ABEK

(Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja)

STRATEGIC REVIEW
Saverio Krtli

Final report to Save the Children in Uganda

(October 2009)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is the final output of a strategic planning exercise undertaken by
SCiUG over six weeks between August and September 2009 in order to
revise the strategic orientation of the ABEK programme (Alternative Basic
Education for Karamoja) after ten years of activity.
The exercise had three tasks: i. generate information on the strengths and
weaknesses of the present ABEK programme related to its current context;
relevant policy and economic trends/ environment at regional and national
level; envisaged threats and opportunities; ii. generate a platform of
reflection on drivers of change relevant to the challenge of providing
education to nomadic children in Karamoja and shared across key groups of
stakeholders (children and parents, educators, policy makers and donors);
and iii. guide a process of reaching a common vision for the future ABEK
and consensually define effective strategic measures for pursuing it.
The core methodological approach has been scenario planning (SP),
developed along three stages: a preparatory workshop with key players from
SCiUG and the District Education Offices of the four districts of Karamoja.
A four-day long SP exercise carried out with pastoral communities in
sixteen ABEK learning centres (four per district, with four teams working
simultaneously over three weeks). A final workshop, again with key players
from SCiUG and the DEOs, aimed at producing a vision and strategy
guidelines for the next ten years. The collection of relevant background and
historical data as run parallel to these activities.
i. The landscape of education provision to pastoral communities
At the international level, over the last fifteen years the understanding of
drylands pastoralism has undergone a fundamental change. Specialists of
pastoralism all over the world have now started to see mobile pastoralism as
the most rational and most sustainable way of producing wealth and
livelihoods out of the vast extensions of arid and semi-arid lands in Africa.
This is ever more relevant in light of climate change scenarios, however, all
involving increasingly erratic rainfalls, that is the ecological conditions
drylands pastoralism always produced with. The literature on pastoralism
and climate change points out that the future seem to develop precisely in
the direction of pastoralists specialisation.
The change in perspective with regard to pastoral mobility has triggered
important changes also in the understanding of the challenges in education
provision to pastoralists. Whilst there is great demand for education from
pastoral communities, there is growing awareness amongst the operators of
the sector that the full inclusion of pastoral children in education is not
possible through business-as-usual approaches based on the expansion of
the school system. Interest is turning to distance learning as the most
promising way to meeting the on-going expansion in demand.

ii

These fundamental changes are not yet manifest at the national level in
Uganda. Since 2001, the national policy for Karamoja has been defined as
part of the disarmament framework, with development integrated into the
disarmament exercise. Whilst in abstract this framework does recognise the
crucial economic role of pastoralism in Karamoja, and therefore the
importance of developing with it rather than against it, the modalities of its
implementation reveal a dramatic lack of understanding of how pastoralism
works and therefore what the necessity of developing with pastoralism
means in practice. We argue that to a significant extent this represents an
educational gap in the institutions working with pastoralism and in the
wider society in Uganda.
Anti-Karimojong bias are deeply entrenched in the education system and the
national culture. Pastoralism in Karamoja is consistently represented as
unimportant and backwards: something to replace or change, not to
understand and learn from. If educational options for pastoral children in
Karamoja are offered without addressing the issue of the anti-pastoralism
perspective embedded in the education system and by extension in the
national culture it is questionable whether they work in the childrens
interests.
The ABEK experience
The early design of ABEK did try to address this issue but almost
immediately lost focus and drifted towards an uncritical promotion of the
formal school system. Overall, the reviews of the programme recommended
its continuation on the basis of its popularity with the communities, for
whom in most cases the ABEK learning centres (near-home, friendly and
truly free) represented the first and only educational service. While
recognising this positive side, the reviews raised alarms with regard to
almost every aspect of the programme, from attendance (hugely different
from enrolment), to teaching methods (described as facilitator-oriented),
transition (unmonitored and against extreme drop-out rates), and even its
overall direction (drifting away from the initial focus on pastoral children
and responsiveness, towards an uncritical promotion of the formal-school
model).
The subsequent studies give no indication that these problems were ever
solved. In 2009, The only data readily available on ABEK still focus
exclusively on enrolment. There is no system for the effective monitoring of
attendance or transition (the huge drop-out rate in primary school still
making estimates on the benefits of ABEK rather academic).
After ten years of work in permanent villages, in May 2009, SCiUG opened
15 mobile learning centres in kraals. Although these new centres are not
administratively part of the ABEK system, their introduction represents the
most significant innovation since the launch of the programme. This said,
the sustainability of these mobile centres depends on the availability of
facilitators who are already members of the kraal. This raises a big question

iii

mark as ABEK has constantly met with difficulties to find local facilitators
even for the permanent villages. The following list provides a summary of
the analysis of ABEK in 2009, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and
threats.
Strengths and Opportunities
The programme is well known and generally trusted.
There is a large network of facilitators on the ground.
Strong partnership with DEOs and District Local Governments.
Responsiveness (this is true in theory much more than in practice, yet
ABEK is still more responsive than the conventional school system).
No hidden cost for ABEK to the families.
The launch of the mobile learning centres has been extremely popular
with the communities and has given a clear sign of commitment to
provide education to pastoral children in ways they can effectively
and consistently access.
Integration with other SCiUG programmes: livelihood, peace
building, early childhood development.
On going trend in East Africa towards meeting the specific
challenges of providing education to pastoralists.
National policy process on nomadism. This can be either an
opportunity or a threat depending on who assists it and where does
the information come from. Is there room for capacity building and
influence/lobbying at a crucial stage (alliance with other NGOs, e.g.
Oxfam).
Education is a key concern to pastoral societies bot in West and East
Africa.
Fundamental weaknesses
Inadequate understanding of the target group and their livelihood
strategies.
Unsustainable combination of an open-learning model (children
can jump in and out of the programme at all times) and a classroom
model of teaching (a teachers in front of a class, a cumulative
curriculum, a school register to fill).
Unsustainable combination of fragmented/flexible timetable and
non-residential teachers.
Unsustainable combination of an ideal of educational
responsiveness and a practice of unquestioning promotion of the
unresponsive school system.
A work and organisational culture that, on a scale of importance,
places paper work above the work with people in the bush.
Technical and contingent weaknesses
Lack of integration in the MoES evaluation system.
Inadequate training of facilitators: low qualifications as a starting
point would call for a more substantial teacher training.

iv

Lack of administrative differentiation between ABEK facilitators

and formal school teachers (ABEK aggregated allocation of
teachers from MoES to DEO).
Lack of an effective and comprehensive M&E system.

Threats
GoU policy on pastoralism: disarmament exercise is blind to both
social dynamics (misleading explanatory framework that hides the
links between pastoralism and modernisation and between bush and
urban realities, traditional culture narratives) and pastoral production
strategies (demolishing the economic foundations of the region in
the process of securing its territory can only produce more
insecurity and of a much more dangerous and disruptive nature).
Ideology-driven and desk-based development: misinformed and
blind to actual production dynamics in the region.
Gross underestimation of the complexity of pastoralism.
National policy development on nomadism (if left unengaged with
from its early stages).
ii. Scenario planning in Karamoja
The feedback from the communities during the SP exercise, direct
observation and conversations with key informants1 has lead to the
identification of a a few major issues considered crucial to the shaping of
both present and future. Although these issues unavoidably convey peoples
impressions and perceptions, they are nonetheless real elements of the
landscape of providing education to pastoralists in Karamoja. Here, they are
briefly summarised under five headings.
The value of pastoralism: the key economic relevance of pastoralism is
poorly understood and poorly recognised even within the institutions that
play a key role in pastoral development in Karamoja. Both conceptual and
institutional spaces to think pastoralism outside the official negative clichs
are very limited.
The value of education: the education available in Karamoja under UPE,
overall, undermines more than promoting childrens future livelihoods
options. The awareness of this situation amongst the operators of the sector
often cohabits with an abstract, positive view of education bearing no
relation with the reality they work in.
The disarmament exercise: success in securing highways and urban centres
is accompanied with increased risk of raids in manyattas and kraals. In the
meantime, the modalities of disarmament, particularly the military
administration of pastoralism through the protected kraal system, are
eradicating the capacity for animal production from Karamoja.

ABEK facilitators, school teachers and headmasters, SCiUG and local administration
staff.

Climate change: increased environmental unpredictability has made

harvests utterly unreliable. Despite of all the hazards associated with raids
and the disarmament exercise, in most of rural Karamoja nowadays,
livestock is actually the only source of livelihoods security.
Impoverishment: school feeding programmes have turned school enrolment
into a coping strategy in the face of impoverishment. There should therefore
be great caution in reading positive trends within increased school
enrolment.
iii. Strategic planning for ABEK
The key sets of issues and the main four future scenarios emerged from the
scenario planning exercise with the pastoral communities have been used as
the basis for discussion in the final strategic planning workshop. This has
lead to the drafting of a new vision for ABEK and the backbone of a new
strategy.
THE VISION: A full course of primary education can be completed by
all children directly involved in pastoralism in Karamoja.
At present, pastoral households interested in state or formal education are
faced the dilemma of either sending a child to school or keeping him/her in
pastoralism in order to learn how to take care of the family in its present
form, ABEK can only cushion this situation, at best postponing the dilemma
of a few years. ABEKs new vision aims beyond such a dilemma, at a future
in which education is made accessible to the producers themselves,
additional rather than alternative to pastoralism. Placing our focus on those
children who have so far proved to be the most difficult to reach does not
mean to exclude the others. Whilst programmes that manage to effectively
reach the children in pastoralism will also serve those less or not engaged in
production, the same has proved not to be true the other way round.
THE STRATEGY
The scenario planning exercise highlighted a serious problem with the
present understanding of pastoralism. An overall negative view of
pastoralism in Karamoja is still deeply entrenched in the mainstream
culture, including key institutions like the education system. The success of
an education programme that aims at serving the children directly involved
in pastoral production depends on its capacity to induce a positive evolution
in this mainstream cultural landscape. This needs to be done by challenging
the mainstream prejudicial perspective, filling the information gap about
pastoralism and promoting favourable change in attitude, relevant formal
institutions and practices. In order to pursue the new ABEK vision, the
proposed strategy is articulated in two layers: layer 1 deals with changing
the landscape of education provision and layer 2 deals with providing
education to pastoral children.

vi

A) Changing the landscape of education provision

The strategic activities proposed within this layer focus on three key
aspects of the present landscape: 1. the policy and institutional
framework; 2. the media; and 3. the disarmament exercise.
1. The policy and institutional framework
1.1. Systematically disseminate scientific knowledge on drylands
pastoralism.
1.1. Promote the creation of a policy on nomadic education.
1.1. Promote the equivalence of nomadic education.
1.1. Assist the GoU in the process of developing a Policy on
Nomadism.
1.1. Promote a truthful image of Karamoja within the national
curriculum.
2. The media
2.1. Promote sound information on pastoralists amongst the media
operators.
2.1. Promote a positive public image of Karamoja pastoralism
through the media.
3. The disarmament exercise
3.1. Promote an understanding of the complexity of drylands
pastoralism amongst the operators of disarmament.
3.1. Promote a more sophisticated and up-to-date understanding of
the reality of cattle rustling in Karamoja.
3.1. Promote an understanding of the economic and social
implications of the current modalities of disarmament.
B) Delivering education to children in pastoralism
This component of the strategy builds on the current network of ABEK
teachers but gradually shifts the programme towards radio-based distance
learning (DL). There are two options easily at hand, based on current
experiences with reaching pastoral children through DL in the region.
Option 1

Providing a full cycle of primary education on the open and

distance learning model currently being discussed in Kenya
(a combination of radio broadcasting, visiting teachers and
printed materials).

Option 2

Providing a DL programme of basic education with a strong

focus on literacy and numeracy and a clear and recognised
equivalence with the conventional school system. This option
could rely on the experience of DL programmes for
pastoralists currently run in Somalia.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................1
SECTION 1
..................................................................................3
INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL CONTEXT ................................3
1. Drylands pastoralism and mobility...................................................3
2. Climate change and pastoralism.......................................................4
3. Education provision to pastoralists and other mobile producers .......5
NATIONAL LEVEL ...........................................................................11
Pastoralism
................................................................................11
Education
................................................................................12
ABEK
................................................................................16
The Origins ................................................................................16
The Reviews ................................................................................17
Ten years later...............................................................................19
SECTION 2
................................................................................34
1. Methodology ................................................................................34
2. Key issues emerging from the SP exercise.....................................37
3. Peoples voices..............................................................................45
Scenarios: climate change & disarmament.........................................52
Scenario 1: Milk & Peace ..............................................................52
Scenario 2: Restless Hoofs.............................................................52
Scenario 3: Tethered oxen .............................................................53
Scenario 4: Hunger & Bullets ........................................................53
SECTION 3
................................................................................54
The Vision
................................................................................54
The Strategy
................................................................................54
A. Changing the landscape ............................................................55
B. Delivering education to children in pastoralism ........................58

INTRODUCTION
ABEK, the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja programme, was
launched with a great deal of enthusiasm in 1998 and saw rapid expansion
and significant institutional integration. The rural communities reached by
the programme (more than 150 immediately following the pilot project)
loved the idea of an educational service delivered in their own language. An
education service near home, with an unobtrusive timetable and genuinely
free of cost, tapped into an untouched niche. The enrolment curve was
dramatic. The Ministry of Education and Sport and the local education
authorities in Karamoja (DEOs) supported it strongly. Something new was
finally happening.
Almost immediately, however, ABEK went through substantial
adjustments. The initial commitment towards mobile pastoral children was
adapted into a focus on what were perceived as sedentary segments of the
community, to meet the available capacities and the difficulties of
implementation. The challenge launched on paper to the formal school
system never materialized. Indeed, the early challenge gradually turned into
unconditional support and the institutional integration (good in principle)
looked more and more like institutional assimilation.
Then the adventure of ABEK was overshadowed by bigger events. Three
years after the pilot project, at the beginning of 2002, the government
launched a forceful disarmament exercise and Karamoja entered what,
today, is described by its rural communities as the most difficult time in
peoples memory.
Ten years after the pilot project, in the Summer of 2009, ABEK embarked
on a process of reflection and strategy revision that constitutes the basis of
this report. This study therefore looks at the bigger picture and the future:
programme design and organisational structure, rather than performance in
implementation; open routes to innovative development rather than limits
and shortfalls.
As is often the case in strategy revisions, the process has lead us to question
fundamental aspects of ABEK and recommend fundamental changes. This
is not a signal of failure. Change is a pre-requisite of every form of
development. Once at the top of a hill, climbing a higher hill requires
coming down first. Moving ahead often starts with backtracking a little bit.
Change is the path to the future.

