dc.description.abstract |
Pastoralist women invariably engaged in triple gender roles but their growing recognition as a
valuable and sustainable livelihood manager remained marginalized. Hence, the issues of
pastoralist women become a matter of debate over the globe since they are so vital to provide
economic values for other non pastoral groups. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the role
of women in pastoralist community in the case of Awura Woreda, Afar Regional State. To this
effect, mixed method research of concurrent research strategy utilized for data collection and
analysis. The survey questionnaires collected from 196 sampled women selected systematically
from 4 kebeles of the study area. FGD and key informant participants selected via purposive and
available sampling techniques. Descriptive and inferential statistics applied to analyze the
quantitative data. Here, to identify determinants of women’s role in the study area, MLRM has
employed. Thus, the proposed study came up with 29-39 women’s age group, married marital
status, family size of 3-5 and 6-8 were positive determinants whereas climate variability,
drought, inter-conflict, violence, gender relation and social service inaccessibility were negative
determinants. These negative determinants were also major challenges. Besides, water
inaccessibility, food insecurity, poverty, sexual harassment, killing, absences of government
intervention, weak traditional conflict resolution method, absence of decision making power,
lack of property rights, seasonal migration with herds, customs or traditions and customary laws
were other challenges women faced that hinder their role. Access of property, presence of
traditional hillers, availability of government food aid program and NGOs were opportunities
women enjoyed that helped to do their roles in the study site. All in all, it could be concluded that
pastoralist women of the study setting had immense roles but determined by numerous factors
and had faced to dozen of challenges with limited opportunities. This situation would make their
life to be gloomy and had serious ramifications on their triple gender roles. Adopt place-based
educational planning norms; training and extension support; prepare awareness creation
program; improve women’s income-generating potential and acknowledge their roles were
recommendations forwarded. |
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