New online platform: Pastoralist Knowledge Hub

The Pastoralist Knowledge Hub was launched in April 2015 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the European Union, Germany and other partners. This online platform aims to enable mobile livestock keepers to connect, to meet and discuss issues like agricultural innovations or land regulations and find shared solutions to common challenges.

The hub also offers a growing database of research on pastoralism, contacts for a worldwide network of pastoral representatives, and discussion forums for pastoralist networks and partnering institutions.  Furthermore, it includes a mechanism that lets pastoral communities nominate and select representatives to global forums such as the Committee on World Food Security.

The hub brings together partner institutions including the African Union, the European Union, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank and non-governmental organisations as well as pastoralist civil society groups. These organisations can share their work and resources on pastoralism and actively consult with pastoral networks.

Despite their importance to food production and ecosystems, pastoralists have traditionally been marginalised in decision-making on matters like the decrease of rangelands and the disruption of their mobility routes that negatively affect their lives and livelihoods. They have frequently been subject to attempts to alter their nomadic lifestyles and often find it hard to access health services and schools. Pastoralists are also still poorly represented in decision-making processes in high-level institutions such as the United Nations and their own national governments.
The German Ministry for Food and Agriculture is contributing USD1.7 million to initiate the Hub.

Visit the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub

(FAO/ile)