Box 1. A brief overview of Karamoja

Most of Karamoja is semi-arid, characterised by unpredictable precipitation and,
consequently, unstable and non-uniform distribution of nutrients over time and
space (i.e. extreme low peaks and concentrations). Non-uniform distribution of
precipitation means that planning tools based on average values and standard
statistics, commonly used in natural resource management and scientific
agriculture, are misleading and should therefore be treated with great caution
(Krtli and Schareika, forthcoming). Although environmental unpredictability
appears to have increased (like everywhere else) as an effect of global climate
change, it is certainly not new to Karamoja, having been highlighted in surveys of
the region as early as 1958 (Dyson-Hudson, 1958). On the other hand, the
environment in the region is comparatively easier than many other African
drylands, as evident from the presence of some farming (albeit decreasing) and
from the fact that herders from Turkana have traditionally come to Karamoja to
take advantage of the better pasture.
Administratively, the region is divided into five districts: Kaabong, Kotido, Abim,
Moroto and Nakapiripirit. With the exception of Abim (where ABEK has no
centres) and small areas of Nakapiripirit, pastoralism is the main source of
livelihood for an overwhelming majority. The population involved in animal
production as their main economic activity belong to several ethnic groups: Dodoth,
Jie, Matheniko, Bokora, Pian (all Ngakarimojong speaking) and Pokot. Small
groups of mountain peoples, the Ik and the Tepeth, live on the fringes of Kaabong
and Moroto district. ABEK has learning centres with all these groups.
Population estimates vary greatly, from the official figure of 1.1. million (2009) to
about 500,000 according to unofficial sources (Knaute and Kagan, 2009).

SECTION 1
TASK: To collect information on the strengths and weaknesses of the
present ABEK programme related to its current context; relevant policy and
economic trends/environment at a regional and national level; envisaged
threats and opportunities.
INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL CONTEXT
This section introduces the cutting-edge international position on three
relevant issues: the understanding of dryland pastoralism and mobility,
education provision to pastoralists, and climate change in relation to
pastoralism. Climate change has been included both because of its high
profile in any long-term perspective and because it emerged as a major
driver of change in the course of the scenario planning exercise.
1. Drylands pastoralism and mobility
Over the last fifteen years, the understanding of drylands pastoralism within
the international community has undergone a fundamental change. A longlasting tradition in pastoral development saw pastoralism as backwards and
environmentally disruptive, and mobility as an obstacle to the modernisation
of animal production. According to this perspective, mobile pastoralists
should have developed into sedentary farmers or at least agropastoralists. Pastoral production strategies should have been replaced by
ranching, mechanised fodder cultivation and livestock improvement through
cross-breeding with exotic breeds.
This tradition has been dismissed by the last fifteen years of research on
dryland pastoralism2. In particular, comparative studies of animal
production systems operating in the same environment but with different
degrees of mobility, have shown a positive correlation between productivity
and mobility: the more a system is mobile, the more it is productive (IIED,
2009).

The crucial challenge to the old paradigm was moved on ecological grounds by what
became known as the new range ecology (Ellis and Swift, 1988; Behnke et al., 1993;
Scoones, 1995). Although conventional models in ecology assumed that stability and
uniform distribution (equilibrium) are prevailing in nature, in the dryland ecosystem the
opposite is true: unpredictable variability is the rule more than the exception. The practical
implications of the new range ecology (NRE) challenge were well captured in the idea
that the history of livestock development in Africa has been one of equilibrium solutions
being imposed on non-equilibrium environments (Scoones, 1995: 4). From the NRE
perspective, pastoral herd management practices and mobility made perfect sense. A clear,
brief summary of this shift in paradigm can be found in Homewood (2008). Today, cuttingedge research on dryland pastoralism understands mobility as key to its prosperity: a
sophisticated system capable of transforming unpredictable ecological variability (leading
to unstable concentrations of nutrients on the range) into the most important resource for
production (Krtli, 2008).

Specialists of pastoralism all over the world have now started to see the vast
extensions of drylands as a significant resource and pastoralism as the most
rational and most sustainable way of exploiting them (Homewood, 2008;
Mortimore et al., 2008; IIED, 2009). This change in the understanding of
pastoralism and mobility, is increasingly embraced by international
organisations and donors. The United Nations, the World Bank, the
European Union, have all published reports describing pastoralism as the
most rational and sustainable way of exploiting the drylands and
recommending the support of mobility (de Haan et al., 2001; UNDP-GDI,
2003, Rass, 2006)3.
This change in perspective is trickling down to the national level. No longer,
can any policy for the sedentarisation of pastoralism be justified on
economic grounds. On the contrary, as mobility is key to efficient animal
production in the drylands, and this mobile animal production is the driving
economic activity in the pastoral regions, hindering mobility should be
expected to bear long-term negative consequences for the national economy
as a whole. Forcefully inefficient animal production due to hindered
mobility causes an overall impoverishment of the pastoral system. Initially,
this might trigger a boost in the marketing of livestock (out of necessity),
with a consequent drop in price that could indeed be profitable to some
external players. However, on the long term this unsustainable combination
of low production and erosion of the breeding population through forced
marketing, risks driving the system to collapse. Therefore behind the shortterm benefits for few new players, as impoverished pastoralists sell out their
capital, there is a long-term process leading to the huge costs normally
associated with large-scale economic depression and unpredictable social
dynamics.4
2. Climate change and pastoralism
The relevance of global climate change for pastoralism and pastoral
development has been at the centre of several recent studies (Brooks, 2006;
Birch and Grahn, 2007; Nassef et al., 20095). Emphasis is placed on the
importance of understanding the local implications of global projections on
climate change and the options for effective adaptation. Some scenarios
suggest that East Africa will become wetter and the Sahel dryer. Others
envisage a temporary greening of the Sahel for the first few decades of the
21st century, to be reversed before its end. All scenarios, however, involve
increasingly erratic rainfalls. As erratic rainfalls characterise the ecological
conditions dryland pastoralism has always produced with, the literature on
3

For a recent synthesis paper: http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3303.pdf. A

policy oriented book summarising the main arguments in favour of pastoral mobility is in
print: IIED and SOS Sahel, 2009.
4
This statement is substantiated with regard to Karamoja in Section 2: The value of
pastoralism.
5
Also in an ODI Synthesis Paper: HPG 2009. Pastoralism and climate change. Enabling
adaptive capacity, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, London,
http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/3304.pdf.

pastoralism and climate change points out that the future seems to be
developing precisely in the direction of pastoralists specialisation.
3. Education provision to pastoralists and other mobile producers
Understanding the positive economic role of pastoral mobility is associated
with important changes in understanding the challenges of providing
education to pastoralists.
When schools represent the only formal education option, in order to take
advantage of state education system, pastoral households must either settle
in the proximity of a school or split up, entrusting the school-going children
to a boarding school or someone in town. In all cases, only the children who
are or can be disengaged from pastoralism are able to access education. As
long as mobility (and to a certain extent pastoralism itself) was seen as an
obstacle to development, national education systems consistent with
sedentarisation policies and potentially drawing the younger generation
away from pastoralism, posed no problems (Krtli, 2001; Dyer, 2006).
This position has changed, at least at the international level, both as a
consequence of a better understanding of pastoralism and as part of the
global effort to achieve universal primary education following the Dakar
Education For All conference in 2000 and the commitments taken in the
Millennium Development Goals. There is a new awareness that it is not
possible to achieve the full inclusion of pastoral populations in education
through business-as-usual approaches. Education for all is more likely to be
achieved if boys and girls are not forced to choose between herding and
schooling writes UNICEF (2007).
Pastoralists are increasingly receiving formal and institutional recognition as
a discrete target group for education. At the time of the World Education
Forum in Dakar, the National Commission on Nomadic Education (NCNE,
created in 1988) was exceptional in the African context (Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1987). Today, similar initiatives are mushrooming, particularly in
East Africa.
In Uganda, the government with the support of Save the Children launched
the ABEK programme in 1998, with the aim of providing a responsive
education option to pastoralist children who could not take advantage of the
formal school system. In Tanzania, the Basic Education Master Plan
includes two components aimed at increasing the enrolment of nomadic
communities (MOET, 2000). The Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Education
has a Pastoralist Programme (Anis, 2008). The Puntland State of Somalia
is preparing a Nomadic Education unit (MOEP, 20076). The Ministry of
Education in South Sudan is considering the development of a policy on
nomadic education (SNV personal communication, 2009).

http://education.puntlandgovt.com/nomads.php

In February 2009 the Sudan Federal Ministry of General Education,

launched a Nomadic Education Strategic Plan (MGES, 2009). The policy
framework identifies amongst the major challenges the lack of
responsiveness of the education system to the needs and life circumstances
of nomadic people (2009: 8).
The Kenya Ministry of Education is working on a Nomadic Education
Policy involving the creation of a national commission on nomadic
education. According to the policy draft the GoK recognises the fact that
the needs of nomadic communities are generally complex and their
educational needs, specifically, are even more challenging. The draft also
states that The Ministry of Education has an efficient institutional
framework for the general management and administration of education in
Kenya. The same however lacks a oneness of focus on nomadic education
and the likely tendency is inadequate attention to the nomadic education
issue (MOEK, 2008: parags 1.2.6 and 2.5.1).
A recent review of the strategic options for education provision to pastoral
and mobile communities (Krtli and Dyer, 2009) identifies three areas of
conceptual confusion.
Confusion between education and schooling. The focus on education in
the World Declaration of Human rights and the World Declaration on
Education For All has turned into a focus on primary school enrolment in
the education targets of the Millennium Development Goals. In the
meantime, the very notion of schooling has become more nuanced (for
example in the definition of home schooling). The target of ensuring that all
children can complete a full course of primary schooling does not have to
mean getting them into buildings. The practical challenges in providing
education to nomads appear to be rooted in the tendency to provide formal
education solely in a school-based system.
Confusion between education in principle and education in practice.
School-based learning necessitates a trade-off between the educational
experience in school and the fundamental, informal learning opportunities
available as a member of a caring and complex social network. Such
informal learning is crucial to a childs development. Typically, for children
from nomadic households, there is an exceptionally unfavourable trade-off
in curtailing informal learning and enduring forced separation from their
family environment in order to seek the advantages of education within a
school-based system. Since the history of modern education is largely a
history of school-based education, the institutional interest in children's
learning has been shaped by this perspective. It is crucial to think out of this
box and find ways to link mainstream education to the contexts and
processes of informal learning, harnessing them, intertwining with them and
banking on them.
Confusion between expansion and full inclusion. Ultimately, school-based
education gets in the way of households functional-mobility patterns

which, in drylands, remain key to enhancing productivity through exploiting

the unpredictable variability in the environment. School education is often
suffering from severe shortage in pastoral areas. An expansion or
improvement of the current infrastructures is likely to accommodate a larger
proportion of the existing demand. Nevertheless, no expansion of schoolbased education will include the children directly involved in the household
economy without a seriously negative impact on the efficiency and
reliability of the pastoral production system.
All three areas have direct relevance, as we will see, to the shift in
orientation that has taken place within ABEK over the years, from an
educational option provided as an alternative to the unresponsive formal
school system to an instrument operating on the school model and aimed at
promoting formal school education. All three have been picked up, more or
less explicitly, in the early ABEK literature (see below, the section on
ABEK).

Figure 1.

Box 2. Challenges in the current system of education

provision to nomadic peoples
At point of delivery
Funding: building and maintaining schools in harsh and remote rural areas is
costly.
Staffing: difficulties in securing school staffing in harsh and remote rural areas
(few qualified teachers speaking the local language, few female teachers, few
teachers with skills capable of accommodating children with special needs).
Training: difficulties in securing quality teaching in schools in pastoral areas
(well trained teachers often go somewhere else or leave at the first opportunity).
Equipment: difficulties in providing adequate teaching and learning materials to
remote locations.
Legacy: difficulties in overcoming a legacy of antagonism towards nomads
livelihoods, where formal school-based education was allowed to be
instrumental to policies of cultural assimilation and forced sedentarisation
(therefore posing a threat to pastoral production strategies).
At point of reception
Mobility: although key to the production strategy of the nomadic household,
mobility poses a serious challenge to a system heavily reliant on school-based
education.
Scattered populations: often an advantage for production but a problem for
realising economies of scale in school-based education.
Unpredictable disruptions of service: on top of routine mobility for production,
insecurity and environmental events of great magnitude, such as floods and
prolonged droughts, can significantly disrupt the rigid routine of school-based
education.
Children's work commitments: children's involvement and responsibilities within
the household economy from an early age, compete with the requirements of
school calendars and timetables.
Resistance to schooling girls: apart from labour requirements, parents are
particularly reluctant to send girls away from familiar contexts where they can
be protected and controlled.
Non-literate parents: the fact that adults/parents often lack basic education
means that children cannot receive help at home as far as formal education is
concerned.
Liquidity: even relatively small school-related costs are perceived as difficult to
meet as pastoral households usually have little liquidity and the economic
benefits of schooling are not easily evident (both because of the poor standards
of formal education and because the system tends to produce graduates who
distance themselves from their own culture and people).
Source: adapted from Krtli and Dyer (2009).

Open and distance learning

Open learning means removing all unnecessary barriers and restrictions to
learning, including barriers to access, timing, pace or methods (without
implying any lowering of standards or entry requirements). In ABEK for
example, the adoption of flexible study time and requiring no uniforms, can
be described as part of an open learning approach. In particular
circumstances though it is extremely difficult to reach children with a
classroom model of teaching even with an open learning approach. For
example when it is dangerous or simply not possible to gather a class in
one place, to keeping a teacher in harsh conditions or assuring continuity of
attendance; or when, over time, people move and the households may
scatter or the group composition change. In all these circumstances, the
classroom model of teaching, even when preferable in principle, because of
the difficulties to implement it, may itself become an unnecessary barrier to
learning. When the conditions of learning are such that the classroom model
becomes a problem, distance-learning options might facilitate the bypassing of some or most of the obstacles.
In distance learning systems, a significant proportion of the teaching is
conducted without the need of face-to-face contact, typically through a
technology medium. For a long time the only distance-learning option was
books, but today new technologies, like radio, have freed distance
education from the requirement of literacy. In fact, radio enables us to treat
literacy itself as a subject of distance education. Similarly to what happens
with alternative basic education, however, only a few distance learning
programmes actually try to go beyond the classroom model of teaching and
learning and fully exploit the potential of the media. For example, a very
common system of radio education, Interactive Radio Instruction, uses the
radio in the classroom, alongside the teacher.
There are also examples of distance learning that effectively replace the
classroom model and can therefore represent a valid alternative in those
cases when the classroom model is not a viable option. In South Australia,
children in cattle and sheep stations scattered across a huge territory (too
scattered to allow for the classroom model of teaching) have learned
through a distance education program called the School of the Air since
1951. The programme used correspondence, various communication
technologies and periodical visits from home tutors and teachers. Children
could go through the full cycle of formal primary and secondary education
without setting foot in a school7. In Colombia, the primary education
distance-learning programme Radio Accion Cultural Popular targeted both
children and parents at the same time with great success for many years.
Open and distance learning has received growing attention in Africa
(Asmal, 2004) and was indeed recommended as the most sensible way
forward in the face of the current challenges in providing education to
7

http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/; http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/schoolofair/;
http://www.onetouch.com/pdf/Aus_School_Air_CP.pdf;
http://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/distance/history.html.

nomadic and itinerant groups - together with gender-biased educational

contexts and conflict ridden regions (Yates, 2000; UNESCO, 2002; CarrHill and Peart, 2005; AMARC, 2007).
In Somalia, the UK based
NGO African Educational
Trust (AET), has experimented
Box 3. Radio Accion Cultural Popular
with distance education since
Landowners have taken most of the best
2002, in collaboration with the
land in the valleys, and forced the
'campesinos' to snatch a precarious
BBC World Trust. The first
foothold and a precarious living on the
programme, launched in 2002
marginal slopes above. In many districts
as SOMDEL, was renewed
there are no villages nor ordinary schools
and renamed as LARS in 2007
within scores of miles of each other. In
and is still being aired (Dennis
some places the nearest neighbours may be
a day's walk. Meeting together is difficult
and Fentiman, 2007). Another
and, when the rains have turned the paths
two programmes were added
into mud, impossible. Roads are bad. In the
more recently, running parallel
western half of a country with over
and targeting different groups.
20,000,000 people the ubiquitous radio is
All use combinations of audio
the only regular means of communication
with the world beyond the homestead. The
and print materials and faceradio is the obvious teaching instrument,
to-face teaching. One in
and the family the obvious educational
particular, FABE (Flexible
unit (Young, 1990: 187).
Approach to Basic Education),
offers an interesting middle
ground between a fullyfledged distance education programme and the ABEK system. FABE targets
8-14 year old children in small groups of about 25, with local tutors
supported by high quality audio material (on CD) developed on the
experience of the radio programmes8.
Kenya has been studying the opportunities presented by open and distance
learning in nomadic education for several years now. The programme
Education for Nomads, currently being developed by the government of
Kenya9, is exploring the possibility of setting up a primary education course
based on the national curriculum but delivered through a combination of
open and distance learning (through radio), printed materials and visiting
tutors.
In Uganda, the Poverty Eradication Plan 2004/5-2007/8 recommended
distance learning as way for reducing the currently unsustainable costs of
UPE: Some additional support is needed for special needs students in
primary education. It is also imperative that cost savings are achieved
through measures such as sequential teaching and distance learning
8

Africa Educational Trust (http://www.africaeducationaltrust.org/contact.html). The

programme coordinator for FABE is Alessandra Tranquilli
(a.tranquilli@africaeducationaltrust.org).
9
The programme is a collaboration between the Ministry of State for the Development of
Northern Kenya and the Ministry of Education, with assistance from a team of specialists
from the UK.

