Recurrent droughts, conflict, and changing land-use have challenged pastoral populations in dryland regions of Africa, resulting in numerous crises that require humanitarian intervention.

Humanitarian stakeholders use vulnerability assessments to identify and target assistance at the household or individual level, yet pastoralist societies tend to share and manage risk collectively.

In a Disasters article, Feinstein researchers Rahma Hassan and Elizabeth Stites and co-authors examine vulnerability and humanitarian aid in pastoralist contexts, drawing upon qualitative research undertaken along the Kenya–Ethiopia border.

The authors find that by prioritizing control and specificity, humanitarian aid often contradicts local decision-making processes and systems of sharing, redistribution, and resource pooling.

As aid budgets shrink, the study calls for humanitarian agencies to genuinely engage with local perspectives and community-led systems.

Read the open-access article in Disasters