In April 2026, the Observatory convened an ‘evidence capitalization workshop’ with partners to synthesize insights and key messages on issues and opportunities that can advance early action for dryland resilience and prosperity in the Horn of Africa. This policy brief and accompanying short video are products of this exercise.
Summary
As they seek to reinforce and complement the long-standing risk management approaches of pastoralists, external government, development and humanitarian agencies often rely on untested behavioural assumptions that may impede the very outcomes they look for.
Such approaches often result in ‘intention-action’ gaps, mainly caused by failures among humanitarian and development actors to correctly identify the problems they seek to address. Solution design is frequently centered on externally constructed notions of risk rather than on pastoralists’ own perceptions, preferences and lived experiences.
This mismatch can lead to oversimplified problem identification and solution design, resulting in interventions that do not align with pastoralists’ own practices and strategies for risk mitigation.
The brief proposes opportunities for humanitarian and development actors to design behaviourally-smart, contextually-relevant solutions that better reflect community priorities and are much more likely to be effective.
Key messages
- Improving our understanding of the ways that pastoralist communities perceive and respond to risk will increase the likelihood that risk management interventions will be taken up.
- Applying a behavioural lens and using behavioural insights can help humanitarians better understand pastoralists’ decision-making in the face of climate related risk and uncertainty.
- This helps to ensure that interventions and solution designs better align with the expressed needs, preferences and risk mitigation strategies of pastoralist communities.
Recognizing that pastoralists are a not monolithic group is important to ensure that interventions speak to the specific and diverse contexts and needs and prerences of different communities, groups, households and individuals. - Solutions should be dynamic and prioritize iterative processes that reflect and respond to the stated and evolving needs, prerences and priorities of pastoralists in navigating risks.