10

MOEFPD, 2004: 195). There is indeed a growing interest in distance

learning as the only way to meet the on-going expansion in demand,
although so far the focus has only been on higher education (Nakabugo et
al., 2008).

NATIONAL LEVEL
Pastoralism
Since 2001, the national policy for Karamoja has been defined as part of the
disarmament framework, with development integrated into the
disarmament exercise. The underlying vision of such development is
transparent in the incentives the government promised for the voluntary
disarmament of mobile pastoralists: ox-ploughs and iron sheets (OPM,
2007: 8)10.
Part of the policy framework is the Karamoja Data Centre (KDC),
developed between 2001 and 2007 and designed to host and disseminate all
information relevant for the development planning in the five districts of
Karamoja (ibid.: 27). Despite this comprehensive approach, the KDC does
not include a section on pastoralism (see figure 2 below) and all the
information on livestock data does not fill one page. Under the heading
problems facing the livestock sector there are only two bullet points:
diseases and poor management. The current Karamoja Integrated
Disarmament and Development Programme (KIDDP) is largely selfreferential on the matter of pastoralism, with a scientific basis that is both
out of date and extremely narrow. A current perspective from the
international scientific community is absent.
On the other hand, the document does recognise that the largest population
in Karamoja mainly depends on livestock and that the economic
transformation of Karamoja will involve building on and understanding,
rather than simply replacing, the existing way of life of pastoralism (ibid.:
xi, with reference to the 2004 Poverty Eradication Action Plan). We seem
therefore to be facing a paradoxical situation in which there is an abstract
idea of the crucial economic role of pastoralism in Karamoja, and of the
importance of developing with it rather than against it, but a serious
information gap (indeed an educational gap) on what this actually means in
practice and how pastoralism works.
The Office of the Prime Minister has recently launched the development of
a Policy on Nomadism. The process is led by the Ministry of Agriculture
and a first draft is expected to be ready by the end of 2009.11 This process
10

Less than 50% of the promised ox-ploughs were actually delivered and the iron sheets,
apparently never reached their destination (OPM, 2007: 10).
11
Source: Daniel Mugulusi, Principal Assistant Secretary in charge for Karamoja, Office of
the Prime Minister (dmugulusi@yahoo.ca).

11

could offer an ideal platform for revisiting the current institutional

understanding of Karamoja pastoralism in Uganda against the wealth of
available scientific knowledge on this matter, but it will need significant
external assistance to take this direction.
Figure 2.

Education
The KIDDP refers to education as one of those effective ways of breaking
recruitment of young boys into warrior-hood (ibid.: 38). A small section
dedicated to the interventions undertaken by the MOES (2.5.3.6) openly
recognises the irrelevance of the current formal syllabus to the pastoral
children and the severe inadequacy of present schooling infrastructures in

12

Karamoja (ibid.: 37-38). There is a brief discussion of ABEK (curiously

updated only to 2002), said to have been introduced to bridge the gap
between the rigid formal education delivery arrangement and the seminomadic pastoral lifestyle where household economies rest substantially on
roles fulfilled by children (ibid.: 37).
The Education Act 2008 contains no acknowledgement of specific
challenges in providing education to mobile populations, nor to issues of
curriculum relevance, or regional deficit in the availability of educational
infrastructures. This is remarkable, as the official acknowledgement of the
irrelevance of the current formal syllabus to the pastoral children in the
KIDDP document seems to clash with the definition of UPE in the
Education Act 2008: UPE means the State funded universal primary
education programme where tuition fees are paid by Government where the
principle of equitable access to conducive, quality, relevant and affordable
education is emphasised for all children of all sexes, categories and in
special circumstances (ibid.: 9, italics added).
However, the Education Act 2008 grants recognition to non-formal
education centres as education institutions, and ABEK as part of the
existing non-formal education centres (Sect. 49(2)). The categories of nonformal education and basic education, as defined in the Act, are not
overlapping. Non-formal education is defined as a complementary flexible
package of learning designed in consultation with the indigenous
community to suit the demands and lifestyles of the community and to
enrich the indigenous knowledge, values and skills with particular emphasis
to literacy, numeracy and writing skills (MOES, 2008: 7). Basic education
is defined as the minimum education package of learning made available to
each individual or citizen through phases of formal primary education and
non-formal education system to enable him or her be a good and useful
person in society (ibid.: 5). The government withholds the responsibility to
identify areas and communities where non-formal education programmes
are required (ibid.: 13).
It could be argued that supporting non-formal education programmes like
ABEK fulfills the UPE commitment with regard to relevance. However,
there are at least two problems with this instance. Firstly, as we show below,
the relevance of the ABEK curriculum itself needs closer scrutiny.
Secondly, and more importantly here, the argument collapses if the aim of
ABEK is to channel children into the (irrelevant) formal education system.
The irrelevance of the syllabus is not the only shortfall of formal education
with regard to pastoralism. The anti-Karimojong bias deeply entrenched in
the national culture12, does not spare the education system. An analysis of
the textbooks from a primary school in Moroto returned only a couple of
references to the Karimojong, both incorrect. One of the few references the
12

Evidence supporting this point is presented in Krtli (2001).

13

syllabus makes to the Karimojong is in the Social Studies Pupils Book 4,

where pastoralism in Karamoja is illustrated with a photo of Ankole cattle,
actually bred in another part of Uganda (see figure 3) (Okia et al., 2001:
13). The MK Agriculture Book Four ignores animal production in
Karamoja. Instead, it displays a drawing with a girl in a position of
submission between four men, with the caption: Karamajong [sic]
introduction ceremony. On the background, Ankole cattle again (see figure
4) (MK, 2002: 57). Besides incorrect references, the absence of any
reference is even more telling. The Functional Primary Agriculture for
Uganda Pupils book 5, dedicates more than fifty pages to animal
production without even mentioning dryland pastoralism, the main
economic drive in a region that accounts for more than ten percent of the
national territory (Mulera and Chemutai, 2004). The implication is clear,
pastoralism in Karamoja is unimportant and backwards, there is nothing to
learn from it, it deserves consideration only in as much as it leads to
replacing it. If alternative educational options for pastoral children in
Karamoja are offered without challenging the anti-pastoralism perspective
embedded in the formal education system (indeed promoting school
enrolment), it is questionable whether they actually work in the childrens
interests.

Box 4. Has school changed?

Schools are of worse quality and more crowded today than when we went to school.
At the time, the pupil-teacher ratio was about 35:1 in the classroom. Today it is
officially 55:1 but there might be as many as 200 or even 300 children in your class.
P1 to P3 often have no facilities whatsoever. There are no textbooks. Teachers are
less friendly and punishment is also more pronounced: today is the cane! (even if
corporal punishment was officially banned in 2002).
Methodologies are teacher centred, test centred indeed: teachers, teach the test. All
non-assessed activities (co-curricula activities such as drama, music and sport) are
being neglected. Boarding schools are more numerous but the quality is lower. The
costs too are higher today, not from official fees, because of UPE, but there are
many other hidden costs and contributions. The parents are asked to pay for all sorts
(for example a bag of cement). In the past the children of the poor, if they were good
learners, could easily get ahead in education. Now education is for the rich.
Teachers are under too much pressure and they are not as respected as they used to
be. In the past, teachers were on the same pay as medical people, now they get little
money. Currently teachers are paid less and are on average less competent than
those in the 1970s and 1980s. They cannot handle all grades for example. They
receive only two years of training and have little interest and motivation for their
profession. Teaching is chosen as a last resort. The governments objective is a
high pass rate: just pass them, there is no failing. We realise that this responds to the
international policy on education: the government must feel that deviating from it
will place it in a bad light.
Based on discussions held during the Mt Moroto Workshop, 18-20 August 2009

14

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

15

ABEK
The Origins
The Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) programme was
launched by the Ministry of Education and Sports13 and Save the Children
(Redd Barna) in 1998 following three years of preparation culminating in a
Needs Assessment Study in 1996 (Owiny et al., 1997). The 1996 study
found that formal school
education was closing,
rather than opening
Box 5. The background of ABEK
The Government White Paper (1992) entitled
livelihood options for
Education for National Integration and
Karimojong children: both
Development saw education as a powerful tool
within pastoralism and
for transformation of society (P.1). The EPRC
outside. The result of the
(1989) and the GoU White Paper (1992)
community consultation
accepted the unique situation of Karamoja.
(P.173). The Ministry of State for Karamoja later
highlighted a strong interest
initiated a Task Force for Karamoja. The Task
in education in principle
Force identified education as a priority especially
but highlighted problems
basic education, the type that most suited the
w i th fo rma l sc ho ol
needs of the Karamojong. Once equipped with
education, hence the
the necessary information, the Ministry of state
for Karamoja approached Redd Barna for
explicit request for a
support. Redd Barna accepted to work through
mobile
educational
the local education authorities in Kotido and
alternative capable of
Moroto to facilitate the basic education provision
reaching the children
process. Between 1996 and 1998, elders, district
directly involved in
authorities and Redd Barna discussed and agreed
on the type of basic education that most suited
pastoralism. The final
Karamoja (Odada and Olega, 1999: 3).
recommendations however,
substantially deviated from
this perspective. Whilst
there was mention of the need for new, imaginative and alternative
education approaches, a mobile school system and functional adult
education designed through a participatory process (recommendations 2, 4,
5 and 7), there was a stronger emphasis on crusading inorder to convince
the Karimojong to support their children through formal school education,
to the point of recommending to compel parents to take their children to
school (recommendations 1, 3, 6, 11; see Annex 1).
The Needs Assessment Study was completed in January 1997. A draft
ABEK curriculum for the first level of instruction (year 1) was ready in
September. In the foreword, the Ministry of State for Karamoja mentions
amongst the causes of low enrolment in the region the irrelevance of the
present education system which tends to train children for urban life only
and alienates them from their communities and states that the Karimojong
13

According to the first ABEK Review, the original initiative of ABEK came from the
Ministry of Karamoja Affairs and in response to the Government White Paper (1992) and
the EPRC report (1989) that singled out Karamojas situation as special and unique
(Odada and Olega, something missing here

16

now want education [] the old and the young [] but which is relevant to
their needs (MSK, 1997). The curriculum has ten learning areas described
in great detail over more than seventy pages which seems to be a lot of
ground to cover in one year.
Printed materials were put in production (starting from the first three
learning areas): a manual and a resource book for the facilitators and three
booklets for the learners for each learning area. Facilitators, identified by
community committees, were given ten weeks training. In May 1998 an 18month pilot project was launched with 69 learning centres in permanent
villages (manyattas) in Jie and Matheniko counties14, with a budget of USH
600,000,000 that would grow to over USH 900,000,000 (Odada and Olega,
1998: 1). The literature on ABEK by SCiUG characterises the programme
in five pillars: 1. relevant curriculum; 2. flexible study time; 3. indigenous
and child centred methods; 4. local, non-formal education
teachers/facilitators; and 5. proximity of learning centres to manyattas.
In January 2000, ABEK officially starts operating through 196 centres.
None of them, mobile. Even so, it proves impossible to always find
facilitators from within the communities15. In November 1999 the first
review took place.
The Reviews
From the start of the pilot project in May 1998 to August 2009 ABEK was
reviewed four times (in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006). A short study was also
carried out in 2003 in preparation for a five-year strategic plan 2003-2008
(Kyeyune, 2003)16. Overall the reviews recommended the continuation of
the programme, but on the basis of its popularity more than of evidence
with regard to the initial educational goal. Indeed, the first two reviews
raised serious concerns.
According to the 1998 review: the 69 learning centres had not performed as
expected, monitoring of activities was absent, recorded attendance was
about a third of stated enrolment, transition was as low as 1.1 % with only 6
girls actually moving into a formal school out of a stated enrolment in
ABEK of 4,300 girls. As in the needs assessment study two years before,
the review also manifests concerns for the state of the formal education
system ABEK is encouraging children to join: schooling, as hitherto
managed, alienates children and undermines cultural competence and
capabilities to survive (Odada and Olega, 1998: 5).

14

Now respectively Kotido district and part of Moroto district.

