Policy framework for Pastoralism in Africa

iii. Policy information delivery and dissemination.Appropriate use of ICTs can improve awareness of pastoral communities and information sharingon their rights and enhance their participation in policy development.5.4 Pastoral policy implementationThis policy framework recognizes that policy implementation strategies and modalities require asmuch debate and consensus building as the policy issues and challenges discussed earlier in thisdocument. In general, fundamental points of pastoral policy implementation as follows:--Adaptation by countries of pastoral policy implementation to the specific bio-physical,socio-cultural and socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country;--Proper implementation, monitoring and evaluation should be institutionalized with appropriateimplementation infrastructure and a clear timeframe that specifies important milestones;--Development of appropriate progress and impact tracking systems with clearly definedindicators, efficient database, and policy information system;--Institutionalizing departments in charge of pastoral issues within the relevant ministries; and--Ensuring that policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation is participatory.5.5 Tracking progress in pastoral policy development andimplementation5.5.1 The scope and value of trackingEffective tracking of pastoral policy development and implementation is a complex and importantprocess. Its major objective is to enable governments to perform a number of functions, namely:i. Make timely re-adjustments to policy processes;ii. Take appropriate measures to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of pastoral policies;iii. Learn from past successes and failures;iv. Disseminate local good practices for use at the national, regional and continental level;v. Improve the quality of knowledge and build capacity for further monitoring and evaluation;vi. Secure and consolidate the participation and commitment of all stakeholders and developmentpartners;vii. Enable government to manage emerging issues and other incidental developments in the pastoralsector in an organic and systematic way.5.5.2 Characteristics of a good tracking systemEstablishing a good policy implementation tracking system requires the following actions:i. Defining progress and impact indicators and benchmarks very clearly with related parameterstaking into consideration policy objectives, the expectations of beneficiaries, and thesustainability of pastoral policy and the availability of resources;ii. Allocating timeframe and frequency of data collection and reporting;iii. Establishing a database network at local, national, regional and continental levels; to plan forbaseline data collection;iv. Plan for combined internal and external tracking systems.Securing, Protecting and Improving the Lives, Livelihoods and Rights of Pastoralist Communities45