Their main sources of livelihood are located in shared transboundary areas that include natural resources such as grazing land, surface water resources such as the Dawa River and groundwater resources including the transboundary Dawa-Jubba and Jubba-Shebelle aquifers.
The productivity of these life-sustaining cross border natural resources has been dwindling due to successive climate change related droughts and the impact of the influx of IDPs and refugees to the area. This has increased the vulnerability of the population to droughts and other forms of disaster: chronic food shortages, severe hunger, lack of household income, water scarcity, displacements and reduced livelihood opportunities are the consequences. Conflicts over scarce resources have also increased, contributing to forced displacement and higher rates of violence against women, children and marginalized groups. Currently, the region is facing the worst drought in living memory after five successive failed rainy seasons. It has ravaged communities’ livelihoods. Households have has to go without food and water. A senior clan elder Muhumed Deket Elmi says, ‘The drought itself is catastrophic. And so is the conflict that it induces. The drought is thus a single dangerous enemy that kills us twice.”
The BORESHA project facilitated natural resource planning, sharing and management agreements between cross-border communities. The project supported formation and capacity building of community rangeland councils and village-level natural resources management (NRM) committees to implement priority actions and enforce community agreements.
 Photo:Restoring productivity of degraded rangelands through collective action under BORESHA |
The approach proved successful in reducing community vulnerability to recurring droughts, improved household access to livelihood opportunities and reduced the frequency of natural resource conflicts.
Dolo Ado Woreda Pasture Council Leader Muhumed Deket Elmi describes the initial steps and negotiation processes: “We established a 5 member rangeland council including 3 members from 7 kebeles of Dollo Ado and 2 from Dollo Bay in Ethiopia in 2019. Communities in Somalia and Kenya also established their own rangeland councils. The idea for a cross-border agreement first came from the range councils of the three countries. That led to further negotiation processes and formulation of an agreement based on customary norms and practices, which was drafted in September 2021 and signed by council members and government officials the following month.
Muhumed explains the benefits of the cross-border natural resource sharing agreement. “Conflicts arises whenever pastoralists from our side [Ethiopia] or Kenya or Somalia cross borders. It was difficult to prevent conflicts because we didn’t have a cross-border agreement or conflict monitoring system at that time. We tried to end conflicts after they already happened which was not an effective approach. CARE guided us in developing resource sharing agreements and by-laws that enabled us to reduce the frequency of conflicts, enhanced safe cross -border movement and improved management of shared natural resources. We also increased our yields and storage of pasture for our livestock, practiced climate-smart water harvesting and conservation, and rehabilitated severely degraded communal grazing fields. Thereafter, our wellbeing improved significantly.”