According to the 1998 review: facilitators travel up to 16 miles daily (Odada and Olega
1999: 14).
16
This strategy document seems to have never materialised; the study was later adapted
into a three-year strategic plan 2006-2009 (SCiUG, 2005).
15

17

The 2001 review, reports that District leaders in the two districts
acknowledge the ABEK programme as one of the most successful
programmes in Karamoja (Odada and Beyene, 2002: i). Nevertheless, there
are big question marks with regard to almost every aspect of the
programme, from attendance to teaching methods, transition (to formal
schools), and even its overall direction. About 3,000 children from the
official target group (6-18yrs) are estimated to be attending classes at the
196 learning centres, against about 21,000 officially enrolled, that is an
average of less than 10 children per facilitator employed by the
programme17 (ibid .: iii). The teaching methods in the learning centres are
found to be facilitator-oriented, with rampant answer and question
techniques and rare probing questions (ibid.: ii), that is the opposite of
ABEKs third pillar. With regard to transition, 854 children are said to
have transferred from ABEK to formal schools (almost three times the
figure of 1998, but one that, as in 1998, cannot not be checked in absence of
effective monitoring). Manifesting alarm for the very high drop-out rate
from P1 to P2 and P3: (80-87%), the reviewers note that this augers badly
for the transfer exercise. One hopes the transfers are incidental and not a
deliberate function of centres (ibid.: iv). Finally, there is concern for the
programme losing its original goal of providing an (NFE) alternative option
to school, being flattened inorder to transfer children to the formal school
system (ibid.: vi).
Indeed, a change of direction seems to have happened around that time,
not only in the implementation of ABEK but also in its management by
SCiUG. A third review is carried out in 2002, this time by a team with a
clear school-system orientation. The reviewers refer to the learning centres
as classrooms, recommend their consolidation into one expanded
structure [near each village] where all children can be accommodated and
remain as attached to their school model as to suggest the creation of
playgrounds (Kagoda et al., 2002: xiii; xiv). Even those reviewers
however, find it incongruous to hear from the ABEK facilitators that they
found it difficult to teach rhymes because they knew none, meaning
English rhymes (Kagoda et al., 2002: xv).
The subsequent studies give no indication that the problems highlighted in
the first two had been solved, but they do not mention them anymore18.
The 2003 study for a five-year strategic plan argues the success of ABEK
substantially on the basis of enrolment figures19 (Kyeyune, 2003: 2). The
focus seems to have shifted from providing Karimojong children with an
17

This proportion of attendance (about 16 %) is close to the 20 % recorded at two primary

schools near the ABEK centres visited during the review (Odada and Olega, 1998: 18).
18
Indeed, the work for the strategic planning exercise in 2009 met with all the problems
pinpointed in 1998 and 2002.
19
The statement of success is supported with the following two-fold evidence: [1] adults
accepting the value of education and [2] mobilising children in significant numbers to join
ABEK (Kyeyune, 2003: 2). The key indicator in both cases is the enrolment figure.

18

educational option alternative to the unresponsive formal school system, to

campaigning for school education. ABEK is now described as originally
intended to popularise education among the people, and to mobilise
pastoralists to embrace schooling in the pilot parishes (ibid.: 2). There are
some disconcerting statements, for example that the curriculum,
intentionally designed to empower the beneficiaries to survive in their
environment, has enabled them to do much more or that outstanding
amongst the strengths of ABEK has been [that] learners have gained
knowledge of hygiene and the importance of good health (ibid.: 6, italics
added). Had ABEK moved so much off its original direction to find this
approach, patronising and pointless, acceptable?
According to the 2006 review, ABEK learning centres numbered 269 (536
facilitators) and had an official enrolment of almost 33,000 children, more
than double that in formal schools that year (13,474). Transitions have
boosted to 2500. ABEK is said to have made a tremendous change in the
lives of BEK graduates, that of their families and the community at large
(DEC, 2006: 29). This said, the document appears to have strikingly little
empirical basis. Large sections are simply copied from the 2003 study and
edited into the text as if they were the result of fieldwork carried out for the
review20. There is extensive and abstract reasoning, not always
consequential, around poorly defined figures of unclear origins. Whilst
placing great emphasis on enrolment, there is no reference to the key
problems identified in the previous reviews, except for the phrase: it was
difficult to get some information about the centres in regard to attendance,
transitioning and drop outs (ibid.: 64).
Ten years later
By the Summer of 2009, ABEK was running 20921 learning centres (418
facilitators) in what are now the four districts of Karamoja (Kaabong22,
Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit; see Annex 9 below). In figures, the
impact of the programme is impressing: 265,977 children have been
enrolled in ABEK since 1998, 19,261 transited to formal schools (SCiUG,
2009). There is however reason for concern about the origins of these
figures, their meaning and their relation to reality. According to the reviews,
the programme had no effective monitoring system in place from its
conception to 2006. The present study has found no indication of change in
this situation between 2006 and 2009. The only data readily available still
focus exclusively on enrolment. Attendance, as we will show, is impossible
to monitor with the present system, and so is transition. The drop-out rate
20

For example, the section on Improved Health and Hygiene on page 32 of DEC (2006)
is taken, almost word for word, from section 4.1.7 of Kyeyune (2003).
21
According to SCiUG in 2006 the district local government in consultation with MoES
and SCiUG expanded to 269 the number of enlisted ABEK learning centres. MoES had
committed to code the centres but when this did not happen, SCiUG and district decided to
scale down to 209 that were already and whose support MoES would provide (Monica
Zikusooka, SCiUG, personal communication 2009).
22
Within Kaabong district, ABEK is present only in Kalapata sub-county.

19

from primary schools, on the other hand, continues to be as high as 88%,

making judgments on the benefits of ABEK rather academic.
If one had to identify a trend in the implementation of ABEK from 1998 to
the present, this would be a shift from a focus on providing education to a
focus on inducing children to join formal schools. As we have seen, this
shift occurring almost immediately after the launch of the programme, was
picked up with alarm by the early reviews but never stopped. Today, ABEK
is seen by its own implementers (not without concern) as a bait for
attracting children to schools. In the mean time, the formal school system
that was described as closing livelihood options for pastoral children in
1998, has undergone no substantial change, neither has it been challenged to
do so. In fact, it has been supported and validated by ABEK as it is.
The present study was not designed as a review of ABEK but rather as a
revision of its strategy, looking at the future and through a broad
perspective. Here we engage with the details of ABEK only in as much as it
helps to convey the bigger picture.
Mobile ABEK
In May 2009, SCiUG opened 15 learning centres in kraals, most of them
protected (figures 3 and 4). Facilitators were trained for two weeks on the
use of the ABEK manuals and textbooks but even at the training there were
not enough manuals for all the trainees. The ones we spoke to in September
claimed that they were still waiting for the manuals to be delivered. The
present protected kraal system has created very large aggregates of livestock
(and consequently herders) and substantially limited their mobility in
frequency and distance to areas not too far from a trading centre. This
means that most facilitators, usually from a nearby settlement, can travel
backwards and forwardwards without needing to live at the kraal. This said,
these learning centres are officially mobile, with the facilitators following
the kraal and, if necessary, willing to stay at the kraal.
The introduction of these new kraal centres beside those in the permanent
villages, represents the most significant innovation since the creation of
ABEK, and a step in the right direction. The kraal centres are not formally
part of the ABEK system at the DEO level, but managed directly by
SCiUG, funded under the Peace Building programme. The facilitators are
paid about USH 50,000 per month, which is half of the wage of facilitators
working in villages. While there are no differences in the required
qualification, the work in the kraals is substantially more demanding,
particularly so if the teachers are effectively to be mobile. This difference in
wage with the facilitators at the villages is problematic for two reasons.
Firstly, it sends out the signal that the value attributed to the service
decreases as it gets closer to the pastoralists: ca. USH 200,000 per month to

20

the teachers in conventional schools; ca. USH 100,00023 for ABEK teachers
in permanent villages; ca. USH 50,000 for mobile teachers in kraals.
Secondly, it is doubtful that USH 50,000 per month can represent a
sustainable income for a facilitator expected to live at the kraal, unless the
person appointed is already a member of the kraal. Although not impossible,
this latter case seems quite unrealistic as, since its launch in 1998, ABEK
has constantly met with difficulties in finding local facilitators even for the
permanent villages24.
Box 6. A team of four mobile ABEK facilitators in a protected kraal
A.

is 25 years old. His father had cows but he died. He was sent to school but
dropped out after completing P7. ABEK has been his first employment.

L.

is 19 years old. He dropped out at senior 1. His father died. His uncle, who is
an LC5 and runs a beer business in town, has got livestock in the kraal, looked
after by some of his own children. He said that he had to pay school fees for his
other children and so did not provide support to L. for secondary school.

L.

is about 40 years of age. He dropped out in P7 as his father called him to look
after the family herd. Later on all the cows were raided. He is now trying to
rebuild a herd. He has got relatives in the kraal.

L.

is the only woman, a P7 graduate about 20 years of age. Her father died and
her brothers refused to pay for the school fees. She recently married.

We used to start teaching at 7.00 am and teach all the children in the kraal but now,
because of problems with water, by 7.00 am the herd boys are already leaving. Now
we start teaching at about 9 am and only teach those who remain behind. Since
April, when we started on the job, the kraal has not changed location.

Relevant curriculum
The ABEK curriculum is still the same as in 1998. Teaching and learning
materials for all ten learning areas appear to have been printed25. A
comparison of curriculum and printed materials for learning area 1
(Livestock Education) reveals a degree of incongruence. The knowledge
expected from the children in the curriculum seems to be significantly
broader and more detailed than the information contained in the teaching
and learning materials.
Learning area 1 is partially overlapping with the corresponding section on
livestock education of the national curriculum for primary education (year
5), only substantially expanded. It is not clear how the curriculum designers
expected the ABEK facilitators to teach this technical matter without
specialist training.
23

Between USH 80,000 and USH 90,000.

This statement is to be understood in the sense that even when coming from within the
community, the facilitators are unlikely to be found living at the manyatta.
25
Asking SCiUG for samples of these materials with six weeks notice, resulted in the
provision of three learning-area booklets out of the existing ten.
24

21

Two hypotheses come to mind: 1. it was thought that the Livestock

Education covered at school would have provided the facilitators with a
good enough basis; 2. it was assumed that the Karimojong children already
knew what there was to know about livestock. In the first case, the
relevance of the curriculum (of its most relevant section indeed) is in
question, as the Livestock Education taught in formal schools in Uganda has
nothing to do with the animal production systems found in Karamoja (never
even mentions it): an expanded programme within the same perspective of
the national curriculum would not justify the claim for relevance. In the
second case, it would be difficult to see why the children learning within
ABEK should be evaluated on the basis of knowledge that they are expected
to have anyway.
Another level of incongruence is between the curriculum and what is
actually taught in ABEK classes. There is no record of the teaching content
at the learning centres, but information collected from facilitators,
monitoring assistants and coordinators suggests that it is rare for a center to
cover the curriculum beyond learning area 326. The few classes observed
Box 7. A taste of the ABEK curriculum
Learning area 1. Livestock Education; includes topics on animal diseases (learner
should be able to name common diseases and pests, describe signs and symptoms,
identify and treat a sick animal, classify diseases and pests according to their mode
of transmission, stress the impact of preventive, control and curative measures);
shelters for animals (name different types of materials, work out numerical
computations on costs of construction of an animal shelter); quality improvement
(suggest the possible disadvantages of keeping large numbers of livestock, describe
the characteristics of good quality livestock), etc. The other nine learning areas are:
2. Crop Production Education; 3. Environment Management; 4. Rural Technology;
5. Home Management; 6. Uganda our Country: Rights and obligations; 7. Peace
and Security; 8. Human Health; 9 Sex Education; and 10. HIV/AIDS & Other
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (MSK, 1997).

during the study appeared to be working at the initial stages of literacy and
numeracy (recognition of single words and of numbers from 1 to 10).
Enquiries on the nature and content of learning amongst the children,
indicated a strong emphasis on writing ones name and on personal
cleanliness (having nails well kept, washing the face in the morning,
shaving the head, wearing proper clothes). All facilitators interviewed
about their ABEK training recalled having been instructed to teach the
children these values. Mobile facilitators who belonged to the kraal and
who, before their appointment, had been wearing a blanket (suka) like
everybody else in the kraal, had to switch to wearing shirts and trousers in
order to give a good example. The study carried out for the 2003-2008
ABEK strategic planning manifests the following concern about the actual
26

This seems to have happened more frequently in the past. However, in ten years of
ABEK, no centre is known to have ever passed Learning Area 8.

22

benefits of the programme: we met many children who, despite their

attendance at the learning centres [] had not washed their face, had eye
infections and unkempt fingernails (Kyeyuye, 2003: 14). Even accepting
this kind of educational content as realistic and top priority for children in
pastoral households, it does appear to substantially uphold the same culture
of the formal school system. So what is the difference between formal
school and ABEK? Is ABEK trying to be like school but without the
school? Indeed, some learning centres that have recently been upgraded by
the local governments, with the construction of one permanent classroom
(see figure 18), are described as model centres within both SCiUG and
DEOs alike, because of their resemblance to a conventional school.27
Flexible study time
Flexibility in timetabling remains one of ABEKs most characteristic
features, together with the fact that the education provided by the
programme comes at no cost to the households. The teaching of an ABEK
class can be arranged at any time, according to the childrens commitments
and with a previously made arrangement with the school committee. The
children write with chalk on individual blackboards that are usually kept by
the facilitator between classes. A larger blackboard is used by the facilitator.
Although classes are disciplined and structured, participation in the
programme is open, with learners enabled to jump in and out as dictated by
their external constraints. Initially, ABEK classes were supposed to be
taught three times a day, from 7.00 to 9.00 am, from 2.00 to 3.00 pm; and
from 6.00 to 8.00 pm. Flexibility was therefore limited28. The last class,
happening largely at night time, soon met with problems of lighting
(shortage of paraffin) and security.
This teaching arrangement relied on the principle that the facilitators were
living within the community and could therefore carry on with their own
affairs between classes. However, with facilitators coming from as far as
thirty kilometers away (but even five would be a problem), fragmenting the
teaching time across the whole day is unsustainable. There are two reasons
why facilitators are not from within the manyattas where they hold their
classes (as initially envisaged). Firstly, even when it is possible to find
adequately educated people within the communities, they very rarely live at
the manyatta. Most likely, education and the hope of a job has taken them to
a nearby trading centre or a urban settlement. This point is crucial, as it
touches upon the fundamental culture of the formal school system as also
identified in the 1996 Needs Assessment Study and the early ABEK
reviews: schooling is for the urban life; for children from pastoral
households school is for leaving more than for living. The second reason is
more recent and has to do with the formal integration of ABEK teachers
27

In the course of the study, two of these model centres were visited: Nariwogum
(Kaabong) and Naaperu (Kotido). The building in Nariwogum (apparently costed USH
32,000,000) had been interrupted before completion.
28
Cf. Odada and Olega: where circumstances genuinely dictate, times for centre
operations may be altered (1999: 40).

23

within the national education system. Facilitators are now employed and
paid by the MoES within the aggregated number of teachers allowed on a
yearly basis to a District Education Offices. As conventional school teachers
can be transferred to any school in the country, this places ABEK
facilitators in an unclear and potentially problematic position with regard to
their teaching destination. They might not end up teaching in the manyatta
where they come from. In principle, the formal inclusion of ABEK teachers
in the MoES payroll is an important step in the direction of
acknowledgement and integration. However, their un-earmarked inclusion
in the aggregated quota of teachers allocated to a district is a source of
problems as, in the face of a severe scarcity of resources, ABEK centres end
up competing with formal schools for the allocation of teachers. There are
several cases of acting facilitators whose names were never included or
were deleted from the payroll (twelve are in Moroto parish, Kaabong
district). Some have been teaching without a salary since 2006.
Box 8. Work at the learning centre
In Nagule-Angolol there are 5 learning centres serving 12 manyattas. Roughly, this
is supposed to account for about 500 children. One facilitator died in April and was
not replaced, so the 5 centres are staffed with 9 teachers. None of them lives in any
of the 12 manyattas. Travel time from home to the learning centre is between 30
minutes and 2 hours. In June the kraal leader (Lokawa Loetale) was killed in a raid.
Three girls from the ABEK centres were raped. From January to September 2009
the area was raided many times. Insecurity has driven most of the mothers and
children to migrate to Iriri or Teso looking for casual work. Many have gone south,
to Kampala. Some men found work as waged herders in Teso. They are paid USH
5000 per month, no extras. It is not unusual to find that the contracts are not
respected and in the end they dont get anything at all. The centres are all active but
there are only a few children. The one visited had about 30, no more than 15 of
whom in school age (Moroto).

