On 12 June, we held the third of our Pastoralism and Drylands Development Seminar Series featuring Dr Rahma Hassan speaking on ‘rethinking vulnerability and humanitarian assistance in the pastoral drylands.’
Debates on external interventions in pastoral areas have unraveled the deeply consequential effects of framings and narratives. The drylands ecosystem, for instance, is often viewed as fragile, which means that assessments of vulnerability reflect the presumed weakness of the overarching system (as recently pointed out by Young et al., 2023). Researchers have made efforts to change this narrative of systemic weakness (Scoones 2021, 2023a), and the call for a rethinking of humanitarian action to reflect local realities is not new (Fitzpatrick, 2024; Robillard et al., 2021), including work that advocates for new forms of localization in humanitarian settings (i.e. Maxwell et al., 2021). Yet, research on alternative approaches remains scarce, and few studies include an analysis of the actions of pastoralists themselves during crises.
This seminar revisited the debate on how vulnerability is framed and understood in humanitarian responses in the drylands, with a specific focus on its application to pastoral contexts. By examining different understandings (and misunderstandings) of vulnerability, targeting, and collective forms of redistribution, Dr Hassan shared insights from recent research, advocating for a reimagining of vulnerability and a rethinking of approaches to external assistance.
Dr Rahma Hassan has worked on a variety of topics of critical importance to the drylands, including livelihoods, climate resilience, gender, and natural resource governance. In the last three years, Rahma has been working with the Centre for Research and Development in the Drylands (CRDD) and the Feinstein International Centre on early warning, anticipatory action, humanitarian response, and local constructs of resilience in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. In addition to this, she explores issues around land and climate justice at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi.
Acknowledgment: The insights at this seminar are part of ongoing collaboration with Hussein Wario, Samuel Derbyshire, Elizabeth Stites and Ian Scoones, and colleagues at CRDD.
Join us to exchange ideas, hear new perspectives and engage in friendly debate on the core issues shaping Africa’s drylands.
More information on the seminar series
Convened by the Jameel Observatory for Food Security Early Action, the Dryland Futures Academy and the Rift Valley Institute, the monthly series is hosted by the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
