The complex and gender differentiated objectives of livestock keeping for Somali pastoralists

Abstract

This study describes the livestock keeping objectives of female and male Somalia pastoralists, for camel, sheep, goat and donkey. The objectives were assessed using a matrix scoring approach, implemented during participatory rural appraisals conducted in 20 settlements in northwestern Somalia, involving 254 female and 252 male participants. All species were kept for multiple objectives (up to 14), with the most important objectives including domestic milk consumption and milk sale, income from the sale of slaughter as well as breeding animals, savings and insurance, domestic meat consumption, transport / loads, drawing water from wells, ceremony / dowry, and hide use. There were strong gender differences in the scoring of objectives, notably with ‘savings and insurance’ and ‘sale of breeding animals’ being more important to female and male pastoralists, respectively. This work is part of a larger project aimed at pro-poor livestock development in Somalia.