In the present situation when many facilitators have to travel to the manyatta
for their classes, the principle of flexible learning time is often used to
accommodate the constraints of the facilitators more than those of the
learners. Information gathered during the present study indicates several
patterns: 1. classes start when the facilitator arrives (which can be as late as
9.00-10.00 am); 2. facilitators teach in turns, for example one in the
morning and one in the afternoon; 3. children at learning centres that are
relatively close to one another are grouped into fewer classes, freeing up
time, in turn, for some of the facilitators (this is sometimes a response to
periodical fluctuations in attendance). As a result, distances to the learning
centre increase, classes are irregular, most of the children who can attend
these late classes with some continuity are those who could in principle go
to school, if there was a school.
Both parents and children involved in the scenario planning exercise made
reference to the irregularity of classes and emphasised the need for better

24

selection of facilitators and a better wage to improve economic stability, so

that they can be more focused on teaching. This said, in the eyes of the
communities, ABEK does maintain a very important difference with
conventional school education on the basis that ABEK is locally available
(whilst formal schools are often not), and there is truly no cost to the
families. The informality of ABEKs open learning approach (there is no
uniform, children can leave and come back, parents and older siblings sit at
the edge), is also key to its popularity within the communities. The
downside is that intermittent attendance of learners to a classroom model of
teaching (a teacher in front of a class) becomes a serious obstacle to
cumulative learning (and particularly so in conditions in which the teachers
have little training). Classes rarely progress beyond the very basics of
literacy and numeracy. That children from ABEK are often said to perform
above average when they enter primary schools in P2 or even P3, is to be
read in context and talks about the quality of school education in Karamoja
(see section X) just as much as it talks about the quality of teaching within
ABEK.

Figure 5.

Monitoring and evaluation

ABEK facilitators are supervised by monitoring assistants at the parish
level, who report to the ABEK coordinators at the District Education
Offices. The problem of travelling discussed with regard to the facilitators,
is magnified for the monitoring assistants. Some live (or spend most of their
time) as far as a two-three hour drive from the facilitators they are supposed
to monitor. Communication by mobile phone is possible now in most

25

locations, but expensive. Facilitators are supposed to keep registers of their

classes, with information on enrolment and daily attendance by name. In
principle, this information is passed over to the ABEK coordinator via the
monitoring assistants. In practice there are numerous obstacles. There is no
collection of these registers at the end of the year. As there is no school,
registers are kept in the facilitators house (rarely in the manyatta). Over the
years, and with the turn over of facilitators, these registers inevitably get
spoiled and lost. During the present study we never managed to see a
register older than 2007. The problem with registers, however, is more
fundamental.

Figure 6.

ABEK facilitators are using primary school registers. These are designed for
the 3-trimester system in formal schools and have a limit of 55 children (the
official teacher/pupil ratio in Uganda). Each trimester has half a page with
55 entries on the left and three half pages with columns for recording
individual attendance to the right, two weeks on each side for a total of
twelve weeks (figures 7 and 8 below). This system allows the teachers in
formal schools to record the new children who might enroll in the second
and third trimester. Because there are only 55 lines in the Surname and
Other names columns, if a class has more than 55 children, the teacher
needs a second register. If there are more than 110 children, a third register
is required, and so on. This system implies the stable pattern of attendance
required in formal schools: children enrolling at the beginning of the
trimester are expected to attend. If they stop coming to school for an
extended period of time, they are not allowed to come back in the same
class. This system is therefore inappropriate to the open learning approach
in ABEK, where children can join at any time and attendance can be both
intermittent and subject to great periodical fluctuations (depending on the

26

availability of food at the manyatta compared to the kraal, as well as on

drought, floods, harvest, security etc.).
In an attempt to cope with this incongruence between an open learning
system and a classroom monitoring-tool, the teachers wait to see what
children do. By the time a child is included in the register, s/he might have
been attending the class for two of three weeks already. As a consequence,
the actual attendance of ABEK classes is rarely represented in the register:
the children at the class might be more numerous than those recorded. There
is then a side-problem, as the registers are not always delivered in time or in
sufficient number. The facilitators met in the course of the scenario planning
exercise were using only one register for classes with an enrolment well
above 55: when the 55 lines in trimester 1 were all used, the remaining
names were added on the page for trimester 2 and so on. As a consequence,
it is very difficult to follow individual learners across the ABEK system for
more than a few months.
Poor monitoring within ABEK impacts directly on the effective monitoring
of transition to formal schools. Some schools do record whether a newly
enrolled child has been through ABEK, but this seems to rely on the
initiative of the headmaster. Even so, there is no record of how much ABEK
teaching the child has received. In a way, the absence of reliable monitoring
within ABEK is acknowledged by the fact that the placement of the child
at a particular level (P1, P2, P3 or P4) is made on the basis of direct
assessment and independently from the number of years the child has spent
in ABEK. Because of poor monitoring both in ABEK and of the process of
transition, it is not possible to know whether there is any relationship
between the amount of time a child spends in ABEK and the level at which
he/she is placed when transiting to a primary school. Some schools, but not
all, place all ABEK children in P1 and move them up if their teachers
observe a performance adequate to an upper level.
Even when well-performing children are effectively moved to higher
classes, this system hides a potential problem of discrimination. The
national education system in Uganda, like others in the world, works
according to the principle of no child left behind. This means that children
are pushed up through the system, from P1 to P7, even when they do not
perform adequately. Therefore, after four years in primary school, a child
will enter P5 even if his/her actual performance is closer to P2. On the other
hand, a child who starts in ABEK and joins formal school after four years
being only able to perform at P2 level, is likely to be placed in P2. If neither
pass the primary graduation exam, the child who started in school will have
taken seven years to be a P7 leaver, whilst the child who started in ABEK
will have taken ten (or will be have been unable to reach P7 altogether
because of his/her age).

27

Box 9. ABEK facilitators in 2009

I got the P7 certification with good marks and continued into secondary school.
Already in senior 1 I had to abandon because of financial difficulties. That was in
1998. In 2006 I underwent two weeks of training and became an ABEK facilitator,
my first employment. I have been teaching ever since, but my name never appeared
in the MoES payroll. This is the third year I work without a salary. Why do I do it? I
hope that sooner or later they will start paying me and I will finally have a job
(Kaabong).
I dont have a copy of the ABEK curriculum. I began teaching using the books for
Learning Area 2 but I was told to stop, that I should start from Learning Area 1
because 2 was too difficult. However, I have not yet been given the books for
Learning Area 1 (Kaabong).
We are lacking teaching materials: resource books, learners books. I dont have a
manual. I have five learners books but fifty five pupils. I share the materials with
the other facilitator and we teach in turns. I know that we are supposed to be
teaching every day together, but because of circumstances we share (Kaabong).
What challenges do we face as ABEK facilitators? We lack learning materials like
manuals and resource books, and the learners books for the children. The
blackboard and the slates are spoiled. Even the chalk is not enough. We need
bicycles because our homes are far from the learning centres. There is no food for
the children, or the facilitators. We are supposed to teach in the morning and the
afternoon, but what do we eat here, away from home? This also reduces enrolment
(Nakapiripirit).
We dont have accommodation by the centre or bicycles for transport as our homes
are far away. We also lack teaching materials, like manuals, slates and chalk. We
lack storage facilities for the learning equipment. The salary is not enough to cope
and some of us dont even receive it. Food available at the centre would increase
enrolment (Kotido).
There is a problem with teaching materials like chalk, seats and slates. We are
experiencing low enrolment because most children have migrated to look for food.
We lack transport to come to the centres as we all live far away (Moroto).
We lack teaching materials, for example tables, slates, chairs, manuals We also
need a classroom for teaching during the rainy season. It is a long distance from here
to town. This makes it a challenge for the teachers to buy food and the other things
we need. His name has not yet appeared on the payroll (Moroto).
We used to leave our teaching materials in a box, with the committee members and
get the box back the next day. But the committee members were not careful and
things got spoiled, eaten by termites. So now we take everything to my house
(Kaabong).
The daily attendance at the learning centres varies everyday between 35 and 61
children. What do these children learn? They learn numeracy; that is how to count
numbers and addition. They are taught literacy or how to read and write. They are
able to write their names. They do handcrafts like moulding clay in the form of cows
or pots. They also make balls for playing out of local materials. They learn games
like football. They are also taught about good hygiene like bathing and cleaning the
compound (Kotido).
(Examples of feedback from the facilitators are provided below in figures 9-11).

28

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

29

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

30

Figure 11.

31

Organisational framework
Overall, as we have seen, the programme shows an inherent tendency to
drift towards the conventional school model and away from actual pastoral
producers. Such a tendency has multiple causes but is likely to be favoured
by a white-collar work culture within SCiUG (indeed embedded in the
formal education system and therefore certainly not unique to SCiUG). A
culture that associates increasing levels of dignity, authority and retribution
as the work moves further away from the field (the actual pastoralists in the
bush being the least considered of all). The scaling down of teachers wages
from formal school (ca. USH 200,000) to sedentary ABEK centres (ca. USH
100,000) to mobile ABEK centres (ca. USH 50,000), although probably not
deliberate, is a powerful mirror of this perspective. Non-systematic
observation of work processes within SCiUG in Karamoja during the five
weeks of fieldwork suggested a high level of bureaucratic centralisation,
with a focus on office duties and paper work rather than on the people in the
field. The net of facilitators and monitoring assistants is vast but also very
loose. Programme managers in ABEK seemed to depend on extemporary
opportunities (like visit from consultants) in order to get themselves to the
field and even so they seemed constantly absorbed in office work. The high
degree of good will and personal engagement at an individual level are at
odds with the organisational structure and work patterns of SCiUG, that
seem to be mirroring those of the local administration more than embodying
the flexibility, grassroots links and direct involvement on the ground that
one would expect to find in an NGO. The recommendation on this regard
would be to reconsider the current use of human resources, shift the focus
away from clerical activities and start enabling the staff responsible for the
programmes to deeply engage with the field, leaving the clerical work to
administrative staff in the office. It is crucial that the staff responsible for
the programmes are encouraged and motivated to move beyond the present
service-provider/client framework, and gain a direct and sympathetic
understanding of the communities involved in their programmes and their
day-by-day experience of it.

Figure 12.

32

Box 10. Strengths and Opportunities

The programme is well known and generally trusted.

There is a large network of facilitators on the ground.
Strong partnership with DEOs and District Local Governments.
Responsiveness (this is true in theory much more than in practice, yet ABEK
is still more responsive than the conventional school system).
No hidden cost for ABEK to the families.
Integration with other SCiUG programmes: livelihood, peace building, early
childhood development.
Ongoing trend in East Africa towards meeting the specific challenges of
providing education to pastoralists.
National policy process on nomadism. This can either be an opportunity or
a threat depending on who assists it and where the information comes from.
Is there room for capacity building and influence/lobbying at a crucial stage
(alliance with other NGOs, e.g. Oxfam).
Education is a key concern to pastoral societies in West and East Africa.

Box 11. Fundamental weaknesses

Inadequate understanding of the target group and their livelihood strategies.

Unsustainable combination of an open-learning model (children can jump in
and out of the programme at all times) and a classroom model of teaching (a
teacher in front of a class, a cumulative curriculum, a school register to fill).
Unsustainable combination of fragmented/flexible timetable and nonresidential teachers.
Unsustainable combination of an ideal of educational responsiveness and a
practice of unquestioning promotion of the unresponsive school system.
A work and organisational culture that, on a scale of importance, places
paper work above the face-to-face work with people in the bush.

Box 12. Technical and contingent weaknesses

Failure to challenge the formal school system on the account of its

ineffective or even counterproductive role for pastoral children.
Lack of integration in the MoES evaluation system.
Inadequate training of facilitators: low qualifications as a starting point
would call for a more substantial teacher training.
Lack of administrative differentiation between ABEK facilitators and
conventional school teachers (ABEK aggregated allocation of teachers from
MoES to DEO).
Lack of an effective and comprehensive Monitoring & Evaluation system.

Box 13. Threats

GoU policy on pastoralism: disarmament exercise is blind to both social

dynamics (misleading explanatory framework that hides the links between
pastoralism and modernisation and between bush and urban realities,
traditional culture narratives) and pastoral production strategies (demolishing
the economic foundations of the region in the process of securing its
territory can only produce more insecurity, of a much more dangerous and
disruptive nature).
Ideology-driven and desk-based development: misinformed and blind to
actual production dynamics in the region.
Gross underestimation of the complexity of pastoralism.
National policy development on nomadism (if there is no engagment from
its early stages).

33

SECTION 2
TASK: To generate a platform of reflection on drivers of change relevant to
the challenge of providing education to nomadic children in Karamoja and
shared across key groups of stakeholders (children and parents, educators,
policy makers and donors).
1. Methodology
Scenario planning
The core methodological approach has been scenario planning29. This
choice is justified on the following accounts:
o The long-term perspective (5-10 years) of the strategy for an
education programme.
o The need for a tool capable of taking on board the structural
unpredictability of the operating conditions of dryland pastoralism.
o The potential of a platform of analysis that can be shared cross all
levels of implementation and all groups of stakeholders.
o The current use of scenario planning with pastoralists in Kenya
(including Turkana District) as part of a process of consultation to
inform the development of a policy for nomadic education: it was
envisaged that using the same methodology for the revision of the
ABEK strategy would offer the added advantage of a common
analytical platform across the border.
Preliminary workshop and training of research assistants
An initial three-day workshop was held in Moroto with a small group of key
players from SCiUG and the District Education Offices of the four districts
of Karamoja (Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and Nakapiripirit)30. Twelve
research assistants were trained for one week in scenario planning with
pastoralists by the leading consultant and a specialist in participatory
methodologies with children (figure 13).
Data collection
Parallel to the scenario planning exercise with pastoral communities, a
number of requests were made, aimed at collecting relevant background and
historical data. A substantial proportion of these data never materialised,
either because they were not available or because it was not possible to
solicit them from the appropriate DEO. An important part of the data
collection process consisted in the creation of the initial structure for a
directory of ABEK learning centres (ALCs). A request was sent out from
the regional office in Moroto, directed to all facilitators in the 209 ALCs in
manyattas and 15 ALCs in kraals. Facilitators were asked to provide
29

For an introduction to the use of scenario planning with pastoralists: SOS Sahel 2009.
Planning with Uncertainty. Using Scenario Planning with African Pastoralists, SOS Sahel
International UK and IIED, Oxford.
30
A detailed list of participants is provided in Appendix 6.

34

information about themselves (contact, age, qualifications and experience)

and their center (date of creation, previous facilitators, class composition,
attendance) including comments on challenges and ideas for improvement31.
The information collected in this way would then be inputted into a
database32 and used to produce a small publication to be distributed to all
facilitators. So far the information received is partial but substantial enough
to be placed on the database and then fed back to the facilitators for a
second round of enquiry.

