Yacob Aklilu

Senior Researcher (Former Employee)

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Yacob was a senior researcher with the center from 2001 through 2015. In his role at the center he wrote a number of papers on veterinary drug privatization, livelihood-based emergency interventions, and livestock marketing systems. He also designed and tested pilot programs in the areas of alternative livelihoods, livelihood-based emergency interventions, privatization and livestock and livestock products marketing. The resulting “Lessons Learned” documents that he developed led to wide-scale adaptations of the pilot projects by other agencies and have contributed to policy changes particularly in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Yacob consults for NGOs, governments and donors on a range of pastoral issues that include assessments, analysis or program design in the Horn. Prior to joining Tufts, he worked with UNICEF, the UN, FINNIDA and NGOs in Mozambique, Zambia and Iraq.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

REGIONAL FOCUS

COURSES TAUGHT

MOST CITED BOOKS & ARTICLES

MOST RECENT EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS

FEINSTEIN PUBLICATIONS

Ethiopia, Danakil depression, Dallol image

Anticipatory Action in Complex Crises: Lessons from Ethiopia

This study examines how anticipatory action was perceived and experienced among Ethiopians living with drought alongside other crises.

Evidence Brief: What Practices Are Used to Identify and Prioritize Vulnerable Populations Affected by Urban Humanitarian Emergencies?

This is an evidence brief, accompanying the full systematic review on urban identification practices in humanitarian emergencies.

What Practices Are Used to Identify and Prioritize Vulnerable Populations Affected by Urban Humanitarian Emergencies?

This systematic review represents the first ever attempt to systematically search, sort and synthesize the existing evidence in order to consolidate findings on the tools, methods and metrics used to identify and prioritize vulnerable people, households and communities, including those displaced within and to urban areas.

Policy Brief: On the Hoof (Arabic)

This is the Arabic translation of a policy brief explores what has happened to the livestock trade in the greater Darfur region from 2003 to 2012, during the conflict.

Policy Brief: On the Hoof

This policy brief explores what has happened to the livestock trade in the greater Darfur region during nine years of conflict, since 2003.

On the Hoof: Livestock Trade in Darfur

Livestock is one of Darfur’s main economic assets and makes a major contribution to Sudan’s national livestock and meat exports. This report explores what has happened to the livestock trade…

Lifting Livelihoods with Livestock

Between 2008 and 2011, over two thousand households were provided with informal loans for livestock value addition in an effort to graduate them from the Productive Safety Net Programme in…

Shifting Sands: The Commercialization of Camels in Mid-altitude Ethiopia and Beyond

Although pastoralists in Ethiopia are often characterized as unresponsive to market opportunities, the bulk of Ethiopia’s growing formal and informal livestock and meat exports are supplied from pastoralist areas of…

Mind the Gap

This was a follow up study to earlier regional analysis for the IGAD-FAO Livestock Policy Initiative that examined the benefits of livestock exports by pastoralist wealth group. Mind the Gap focuses on the Borana and Somali areas of Ethiopia, and describes the growing formal trade in meat and animals from pastoralist areas, destined for export markets.

Livestock Exports from the Horn of Africa

Support to the export of pastoralist livestock from the Horn of Africa is often viewed by aid organizations as a key poverty reduction strategy. Drawing on existing literature and field research in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, this report examines if and how different wealth groups benefit from the export trade.

Livestock Marketing in Kenya and Ethiopia

The last few years have witnessed a renewed interest in the export of live animals and meat from Kenya and Ethiopia. In both cases, the private sector has taken the…

Darfur: Livelihoods Under Siege

It is almost two years since the beginning of the rebel insurgency in Darfur, but the conflict continues, the ceasefire has been frequently violated, and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis…

Risk and Vulnerability in Ethiopia

The people of Ethiopia today are managing the risks and vulnerabilities generated by a serious drought, profound vulnerability to disease epidemics (human, crop and livestock), and a combination of local…

FEINSTEIN RESEARCH PROJECTS

The Agriculture Knowledge, Learning, Documentation and Policy Project (AKLDP)

The AKLDP is a five-year project of USAID Ethiopia which provides collaborative learning and coordination support across the Feed the Future portfolio, leading to improved agriculture, livestock and pastoral policy and programming.

Policy Support to the Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative, Ethiopia

This project aimed to strengthen policy and practice in selected pastoralist areas of Ethiopia.

Moving Up, Moving Out

This project expands on initial research on the impacts of livestock commercialization in pastoralist areas of Africa.

Pastoralist Areas Coordination, Analysis and Policy Support (PACAPS), East Africa

The Pastoral Areas Coordination, Analysis and Policy Support (PACAPS) Project took place between July 2007 and March 2010. Through the project we developed a variety of materials, including technical studies, policy briefs, presentations at workshops and meetings, and training materials.

Regional Policy Support to IGAD

The study on livestock exports and related benefits has helped to raise awareness of processes of commercialization in pastoralist areas, and how this trend contributes to a robust group of commercial actors on the one side, and increasing pastoral destitution on the other.

Community Animal Health and Participatory Epidemiology (CAPE)

This project supported community-based animal health worker (CAHW) systems in pastoralist areas, and contributed to the final eradication of rinderpest under the Pan African Program for the Control of Epizootics.