Understanding Common Perceptions of the Drylands

Drylands occupy over 40% of the earth’s surface and are home to more than 2 billion people. Drylands are key to the food and nutritional security of the planet and vital to the economies and livelihoods of dryland inhabitants. Yet, drylands are commonly perceived as unproductive, economically inefficient and marginal lands where small-scale farmers and pastoralists practice environmentally degrading activities. Driven by inadequate understanding and misconceptions of the drylands, policy-makers devise inappropriate policies and interventions. The BRECcIA project developed an online Drylands Perceptions Survey to understand the perceptions of researchers, practitioners and policy makers working in the drylands of Kenya, Malawi and Ghana. This paper presents results from a pilot of 40 responses and is part of a wider ongoing study. Results show that many respondents subscribe to a number of common drylands statements or assumptions, although other statements are challenged and respondents disagree with the assumptions. In another set of cases, respondents had mixed views and a more nuanced picture emerged that is context dependent. Through the BRECcIA project, the survey findings are being used to shape the development of new and revised dryland training courses with a more critical policy and research focus for policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and students in Kenya

Tuberculosis among transhumant pastoralist and settled communities of south-eastern Mauritania

Background: Transhumant pastoralists of Mauritania were assumed to have a high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) because of reduced access to diagnostic testing. No population-based survey on TB has been published for Mauritania. Objective: The goal of this study was to estimate the prevalence of presumptive TB cases among mobile pastoralists and villagers in a remote zone of Mauritania. Design: In the south-eastern province of Hodh Ech Chargui, 250 adult pastoralists and 250 villagers were randomly enrolled using multistage cluster sampling in February 2012. A TB centre nurse examined participants using a standard clinical protocol, and a participant questionnaire was completed. Focus group discussions and interviews were conducted with community members and health personnel, respectively. Results: Fourteen new presumptive TB cases were identified, leading to an overall prevalence of 2.8%, (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–4.7%). The prevalence was non-significantly higher among villagers than pastoralists (3.6% vs. 2.0%). Assuming illness duration was 3 years and all presumptive cases started treatment, an overall crude incidence of 933 cases/100,000 was derived. Five of six presumptive cases in Djiguenni were confirmed by sputum smear microscopy, but none out of eight presumptive cases were confirmed in Néma, although the same nurse performed all clinical examinations in both departments. This result was attributed to the use of expired reagents in Néma. Communities mentioned distance rather than lack of information as the main constraint to seeking diagnosis, but poor diagnostic centre performance also delayed decision-making. Conclusions: TB prevalences were high among both pastoralists and villagers. None of the 14 presumptive cases sought prior diagnostic testing. TB diagnostic centres in the remote rural study zone were poorly equipped. These centres must remain in operation to reduce TB incidence in vulnerable communities in insecure remote rural zones and to reach national health goals

Education inclusion as a border regime: implications for mobile pastoralists in Ethiopia's Afar region

This paper extends and enriches debates on migration, borders and education by conceptualising education inclusion as a border regime. It applies a regime analysis to illustrate the borders of education inclusion for a community that migration studies have hitherto neglected: mobile pastoralists. It argues that education inclusion signifies a new form of social belonging and border crossing that many mobile pastoralists are undertaking, often precipitated by dispossession from their traditional, mobile livelihood. Supported by empirical data from Ethiopia’s Afar region, the regime analysis reveals how educational opportunity for these learners is regulated by border ‘checkpoints’. It identifies persisting and emerging inequalities of opportunity under current regimes of education inclusion that challenge the Sustainable Development Goal pledges to reach the last first. A re-appraisal of scholarly boundaries is called for to support the interdisciplinary effort needed to place mobile pastoralists among those who count first