Figure 13.

Scenario Planning (SP) with pastoralists

A four-day SP exercise was carried out in four locations at a time, in each of
the four districts of Karamoja. Four locations were kraals, three of which
were under military administration as part of the current protected kraal
system. We used four teams, each with three research assistants. In each
team, one member facilitated a meeting with adults, one worked with
children and one acted as a note taker. Adults not participating in the main
meeting were interviewed on a side. Between all 16 locations we talked to
31
32

A copy of the request is provided in Appendix 10.

A sample of the DB design is provided in Appendix 11.

35

about 1,000 adults (400 women) and 1,200 children (500 girls). The gender
difference is due to the fact that women and girls are not allowed, by the
UPDF33, to be in protected kraals 34, so we effectively worked with them in
only 13 out of 16 locations. The exercise was carried out with Dodoth, Jie,
Bokora, Matheniko, Pian, Tepeth and Pokot communities. The initial plan
for the exercise also included a location amongst the Ik (Kaabong).
Unfortunately the breakdown of the escort vehicle just before we started the
work in Kaabong meant that the Ik location (the only one requiring an
escort in the district) was dropped.
In day one of the SP exercise the meetings discussed significant changes
experienced over the past 15-20 years. The causes that brought about such
changes (drivers of change in SP language) were then analysed on day
two. The meeting also ranked these drivers of change and identified two
considered to be the most significant. These two drivers were then analysed
in detail on day three, following the SP logical combination, when a
favourable and unfavourable extreme case of one driver is combined
with a favourable and unfavorable extreme case of the other (see
diagram). In the evening of day three the team of research assistants
summarised the result of the analysis of the combined drivers into four short
scenarios. On day four the meeting was presented with the four scenarios. A
range of educational options were then presented for the meeting to analyse
them against each scenario.
At some point between day 1 and the beginning of the activity on day 4 the
leading consultant delivered a short speech to the gathering, providing
information on two relevant changes taking place at the international level: a
change in the understanding of pastoral production, and particularly
mobility (now unanimously supported both within the best academic
institutions and the main donor organisations); and a related change in the
understanding of education provision to pastoralists (now increasingly
recognising its specific challenges as well as the shortcomings of businessas-usual approaches based on the conventional school system). The speech
concluded with a short review of present educational options including
conventional schools, formal and non-formal education (e.g. ABEK) and
distance education via radio (with a long experience in Australia, ongoing in
Somalia and being discussed as a key component of the nomadic education
policy in Kenya).
Final strategic planning workshop
The combined result of the SP exercise in the four districts (in the form of
four scenarios and about forty key statements) provided the basis for a final
33

Uganda Peoples Defence Force.

Before the introduction of the protected kraal system, there would have been teams of
women and girls at the kraal (on a rotational basis according to the availability of labour
and food at the manyatta), helping to build temporary shelters, watering, cooking and other
domestic chores (on the presence of women and children in pre-disarmament kraals cf. also
Stites and Akabwai, 2009: 8).
34

36

workshop aimed at producing a vision, strategy and guidelines for the next
ten years. The workshop (again with key players from SCiUG and the
DEOs) was held over two and a half days35.
2. Key issues emerging from the SP exercise
The following considerations are based on the feedback from the
communities during the SP exercise, as well as conversations with key
informants36 and direct observation. They mainly convey impressions and
perceptions that are nonetheless real elements of the landscape of providing
education to pastoralists in Karamoja. They have been used as the basis for
discussion in the final strategic planning workshop and are offered here in
greater detail.
The value of pastoralism
The last twenty years of research on pastoralism have accumulated
overwhelming evidence that pastoral communities are depositaries of
unique and sophisticated expertise, specialised livestock resources and
institutions for the sustainable exploitation of dryland environments.
Pastoralism in Karamoja is no exception but its economic relevance is
poorly understood.
Pastoralists economic contribution is far reaching both directly and
indirectly. Directly, they produce all the meat used in the four districts of
Karamoja as well as large quantities sold to other districts. From Kanawat
market alone (Kotido District), every week between 700 and 800 head of
cattle are loaded on trucks headed for Teso and Abim (see figure 17).
According to traders interviewed in Kanawat on market day, this flow has
been steady for the last four years. Meat is the most obvious product of
pastoral communities but there are many others. Most of the people at the
meetings mentioned sale of firewood and charcoal. Sale of building
materials (poles, thatching grass and sometimes bricks) is also very
pronounced in certain areas. Finally, they sell labour, both within their
districts and (increasingly in the current state of impoverishment) outside. A
waged herder is paid as little as USH 5,000 per month (less than 3 US
dollars). Many young women and men from the villages work as helpers in
the houses of relatives in town.
Each of these direct contributions, triggers a chain of indirect economic
benefits. Livestock marketing sustains various categories of people working
with it (traders, transporters, clerics, etc.). Cheap meat sustains the business
of butchers and restaurants. The low-cost help from rural relatives enables
educated women with a family, to hold positions in NGOs and the public
administration.
35

A list of participants is provided in Appendix 6.

ABEK facilitators, school teachers and headmasters, SCiUG and local administration
staff.
36

37

Overall, the urban economy in Karamoja depends almost entirely on the

flow of resources associated with development programmes, which in turn
are largely brought in to work with the rural communities (i.e. pastoralists).
Thus most if not all the jobs held by educated people - the jobs presented to
children in pastoral households as examples of the benefits of education are a direct or indirect result of the presence of pastoralists in the region,
either as producers or as targets for development interventions.
From the perspective of white-collar jobs, many of which concern the
provision of services or humanitarian assistance to pastoral communities in
the bush, it is all too easy to forget that with those very communities lies the
main economic drive in Karamoja.
The value of education
A significant proportion of the educational effort targeting pastoral
communities in Karamoja over the last fifteen years has focused on
sensitisation. The scenario planning exercise triggered an overwhelming
feedback on the extent and content of such sensitisation: the importance of
washing faces, cutting nails, shaving heads, wearing proper clothes, using
latrines, building real houses in bricks, bathing regularly, only drinking
clean water, selling livestock and, of course, sending children to school.
A core message in such sensitisation concerned the value of education.
People mentioned role models and jobs that, they were told, they could do
with education: boys were potential pilots, doctors, district education
officers, ministers, even the President of Uganda; the girls expectations
had been raised more modestly: teachers, nurses
In most cases, the messages of sensitisation seemed to be utterly
disconnected from reality, concerned with principles and values more than
with the practicality of their prescriptions; with how things should be, more
than with how they can be or why they are the way they are. Thus people
should bath regularly, even if there is no water or the water is far; should
send their children to school, even if they cannot afford it. One teacher in a
learning centre passionately argued that the construction of even just two or
three latrines would improve the health and sanitation of this community (a
community that turned out to be about 900 people strong: 300 per latrine in
the best scenario).
Education in Karamoja
The emphasis placed on the value of education in principle has unhelpfully
drawn attention away from the state of school education in practice. This is
no place to assess the education system in Karamoja. The impressions
offered here, however, are based on direct observations of schools, meetings
with parents and interviews with teachers and headmasters. They have also
been tested in discussions with staff from the district education offices of

38

three out of the four districts of Karamoja.37

Figure 14.

The public primary school system in Karamoja suffers from a huge shortage
of resources even in relation to the generally poor national standards
following the introduction of UPE. In many cases, schools are simply not
there (in others, there is a surprising concentration, with a fully-built ABEK
learning centre a few hundreds meters from a new school built next to an
abandoned old school). The schools are often in a state of abandonment,
with a few classrooms in old and dirty buildings with broken doors and
windows38. Teacher shortage is around fifty percent on average (with a
recommended pupil-teacher ratio of 55:1) but can be much higher in the
first two-three years as Ngakarimojong speaking teachers are rare and
classes more numerous. The Lokitelaebu Primary School (Kotido) has 723
pupils and nine teachers, but only one who speaks some Ngakarimojong. At
the time of the fieldwork, he was the only teacher who could teach the 423
children enrolled in P1 (209 in P2). As it is often the case, the head teacher
relied on non-qualified volunteers to cover the shortage. In Napis (Moroto)
the nearby primary school had 96 pupils in seven classes (P1 to P7) and one
teacher. The children who transited from the ABEK learning centre in the
village dropped out soon after as, in their words, they were learning very
little. Head teachers often ask ABEK facilitators (non-qualified) to help in
school. Although not all rural schools in Karamoja are in such disastrous
37

Kaabong was represented at the opening workshop in August but not at the final one in
September.
38
This does not appear to be too different from the overall situation in rural Uganda as
emerging from the most recent Poverty Eradication Plan (MOFPED, 2004).

39

conditions, it is fair to say that this is often the case. UPE does not seem to
have achieved fee education either. An estimate of primary school hidden
costs drafted by students and teachers in 2009 (table 1 below) indicates that
in order to adequately support one child throughout the full course of
primary education, a household can expect to face costs of almost one
million Ugandan shillings (about $ 500). With unfavourable terms of trade
between livestock and cereals, and a society of polygamous families with an
average of ten children, educating even one child can be an unbearable
burden to the poor.

Table 1.

With drop-out rates in Karamoja close to 90 %, most of the pastoral children

who enroll in school fail to remain in education long enough to gain a
livelihood option from it. Applicants holding a university degree are
increasingly competing for the jobs requiring lower qualifications. Amongst
the educated elite, those who can afford it, now send their own children to
private schools (including the staff in District Education Offices and NGOs
educational programmes).
The 1996 Save the Children Needs Assessment Study in preparation for
ABEK found that the national formal school system is not a realistic
option (Owiny et al., 1997: 4). So far this has not changed.
The disarmament exercise
Most of the discussion during the scenario planning meetings focused on the
disarmament exercise, either directly or indirectly. Whilst the idea of

40

disarmament as a road to security and prosperity was welcomed by

everybody, the reasons, modalities and consequences of the actual
disarmament exercise were at the center of peoples concerns about the
future as well as their present conditions. This section reports such concerns
as they were voiced in the meetings and therefore from the perspective of
the communities. By and large, these concerns about disarmament, collected
in the course of the scenario planning meetings across all four districts,
appear to be consistent with the recent study on the livelihood impact of
disarmament Karamoja by Stites and Akabwai (2009, with fieldwork in
Moroto and Kotido districts only).
Raiding & insecurity
The overall impression amongst the rural communities seems to be that
raiding has increased. A significant loss of livestock at the community level
(meaning that most if not all the households has suffered substantial losses)
appeared to be common. Prevalently farming communities, like the Tepeth
of Napis (Moroto), claimed that they had lost so much livestock that they
were no longer able to cope with failing harvests due to the vagaries of the
climate. Consequently the village was about to migrate to a different
location found to be more fertile, about fifteen kilometers away. Several
places we visited reported to have suffered one or more episodes of violent
theft described as raid within the previous month. In many locations
people claimed to be in a constant state of alarm. Some said that at times,
they were using stratagems such as sleeping in different manyattas or in
different house, to deceive potential attackers. Livestock raids of a
significant scale seemed to be just one of many dimensions of violence
experienced by the communities. People reported episodes of violent attack
whilst working in the fields or theft of small property, including aid food
rations. Youths from the protected kraals claimed to be using special
passwords to recognise each other in the dark when they visited the trading
centres, for fear of being deceived by raiders.
These claims were often accompanied with more or less explicit
acknowledgement that many more NGOs had returned or begun activities in
the area following improvements to the road system and the security of
highways. This combination of claims suggests that security trends might
appear very different when looked at from the different point of view of
urban dwellers, or rural communities. The assessment of security trends in
Karamoja might need to be broken down in ways that enable these
differences to be captured.
Military administration of pastoralism
The most alarming discussions, however, did not focus so much on raids but
on the strict limitations imposed by the protected kraal system, and their
impact on animal production. This was true not only for the meetings in the
protected kraals but also for most of those in the manyattas. Decision
making on all the fundamental aspects of animal production is now under
the authority of the UPDF, from the planning of migrations down to day-to-

41

day herd management practices like grazing, watering, milking and

sometimes even marketing. In most cases, the result is that the crucial
aspects of the pastoral production strategy are in practice subordinated to
the timing of alien administrative procedures or even simply to the
convenience of the military. The size and location of the kraals depends on
the availability of UPDF resources rather than animal health and
productivity. Mobility is subject to bureaucratic procedures and the location
of army barracks, before the conditions of pasture and the availability of
water. The animals (sometimes more than 100,000) are allowed to leave the
kraal to be watered or to be taken to graze, only once the soldiers have
finished their breakfast. There have been reports of people being forced to
sell livestock in order to buy proper clothes and even guns so that they can
be be returned to the UPDF in order to satisfy allegations of keeping them
(cf. OPM, 2007). During the scenario planning exercise, the people gathered
at the meetings (including those held in manyattas) often summarised the
situation brought on by the introduction of protected kraals, by saying that
we [the herders] are not anymore the owners of our own animals, the
UPDF own them now [] we are forced to do all that we know should not
be done when keeping livestock.
Routine tasks have changed:
girls are no longer engaged in kraal work (watering is done by boys);
grazing the herd takes less time (cannot go far, unchallenging):
everybody and particularly young men, are left with a lot of idle time;
use of alcoholic drinks has sharply increased;
kraals are no longer allowed to use the traditional greenbelt grazing
areas of Acholi, Teso and Abim districts or even Lobalangit (in
Kaabong district). This practice benefited both animal production and
improved food security during times of scarcity, as the women in the
kraals used to exchange labour for food in the nearby farming areas.
elders are no longer in control of animal production or responsible for
security (neither are the youth): this is weakening pastoralists social
structure, fragmenting the institutional basis for peace building whilst
favouring uncontrollable social dynamics.
in the present situation, where nothing of what the herders know
should be done for improving animal production, can be done, the
young men looking after the animals have been deprived of the
incentives of pastoralism and left with only the harshness of it.
The combination of these many pressures coupled with a particularly bad
dry spell over the last two years have led to increasingly unfavourable terms
of trade for the pastoralists. Prices of livestock in certain areas are said to
have dropped as much as 60%. In Nariwogum (Kaabong) people claimed
that cows that just a couple of years earlier would have sold for 500,000
USH could now fetch as little as 150,000 USH. In the meantime, the USH
has also lost value. In September 2009, on the Kanawat market in Kotido,
where demand is high, butchers were buying adult cows for about 300,000

42

USH (ca. 150 dollars)39. People attributed the fall of price to the following
causes:
many people were now selling their animals out of necessity or simply
in reaction to the very high incidence of raids;
animals were thin and overall, in poor condition because of poor herd
management practices under the protected kraal system;
overall recrudescence of difficulties caused by the dry climatic
conditions.
People often emphasised that the difficulties brought about by the prolonged
dry spell were being amplified by the herd management practices under the
protected kraal system. A typical explanation would sound like this: Can
you see? It is all dry around here, the animals dont have enough to eat.
Now, we know that there is plenty of good pasture over there [behind that
hill, etc] and we want to go but they [the soldiers] dont let us. They say that
there are no boreholes for their water [or no barracks, or no permission
from the Command of Division, etc.].

