High reliability professionals and networks in pastoral areas of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia: a new approach to development?

Seeing pastoralism as a “critical infrastructure” consisting of networks of “high-reliability professionals” has the potential to support and sustain resilient pastoral livelihoods. In this article, we examine cases from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia where reliability is generated through deliberating on early warning systems; gaining access to grazing and water resources; creating fodder reserves; managing complex value chains and market exchanges; providing small-scale credit and generating peace and security. We argue that approaches that focus on local practices, relationships, processes, and unique knowledges are best placed to build resilience in the face of external shocks. We find that high reliability professionals and their networks engage in active and deliberate processes that assemble multiple actions to support the larger system during and between crises. These individuals work across social and economic realms, through markets and across regional and national borders to respond in real time to unfolding and variable conditions, continuously averting disasters. Working together with external agencies, local networks of high reliability professionals offer an alternative approach to humanitarian and development response in pastoral areas that is locally embedded and less reliant on externally imposed projects and aid finance. The implications for development interventions in pastoral areas are significant.