Karamajo Livelihood Support Program
General context
The farming activities are mainly carried out by women while men take care of livestock. Women in Karamoja are thus the main producers of the food crops and their limited time is also shared with reproductive household activities that sustain the community food security. When the climate is good the areas receive good harvests and this reduces stress on women.
Where the crops do well women avoid the risk of attack or rape by not having to look for wild fruits which have become fewer over time and are found in insecure areas. Any support to food security by imparting knowledge through the existing women’s groups recently formed by the partner organization (KADP) will go along way in promoting increased food production and management of the storage to ensure the food is safe and wholesome for human consumption through appropriate conservation means.
Livestock being the backbone of the economy of the Karamoja, has been suffering from the presence of treatable diseases and inadequate professional animal health service providers. The main diseases reported and recorded include Contagious Caprine Pleural Pneumonia (CCPP/ (loukoi) in goats, worms, mange (emetina) contagious bovine pleural pneumonia (CBPP/lokoi) in cattle. The livestock become more vulnerable and prone to infectious diseases as they congregate at the few watering points and concentrate in the few grazing reserves near the Moroto Hills.
The Decentralization policy of the Government of Uganda together with privatization of veterinary services caused laying off of government staff with a big reduction of qualified manpower and service providers in the targeted areas of Karamoja. The area has low economic potential like other semiarid areas in attracting private veterinary practitioners and coupled with the rampant insecurity has made access to basic veterinary drugs and services rare to the livestock dependent communities.
The communities have been accessing drugs only through the few trained Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWS) who are able to follow livestock as they migrate to remote and insecure areas. In most cases pastoralists just watch their animals die as they are unable to access drugs while in remote grazing reserves as well as inadequate knowledge on the most appropriate intervention (DVO –Moroto Annual report).
Objectives
- To increase food crops production for domestic and surplus for market through sustainable production systems in the intervention areas.
- Improved nutritional status of targeted rural households in the intervention areas through training on effective food utilization.
- Increased incomes of target rural households in the intervention areas from livestock and food crops enterprises.
- Improved livestock productivity through promotion of access to water resources, animal health services and related inputs in a sustainable manner.
Activities
- Conduct community targeting, dialogues meeting, mobilization & training of 12 cereal banking communities in Moroto District.
- Training and support of 100 reformed warriors, 20 women groups, 30 CAHWS on basic skills for food security.
- Conduct alternative livelihoods support for 20 poor rural women groups relevant to cereals and other alternative food production.
- Develop 2 livestock markets, 12 new water points and rehabilitate 12 water structures at strategic grazing areas.
- Conduct market information gathering and sharing data while monitoring alternative food sources and incomes for vulnerable groups.
- Institutional support to local partners and traditional institutions to provide support to pastoralist communities in Moroto
Beneficiaries
- Nomadic pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Moroto, Uganda.
- Nomadic pastoralists households in Moroto district, Uganda.
- Pastoralist women, elderly men, youth, children and reformed warriors.
Partners
- Matheniko Development Forum (MADEFO)