Figure 15.
39

Producers interviewed in Moroto found livestock prices on the local market to have
slightly increased over the last 3-4 years. On the other hand, cf. reports by USAID-Famine
Early Warning Systems Network: High food prices have eroded and continue to diminish
households purchasing power and undermine their potential for alternative sources of
food, including for livestock-keeping households that have experienced variable and mostly
declining livestock prices (FEWS NET, March 2009: 2); Even Karamojong households
with livestock as an income source are highly food-insecure, as reduced livestock prices
versus high cereal prices continue to diminish their purchasing power, limiting their market
access (FEWS NET, August 2009: 2).

43

Climate change
Whilst at least in principle, livestock could still be taken to better pastures,
cultivation has become extremely hazardous (with the exception of some
areas in Nakapiripirit and to a lesser extent Kaabong). Some people eat the
seeds rather than sowing them and those who try to farm later wish they had
made porridge. People with livestock have been left to rely entirely on the
sale of the animals. Somebody pointed out that schools previously farmed a
small garden for food production but most of them have now given up, as
the prospects of having a harvest are so rare. As a coping mechanism, the
communities have resorted to cutting wood for burning charcoal, to sell in
the urban settlements and trading centres. These are sprawling due to both
the swelling ranks of NGO workers and the fast growing numbers of people
who, having lost their livelihoods in the bush, converge on the settlements
in the hope of finding a future (yet often finding only idleness and
alcoholism). In the process, the trees are being progressively destroyed.
Impoverishment
The main drivers for school enrolment in Karamoja are impoverishment and
the death of a father. People usually mentioned increasing child enrolment
in school as a coping strategy against impoverishment, mainly with
reference to the feeding programme. In Karamoja, restrictions on mobility
lead to impoverishment. This happens because reduced mobility hinders the
production strategies that are specific to the unpredictable variability of the
drylands, not only for pastoralism, as it is believed, but also for farming. It
is therefore a mistake to assume a linear relationship between mobility and
pastoralism, assuming for example that the agricultural production in agropastoral systems depends less on mobility than the pastoral component.
Here are two examples to clarify this point. The chiefly farming community
in Napis (Tepeth) nevertheless relies on animal production for backup.
Having lost most of their livestock to raids they are no longer able to cope
with unpredictable harvests. As a consequence, they have turned to mobility
for survival: they had to move their village several kilometres away to a
place estimated to be more fertile (with more reliable harvests). Several
other communities (for example the people met in Lorengedwat,
Nakapiripirit) referred to the restricted mobility, following both the
disarmament exercise and insecurity, as a problem for farming. A
substantial part of their farming is mobile, that is, it is done in places which
may change from year to year, and be several kilometers from the manyatta,
therefore not always accessible or safely used under the present conditions

44

Peoples voices40
ON EDUCATION
We prefer ABEK because it prepares our children for formal education with
good hygiene and sanitation. We prefer formal education because it is
recognised by the Ministry of Education (women, Kotido).
We need more support for the ABEK teachers, more training so that they
know how to teach well and more control for those who dont teach well.
The teachers should wear something that enables people to identify them
(woman, Kaabong).

There was noone near to choose from, so we had to have teachers from far
away. Sometimes it is even the office that changes them and moves them
around (woman, Kaabong).
Formal schools have teachers quarters. Why dont ABEK schools have
them too? (woman, Kaabong).
A lot of sensitisation is being done by both government and NGOs, for
example about the disadvantages of traditions and the importance of
hygiene and sanitation (woman, Kotido).
Nobody is allowed to move naked now. If you are found naked you can be
imprisoned and beaten. Even the medical staff put pressure on us. If we
were sick and seeking treatment while wearing a skin [the traditional
leather apron] they would refuse to treat us because, they said, we were
smelly (women, Nakapiripirit).
Many of our children have gone to the ABEK centres for years. We feel that
they should know more by now, if they were taught every day, they would
have some knowledge by now (women, Kaabong).
In ABEK there is no food. The children have to leave the learning centre
and go to school if they want to secure some food. Why cant they get food
in ABEK? (women, Kaabong).
There is no way we can send all our children to a formal school: with cows
or without cows there is so much work to do. We will never send all our
children to school. With ABEK it is different: the children are occupied only
for a limited time. Some can then go to a formal school. They enter in P1. A
few go straight to P2 but the majority go to P1. Most boys at the kraal will
not go to school, as they need to become big herders (elders, Kaabong).
ABEK promised to give pens, books etc. Now the children are going to
school but without the equipment. Then they drop out and come home. They
come back but dont care for cows. They hang around the village. Those
who drop out need help. They are willing but cant afford the costs of school
(Kaabong).

40

When not otherwhise specified, these quotes come from men at the scenario planning
meetings.

45

When the protected kraal system ends, the herds will grow again. We will
have more cows, we will need more children to look after them and
therefore we wont be able to use formal schools for their education. If
ABEK could add another level to complete primary school, the children at
the kraal could carry on their education. We would love access to education
up to secondary school right at the kraal (Kaabong).
This learning with ABEK for three years is good for the kraal, but if they
[SCiUG] can give us higher level teachers for learning the other years of
primary school here at the kraal it would be better. If they cannot, then
radio education is good (Kaabong).
Radio cannot be taken out with the animals. Perhaps in the rainy season,
but the rest of the year it would be dangerous. But the children could learn
by listening in the evening (Kaabong).
With both security and climate change unfavourable, formal education is
the best option since there will be no food but children will be fed in school.
Distance learning is also good since we will be very mobile looking for the
good grass and water in other areas and we could still learn by listening to
the radio (Moroto).
In the case of unfavourable climate and improved security, many children
will prefer to be enrolled in formal schools so that they can have something
to eat while ABEK enrolment will go down due to migration (Moroto).
We would like the Early Childhood Education Programme to cater for the
young children, since many parents have been arrested through the
disarmament process and have no time to cater for their children (Kotido).
With both disarmament and climate change favourable, we would prefer the
education through the radio whereby people who work with the livestock
will be able to study wherever they go and even those who remain at home
to work in the gardens will still be able to study through the radio.
Sedentary ABEK will also be suitable for the early years, for those who stay
at the manyatta (Moroto).
What makes us unhappy in ABEK? The bosses of ABEK always like
deceiving us, for example when they come they tell us that they are going to
bring us books and pencils then they disappear and dont bring anything
(Moroto).

One of the reasons why ABEK was brought to us here, was for us to
embrace development. This is true because now there is education in the
region, this is associated with development such as new buildings like our
ABEK learning centre, health units, latrines and employment opportunities
such as ABEK facilitators and monitoring committees (Kotido).
In the case of unfavourable disarmament and climate change, formal
education will be the best option and many children from ABEK will enrol
in school. In a situation where there is hunger like these days, children in
formal schools get access to food unlike in ABEK (Kotido).

46

In a future scenario of unfavourable disarmament, people who cultivate

food would suffer at the hands of the soldiers when they forcefully get food
from people after they had a good harvest. There would be no education for
the children as the parents would not be able to support them in school due
to poverty and insecurity. Education through the radio would be the best
option because those who have run away from unfavourable disarmament
will be able to learn from far and those who have remained will also be able
to learn through the radio (Napis, Moroto).
Those with more children can send some to school. But where there are only
few children the parents cannot send anyone. We like the idea of education
coming to us (Kaabong).
ON PASTORALISM
The price of cows has gone down because they are thin, and now also the
money has lost value (Kaabong).
The warriors used to go out well ahead of the herds in order to check the
terrain for suspicious footprints. Now the soldiers come behind us, letting
the animals erase the footprints before they can see them (Kaabong).
Even more so when climate is unfavourable but security is favourable:
people will migrate in large numbers (Moroto).
We have been without livestock before. This is not the first time. We will
build the herds back as we did in the past (Moroto).
ON FARMING
Could we survive on farming alone? No we could not, not even in the most
favourable climatic conditions here in Karamoja (elders, Kaabong).
With climate change favourable but unfavourable disarmament, people will
not be able to go farming in far away places because movement will be
restricted (Nakapiripirit).
There is no rain today that can support the growth of crops (Moroto).
The activity of harvesting is lost nowadays: we dont harvest anything or
have one bag only. Thus also building granaries has stopped, as we have no
food to store anymore (Moroto).
ON DISARMAMENT
The cows are not like manyattas: they are supposed to move often, go to
certain places at particular times in order to remain healthy. They also need
space when grazing and space to prevent infection. This situation [of the
protected kraal] is suffocating for the cows (Kaabong).
We are becoming more and more dependent on the government (Kaabong).
Please talk to Museveni and talk to the UPDF commanders so that they let
the animals go to the good grass (Kaabong).

47

Insecurity is common, because of [unbalanced] disarmament (Moroto).

A favourable disarmament process would entail stopping the protected
kraal system (Nakapiripirit).
When we are raided, the soldiers ask us to show the cows footprints.
However, before reaching the animals the soldiers send the warriors back.
They say that they will follow the cows footprint themselves. In this way we
never know exactly where the animals were taken to. When the soldiers
come back with the animals, they are always fewer and usually different
from those that were actually stolen (Kaabong).
The traditional raiding ended years back. These days raids are just done by
organised thieves and the cows are soldfor money. That is why raids can be
so frequent now. The warriors spent most of their time looking after their
own herds. They could only engage in raids where they were free from other
commitments, maybe once in a year. The raiders of today have nothing else
to do. Some raid because they are jobless. Some do it for repaying the loan
from the government (Moroto).
Business people are many these days. People have acquired business skills
(Moroto).

In the case of favourable disarmament, people are being given some items
like iron sheets, ox-plough, maize etc. as a reward for handing over the
guns. People now get involved in business by selling those items (Kotido).
Another cause of raids are the businessmen, when they have huge debts with
people or when they have run short of money, then they go for raids
whereby animals are stolen and then sold to the cattle market to get money
(Moroto).

Some of these warriors are building houses and shops in town with the
money from the raided cattle. They rent out these houses and place their
educated children to work in these shops (Moroto).
In a scenario of unfavourable disarmament and favourable business there
are high levels of raiding because of unbalanced disarmament. Since there
is a ready market for livestock, the raided animals are sold immediately.
Most of the warriors get involved in business activities (Kotido).
Right now, a person cannot sleep in one place. The place for sleeping
cannot be the same everyday. Sometimes we have to go to the trading centre
of gather in a manyatta for a night because of insecurity (Moroto).
These days the dressing code has changed. This is due to a government
policy that started under Amins regime. People were forced to put on
clothes. Those who misbehaved were killed or tortured on the spot. With the
ongoing disarmament exercise the karachuna are forced to put on clothes
and abandon their traditional attire (suka, blanket),otherwise the soldiers
suspect that one hides a gun under the blanket (Kotido).
With unfavourable climate change and unfavourable disarmament, theft of
food relief in the manyattas will continue as is the case these days: this is

48

when thugs come and raid food that has been distributed to a particular
area (Kotido).
The policy of changing the dressing code of the karachuna has left them
spiritually tortured and stressed; beaten by the soldiers for wearing sukas,
beads on their necks, legs or heads (Kotido).
With drought, the only possible option is to move, or we will all die. It is out
of the question that we move to town and give up pastoralism. At that point
it would be better to remove the soldiers altogether and let us remain alone
in the land (Kaabong).
With improved security and favourable climate change, the present
migration to other districts will stop because what is chasing people out
now is hunger, people will stop begging along the streets of Kampala, they
will be at home (Moroto).
The soldiers say that they cannot die for what does not belong to them
(Kaabong).

Figure 16.

Figure 17.

49

Childrens voices
You need to be clean in order to be able to read and learn (primary school boy,
Kaabong).
When we are out with the herd, we must stay alert all the time (herd boys, Kaabong).
Depending on the season, sometimes we eat in the morning, before taking the the
animals out to graze, otherwise we mostly eat in the evening (Kotido).
It takes at least five years to learn herding. Our fathers and our older brothers and
friends teach us. They also talk when they come back to the camp in the evening.
They sit down and talk about the day. We sit with them and listen (Kaabong).
To be a good herder means that you dont lose animals and you dont give up
(Kaabong).
There are no kraals these days: it is the barracks that is the kraal (Nakapiripirit).
Our fathers teach us how tolook after the animals and take them to find good grass in
places that are safe (boys). Our mothers teach us how to do domestic work, like
fetching water (girls). The ABEK teachers teach us all to brush our teeth and bathe
twice a day. That requires a lot of water (Moroto).
Cows are no longer ours: it is the army now who enjoys them. Sometimes we milk
and they take the milk. When a cow dies it is the soldiers who take the good bites
like the liver, the heart. They just leave the owner with what is left (Kaabong).
Fetching water is done by boys when they are still young, but when they grow up
they dont do that anymore. Selling firewood was not there in the past. Now we do it
because of hunger and poverty. Other activities like digging and weeding have
decreased because of lack of rainfall. Herding activities too have reduced because
our cows are in the protected kraals, hence we dont have much to do, not like before
when we could spend our time in the kraal (Nakapiripirit).
We are going through a drought, that is true, but if only the animals were free to
move... there is grass everywhere (Kaabong).
We know what kind of grass should or should not be eaten by the animals we look
after (Kotido).
The soldiers follow the herds to graze in order to protect them. However, when they
are tired of being away from their barracks, the soldiers shoot in the air and pretend
that there are raiders hidden nearby, as an excuse to rush back to the camp. The
cattle never eat enough (Kaabong).
In ABEK we learn how to read and write letters like a, e, i, o, u. We learn how to
write our names and we learn about the colour of the animals. Our teacher teaches us
well. We learn for five days a week. She is good and committed. We would want to
have better skills for writing other things, not only our names (Nakapiripirit).
We know which grass is good. The short one for example is good for the animals
and they wake up with the stomach satisfied. We look at what the animals like and
search for more. We go ahead and when we find some patch we think is good we tell
the younger ones to bring the herd and see whether the cows find it and enjoy it. This
is also how the young ones learn (Kaabong).
What skill do we want? We want to learn how to read and write as well as herding
and the skills we learn from our parents, like running a household. Education is
difficult to get because of the costs (Nakapiripirit).

50

Table 2. Key Issues

The value of pastoralism

The key economic relevance of pastoralism is

poorly understood and poorly recognised even
within the institutions that play a key role in
pastoral development in Karamoja. Both
conceptual and institutional spaces to think about
pastoralism outside the official negative clichs,
are limited.

The value of education

The education available in Karamoja under UPE,

overall, undermines more than it promotes
childrens future livelihoods options. The
awareness of this situation amongst the operators
of the sector often cohabits with an uncritically
positive view of education that bears no relation
to the reality they work in.

The disarmament
exercise

Success in securing highways and urban centres

is accompanied with increased risk of raids in
manyattas and kraals. In the meantime, the
modalities of disarmament, and particularly the
military administration of pastoralism, through
the protected kraal system, is eradicating the
capacity for animal production from Karamoja.

Climate change

Increased environmental unpredictability has

made farming utterly unreliable. Nowadays, in
most of rural Karamoja, livestock is the only
source of livelihood security.

Impoverishment

School feeding programmes have turned school

enrolment into a coping strategy in the face of
impoverishment.

Figure 18.

