Digital system helps Ethiopia’s pastoralist communities prepare for the unpredictable
Herders travel long distances to bring their cattle to Qacha Chalu Water Point in central Ethiopia. The Water Points platform offers real-time data to guide pastoralists to water sources. Photo credit: Ayene, UNICEF Ethiopia.
A new web-based platform with information on water and pasture availability is digitising climate resilience for Ethiopia's pastoralists.
The rangelands covering more than half of Ethiopia’s landmass nourish and feed the country’s cattle while providing a wellspring of livelihoods and incomes for the region’s pastoralist communities.
Yet, this region is also one of acute and growing insecurities, having faced eight major droughts in 15 years. This cumulative disruption to pasture and water availability has caused mass livestock death, including over 4.5 million livestock in 2022 alone, worsening food insecurity and causing the displacement of communities in search of reliable food sources.
Facing increasingly frequent and severe climate impacts, pastoralist communities and government agencies need support to make better decisions that can benefit herds, communities and the country at large.
To address this need, the Alliance of Biodiversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EAIR), recently unveiled the innovative Waterpoints Monitoring platform.
The platform, one part of the Livestock Water Monitoring and Risk Management System (LWMRMS) Project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to build the resilience of vulnerable pastoralist communities, supporting them in adapting to rising climatic challenges.
The pasture, water and climate monitoring platform was developed to support gender and socially inclusive drought risk management, aiding decision-making through near real-time information to livestock producers and other stakeholders in these pastoral areas of Ethiopia.
Lack of access to timely and comprehensive data is affecting Ethiopian pastoralist’s ability to adapt to climate change.
Sintayehu Alemayehu, Research Team Leader at CIAT, leads the LWMRMS Project, and was one of the scientists behind the new platform’s development. Born and raised in Moyale, Ethiopia, a border area home to many pastoralist communities, Alemayehu knows well the challenges faced by the region’s livestock producers. “I understand what the pastoralist context is, what the gaps and the challenges are,” Alemayehu said. “It’s really devastating to see the community facing this worst drought ever.”
With the largest livestock population in Africa, the livestock sector in Ethiopia contributes significantly to the country’s economy, accounting for 15% of export earnings and 36% of agricultural gross domestic product.
However, due to evolving weather patterns, many livestock producers in Ethiopia are unable to rely on the availability of traditional water and pasture sources, placing growing pressure on what were traditionally more reliable sources of nutrition, incomes, and livelihoods. In order to protect their livestock and the opportunities they provide, pastoralists need to be able to make informed decisions, better manage risks, and strengthen their resilience against the impacts of climate change.
Despite these challenges, pastoralist communities have traditionally not had access to a livestock early warning information system that could predict and provide comprehensive information on water and pasture availability. This has historically limited both the ability of pastoralists, the government and other development partners to navigate pressing climate challenges.
The Waterpoints Monitoring platform is filling this data gap, equipping pastoralists in Ethiopia with near real-time information to improve adaptation to climate challenges.
The Waterpoints Monitoring platform integrates real-time data sourced from a range of remote sensing techniques. This includes satellite rainfall estimates, among others, to provide comprehensive insights into water resources management, as well as calibrated and validated hydrological and water balance models to simulate water levels at each waterpoint.
To calibrate and validate the hydrological model, gauging stations have been strategically placed at various waterpoints to directly measure water levels in real-time. This measured data is then used to fine-tune and validate the platform’s ability to accurately simulate water depths.
Using the model, individuals are therefore able to access site-specific information on the relative depth, rainfall, and evaporation level of the water surface, all vital information for a pastoralist managing a thirsty herd.
The platform also shows users how long it will take to travel to reach available resources, helping to ensure that pastoralists can anticipate shortages of forages and move their cattle to more lush areas. Perhaps most importantly, the platform also provides up to six months’ worth of forecasts, giving pastoralists and government agencies an unparalleled ability to plan ahead, despite the onset of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change.
The team behind the project also paid close attention to addressing the specific challenges pastoralists face. As such, a human-centred approach, which incorporates indigenous knowledge and the know-how of the region’s pastoralists, has been central to the platform’s development. This focus on ensuring the platform’s accessibility by those on the ground has extended to the information it supplies.
The team has also established a Pastoralist Community of Practice (PCoP), which acts as a nexus for collaboration, information sharing, and collective action. The participation of key stakeholders in the PCoPs, including pastoral communities, researchers, and policymakers, enables the generation of knowledge and the establishment of a two-way feedback system. Through the PCoPs, pastoralists, experts, and relevant stakeholders collaborate to share information and provide timely updates on pasture and water conditions.
This vital information is disseminated through various channels, such as radio and television programs, recorded voices, SMS, printed materials, community meetings, and information boards to efficiently reach at-risk communities. As a result, the platform provides data that is both highly relevant and highly accessible and actionable for pastoralist users, and others, within the context of their unique challenges.
As a native of the region, and reflecting on the need to equip pastoralists with accessible information to improve their decision-making amid rising challenges, Alemayehu said, “I am using the education I have obtained to give back to my community through this project.”
Enhancing collaborative efforts for early warning and decision-making in Ethiopia.
The Waterpoints Monitoring platform has been co-designed from its inception with the Ethiopian government, who now fully own the product and are leading on the outreach to local pastoralist communities.
The platform also holds the potential to be adapted and used by a range of actors more broadly, beyond the region’s pastoralist community, and “each sector can use this information to inform different angles”, according to Alemayehu.
For example, Alemayehu highlights how, for both governments and NGOs, the platform’s predictive data and forecasts can help better fine-tune policy and humanitarian interventions ahead of droughts and related disasters. In the private sector, the platform can also be used to enhance market linkages between Ethiopia’s pastoralists and cattle feed producers, particularly as they navigate various complex climate and resource challenges.
What’s next?
The Livestock Water Monitoring and Risk Management System (LWMRMS) project team is now raising awareness and training pastoralists to use the Waterpoints Monitoring platform, while also building a community information centre to continue engaging pastoralists.
Additionally, the team is working with the Ethiopian government and other stakeholders to scale and to incorporate the pasture monitoring in the platform into their livestock insurance interventions. Speaking on the future of the project, Alemayehu called for a multisector approach, highlighting how the platform can be adapted for different uses and needs, saying, “our work is scalable and there is always room for improvement, collaboration, and partnership.”
The launch of the user-centred integrated water, pasture, and climate monitoring and forecasting system represents a significant step towards digitising resilience for the pastoralist communities in Ethiopia and beyond.
Now, increasingly facing the impacts of climate change, Ethiopia’s pastoralists can more effectively plan for the unpredictable, safeguarding their livelihoods and the food security they provide for communities at large.
