The Building Resilient Pastoralist Communities (BRPC) works to build the resilience of pastoralists in the Borana Zone by improving access to inputs, services and output markets. The Borana Zone of south Ethiopia is home to a huge livestock resource; however, poor productivity and limited access to fair markets are obstacles to the income and food security of this region’s vast pastoralist population.
The main objectives of the project are:
- Increasing the production and marketing of livestock and livestock products
- Empower asset-poor community members to diversity their livelihoods, and generate more income.
Since beginning in January 2010, the BRPC project enabled the construction of four milk collection centers, which are now linked to credit services. A stakeholder dairy product promotion forum was organized, while dairy cooperatives were given training to strengthen their capacity and to establish well-functioning structures in order to compete in national and global markets.
Over the project’s life-time, other innovative activities were implemented inorder to reach the BRPC’s agenda, such as:
- the conduct of abaseline survey of the target communities
- the establishment of communal grazing reserves and the provision of fodder seeds in various communities
- the promotion of crop residue as an alternative source of feed during drought seasons
- the rehabilitation of four traditional water sources
- the provision of rangeland management training for members of dairy cooperatives
The BRPC has also raised community awareness on the benefits of sustainable harvesting and production of selected natural products, organized natural product harvesters into business cooperatives, and facilitated their legal certification.
The BRPC is funded by:
Trocaire