care international in ethiopia – pastoral drop out study - ELMT Home

deal with unexpected problems of drought and other shocks to remain within their
community and continue as pastoralists.
The FGD with the pastoralists also agreed with the other FGD that number of dropouts is
on the increase. People are also becoming aware of other opportunities and do not stay in
rural areas waiting for either BG or other support until they die. They run away to other
places to seek for opportunities to make a living. They run to places where they can cultivate,
where they can do petty trading and sale their labor, etc. “Raada Tokko Argachuurra magalartti
galu wayya jedhama” Some of the FGD participants argued that the increase is also due to
education and increase in their awareness of other alternatives to make livings.
The number of Qolle in the rural areas is also on the rise. Recurrent drought de-capacitated
the traditional system to support Qolle. For example for the last 5 years Yabello area suffered
from three droughts which decimated large number of animals which depleted the pool of
the livestock resource that would have supported to restock the Qolle. Human population is
on the rise, availability of pasture and water is on the decline, bush encroachments is
increasing, settlements expanding which compromised productivity of the system.
According to the FGD with the dropouts Dropouts/Qolle are not viewed negatively by
locals. However it is the growing number of Qolle and dropouts that became too much for
the locals to share whatever little they have with them. At the same time these people could
be source of labor for the local but as their number swell they are becoming burden to the
community.
The participants indicated that there are NGOs and departments in GO that support
dropouts/Qolle. Pastoral development offices, (Safety net and food security program), water
development offices, are the main one; CRS, CISP, AFD, CARE, GOAL are some of the
NGOs that help such people.
Slightly different from the two FGDs, the elders FGD categorized Qolle as burden to the
pastoral system. In the old days they were few in number and were of some benefit as a
source of labor for the wealthy herd owners. They used to herd animals and in return receive
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