51

Scenarios: climate change & disarmament

With only three exceptions, the sixteen communities involved in the SP
exercises, identified either climate change and disarmament or climate
change and insecurity, as the most important drivers of change. Insecurity
and disarmament had largely but not perfectly overlapping descriptions. All
the communities involved in the exercise perceived the disarmament
process as that which brought rampant raiding and violence to their rural
context. However, they also recognised that highways and towns were more
secure, hence the mushrooming of NGOs in the region. Analysis of
increased insecurity scenarios, on the other hand, emphasised the
disappearance of NGOs (for fear of attacks). Thus there seems to be a
double dimension to security. In the case of disarmament, increased security
can be context specific, allowing the free circulation of vehicles and goods
along the highways and within the urban centres but actually holding the
rural population under constant threat of attack (in some areas people were
afraid to the point of never sleeping twice in the same location).
Given the ongoing disarmament strategy and the pervasive presence of the
protected kraal system (with the only exception of Nakapiripirit), in the
course of the final strategic planning workshop we focused on climate
change (CC) and disarmament (D). The four scenarios below, result from
analysis of the four logical combinations of these two drivers as being
favourable (+) and unfavourable (-) to pastoralism.
Scenario 1 (+CC & +D): Milk & Peace
Stocking rate increases and crops are more reliable. Both phenomena raise
the demand for labour in the household|: more children engage in herding
and cultivation. Kraal activity, and particularly mobility, is high.
Appropriate herd management (particularly strategic mobility) and adequate
food backup from more reliable crops facilitate the sale of animals in good
condition and at the right age (rather than too young). There is more money
for covering the cost of schooling a few children (and less chance of
dropping out). However, overall school enrolment will decrease as a
consequence of a dramatic mitigation of poverty (usually the main driver for
enrolment whereeducational programmes offer feeding).
Scenario 2 (-CC & +D): Restless Hoofs
The military administration of animal production has ceased and the bush is
reasonably safe for pastoralism. Large areas of dry season pastures, and
particularly the drought grazing areas in the Green Belt, are accessible.
The substantial reduction of farming in the pastoral areas, due to the
unsustainable uncertainty of harvests, has opened more land for pastoralism
and gradually the grass is coming back. People and animals move freely and
therefore specialised drylands-specific animal production strategies are
again in operation. This significantly mitigates the impact of the prolonged
dry spell. There is an overall reduction of livestock but extreme mobility of
the herds and problematic watering keep the labour demand high. The price

52

of livestock is low and there is no money coming from crops, as the best
harvests are still very poor. Humanitarian relief is helping. All the children
who are not needed in production are enrolled in schools or in any other
programme involving food distribution. About 90% of these children drop
out before completing primary education as their families cannot afford to
cover the cost of schooling.
Scenario 3 (+CC & -D): Tethered oxen
Pastoralism is under military administration. Animal stocks have decreased
sharply due to over-marketing and epidemic outbreaks and are still
decreasing. The overall improvement of climatic conditions has made crops
more reliable and partially cushioned the losses in livestock. In many
places, this has softened the impact of the military administration on food
security but has allowed the undermining of pastoralism to go beyond the
point of non-return. Now people are fearing that when sooner or later, a
prolonged dry spell will hit again, the consequences for the majority left to
rely mainly on farming, will be disastrous. Because of decreased animal
stocks, less labour is needed. Nevertheless, households have no surplus to
invest in schooling. Prices of livestock have initially stabilised and then
increased mildly (for the first time in ten years) as supply has fallen below
the market demand.
Scenario 4 (-CC & -D): Hunger & Bullets
This is a projection of the present situation. The protected kraal system is
eradicating the capacity for animal production in Karamoja. The life of a
herder under the military administration is neither honourable, dignified or
rewarding. Competent producers with extensive experience have been made
redundant by the military management. Amongst the younger generation
there is a progressive loss of specialist knowledge and herding culture,
both key to successful drylands-specific animal production. The specialised
breeding populations of cattle are also lost to commercial raiding, forced
marketing and epidemics. The exclusion of women and girls has
impoverished the life in the kraal and disengaged the economic sphere of
animal production from the dependence on women, with negative
consequences for gender balance and womens negotiating power within the
household. Old and young alike are left with no visible future and a lot of
idle time. Alcoholism is spreading fast amongst both men and women.
Years of commercial raids and untargeted retrieval operations by the army
have depleted the herds, triggering mass-impoverishment. Harvests have
become too unpredictable to justify any investment in farming. In the
poorest areas, school enrolment has sharply increased. These are either
orphaned orchildren from livestock-less households, joining school in order
to get something to eat. Hardly any of them arrive to P7, out-selected by
school costs or by the need to migrate in search of work. Amongst those
families who managed to save some animals, feelings of anger and a
widespread sense of betrayal by the government are spreading fast. There
are rumours that, with help from unidentified outside players, several groups
are quickly rearming.

53

SECTION 3
TASK: To guide a process of reaching a common vision for the future
ABEK and consensually define effective strategic measures for pursuing it.
The content of this section has been the output of the strategic planning
workshop (SPW) held in Moroto on 28-30 September 2009, where work
was based on the information collected during the three weeks of scenario
planning exercises with pastoral communities in the four districts41.
The vision
A full course of primary education can be completed by all children
directly involved in pastoralism in Karamoja.

Comment: at present, pastoral households interested in state or formal

education are faced with the dilemma of either sending a child to school or
keeping him/her in pastoralism in order to learn how to take care of the
family business. ABEK in its present form can only cushion this situation, at
best postponing the dilemma for a few years. This new vision aims to go
beyond this dilemma, towards a future in which education is made
accessible to the producers themselves, additional rather than alternative to
pastoralism. Placing our focus on those children who have so far proved to
be the most difficult to reach does not mean to exclude the others. Whilst
programmes that manage to effectively reach the children in pastoralism
will also serve those less or not engaged in production, the same has not
proved to be true the other way round.

The strategy
In order to pursue this new vision, the final workshop led to the
formulation of a proposed strategy articulated in two layers:
1. Changing the wider settings
2. Delivering education to children in pastoralism

41

See Annex 6 for a list of participants.

54

A. Changing the landscape

The scenario planning exercise highlighted a serious problem with the
present understanding of pastoralism. An overall negative view of
pastoralism in Karamoja is still deeply entrenched in the mainstream
culture, including key institutions like the education system. To a certain
extent, this is no different from the way pastoralism is seen in other African
countries. However, whilst abroad the understanding of pastoralism is
evolving rapidly, in Uganda this process seems to be lagging behind.
It is crucial to gain awareness of this particular situation and of its
implications. Any programme of education provision to pastoralists in
Karamoja (indeed any development programme in the region) necessarily
requires operating (at all levels) with people whose education and social
background have habituated them to see pastoralism in Karamoja more or
less in a negative light: obtusely traditional, economically irrational, a
burden to the nations development. On the other hand, the abundant
information on drylands pastoral systems generated by scientific research
over the last twenty years (highlighting pastoralisms strategic complexity,
environmental sustainability and fundamental economic advantages) is
largely beyond the horizon.
The success of an education programme that aims at serving the children
directly involved in pastoral production depends on its capacity to induce a
positive evolution in this mainstream cultural landscape. All key players
involved in pastoral development - particularly those within SCiUG, the
MoES and the local administration - need to have, sound, up to date
information on pastoralism. This needs to be done by challenging the
mainstream prejudicial perspective, filling the information gap about
pastoralism and promoting favourable change in; attitude, relevant formal
institutions and practices. Strategic activities proposed within this layer
focus on three key dimensions: 1. policy and institutional framework; 2. the
media; and 3. the disarmament exercise.
Given the scale of this task of information/sensitisation, opportunities to
work in partnership with other NGOs with a strong interest in drylands
pastoralism deserve serious consideration. Most of this work can be done in
urban centres with the use of repeatable media such as printed materials
(posters, short papers) and above all audio and short videos.
1. Policy and institutional framework
1.1.

Systematically disseminate scientific knowledge on drylands

pastoralism
It is of crucial strategic interest to introduce and disseminate
sound and up to date knowledge on drylands pastoralism. This is
much needed at all operational levels, starting from within
SCiUG itself, and spinning out to the local administration and

55

particularly the partners within the education system (District

Education Office and school staff). Information on pastoralism
should be made available to the teacher training colleges and the
teacher education department under the MoES (perhaps offered
as an additional specialisation to the teachers working in
Karamoja), as well as the curriculum developers at the National
Curriculum Development Centre in Kampala.
1.2.

Promote the creation of a policy on nomadic education

Havingrecognised the specific challenges posed by providing
education to nomadic and pastoral communities, several African
countries have engaged in the process of developing a nomadic
education policy framework. A similar process would also be
useful in Uganda. The long and fruitful partnership with the
Ministry of Education puts SCiUG in an ideal position for
promoting and assisting such a process. Options for liaising with
the institutions involved in this policy development in Kenya42,
and with UNICEF that is supporting several processes of this
kind in East Africa, should also be considered.

1.3.

Promote the equivalence of nomadic education

Promoting and supporting the development of the legal
framework essential for a clearly defined platform of equivalence
between a nomadic education programme capable of fulfilling
our vision and the education system in conventional schools
(curriculum, examinations, certificates, etc.).

1.4.

Assist the GoU in the process of developing a Policy on

Nomadism
The present development of a Policy on Nomadism
commisssioned by the Office of the Prime Minister could offer a
timely window for initiating a discussion on the specificity of
education provision to pastoralists and the need for a dedicated
policy framework. At the same time, the development of a policy
on nomadism is itself of key strategic importance for the future
work of SCiUG on education in Karamoja. It is critical to ensure
that, sound and updated information on pastoralism, is conveyed
in the process.

1.5.

Promote a truthful image of Karamoja within the national

curriculum
The invisibility of Karamoja pastoralism in the national
curriculum (learning areas of integrated sciences, geography and
agriculture) incorrectly implies its economic irrelevance. The few
places where pastoralism and pastoralists in Karamoja are
mentioned in the syllabus contain information that is either

42

Key contact: David Siele, Director of Education, Ministry of State for the Development
of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands (sieledav@yahoo.com; +254 020 2145559).

56

negatively bias or incorrect (as shown in section 1). The

undesirable consequences of fostering this misinformation
through the national education system are far-reaching. SCiUG
can certainly assist in promoting the process of a focused revision
of the curriculum and help with the introduction of correct and
updated information on pastoralism.
2. The public image of Karamoja pastoralism and the media
2.1.

Promote sound information on pastoralists amongst the media

operators
Promote sound and up to date information on drylands
pastoralism amongst the operators of the media (invite journalists
to workshops with international scholars, organise meetings of
journalists with pastoralists; set up a fund for enabling interested
journalists to reach remote pastoral areas for collecting sound
information).

2.2.

Promote a positive image of pastoralists through the media

Promote the dissemination of sound information through the
media (documentaries, articles in newspapers, press conferences).

3. The modalities of the disarmament exercise

The present modalities of the disarmament exercise have an
unnecessarily disruptive impact on pastoralism. As we have seen, future
scenarios with disarmament disadvantageous/unfavourable to
pastoralism (projections of the present situation) severely undermine the
chances of realising the SCiUG vision. It is strategically critical
therefore to engage in activities capable of steering the modalities of
disarmament away from the present direction. These activities would
aim at both producing and disseminating knowledge and would focus on
the following issues:
3.1.

Promote an understanding of the complexity of drylands

pastoralism amongst the operators of disarmament
Disarmament is made disruptive for pastoralism dueto its
modalities more than its objective. Many of these modalities are
unnecessarily disruptive for pastoral production and, it can be
argued, dont even serve the cause of disarmament well. Most of
the problems are rooted in a poor understanding of drylands
pastoralism and its specific production strategies, combined with
a view of pastoralism as fundamentally wrong. It is crucial to
assure that the operators of disarmament grasp the complex
nature of pastoral production strategies and the importance of
minimising interference in what they dont understand. SCiUG

57

can help disseminate the available knowledge through

specifically designed workshops and training courses.
3.2.

Promote a better understanding of the complexity of cattle

rustling in Karamoja
It is particularly important to favour a clear understanding of the
tight links between rural and urban realities and the
fundamentally commercial nature of cattle rustling. The popular
framework explaining raiding, with warriors greed for cattle
(through a model that contrasts traditional and modern, bush and
town), does not assist disarmament operators in seeing these
crucial links. In reality there is no clear-cut between bush and
town, or between warriors and businessmen. It is necessary to
deconstruct the current understanding of cattle rustling as rooted
in pastoralism as opposed to modernisation: the contrary is just as
true. Studies in this direction are needed, followed by forums for
wider dissemination and discussion (not only to the people
directly involved in disarmament, but also to the general public).

3.3.

Promote an understanding of the economic and social

implications of current disarmament modalities
The recent study by Stites and Akabwai (2009) is the first step in
this direction. There is a need to narrow the focus of this kind of
study to specific issues (for example the consequences of running
retrieval operations after raids without the capacity or will to
track down the actual, stolen animals; the consequences of
focusing control on the kraals for stolen animals but neglecting to
control the markets; the consequences of excluding women and
girls from kraals). There is also a need to understand the impact
of disarmament, and particularly the protected kraal system, with
studies more closely related to specific aspects of pastoral
production (for example the consequences of forcing high
concentrations of animals to remain in one place; the
consequences of limiting grazing time; the consequences of
preventing strategic mobility). Finally, these studies need to be
effectively discussed in appropriate forums and disseminated to
the general public.

B. Delivering education to children in pastoralism

At present, the dependency on the classroom model and the school-based
system keep a lid on ABEK, preventing the programme from fulfilling its
original vision of being responsive to the educational needs of children in
pastoralism (despite the good intentions and hard work). This new strategy
lifts that lid.

58

This component of the strategy builds on the current network of ABEK

teachers but gradually shifts the programme towards radio-based distance
learning (DL). At the moment, this appears to be the only option capable of
providing an effective combination of flexibility, quality and continuity of
learning, to pastoral children in potentially mobile and unstable social
groups. The shift could start from the introduction of a radio-based course
(in Ngakarimojong) and the provision of training for the teachers at the
learning centres so that they can take advantage of it. A regular, high-quality
programme broadcast, on the model of existing radio-education
programmes in Somalia for example, would also increase the daily learning
time available, in those cases where the teacher is not living near the
learning centre.
Providing a full cycle of primary education through a DL programme is a
task of significant proportions, in a new direction and one that might be
outside the current comparative advantage of SCiUG. On the other hand, a
substantial advantage could come precisely from taking this direction, as a
similar programme (welcoming international cooperation) might just be
about to be developed in Kenya. This programme will deliver a formal
primary education course through a combination of radio broadcasting,
visiting teachers and printed materials. If the Kenyan programme goes
ahead, it would be relatively easy for SCiUG to proceed in its footprints
(with the necessary adjustments to the specificity of Karamoja of course)
and will most likely be able to utilise substantial resources in
Ngakarimojong from a pilot project in Turkana to be developed in the
course of 2010 (or to join forces in the process). Moreover, the Kenyan
programme will be open to international co-operation, particularly within
the region. An international observer group will be created as soon as the
work starts. A SCiUG study trip to Kenya in 2010 would be recommended
and welcomed. It might also be possible for a key SCiUG representative
(for example the country education technical manager) to join the
international observer group on a permanent basis.
In the case that the Kenyan programme is delayed or takes a different
direction, SCiUG would still have options: embark on developing a DL
primary education programme of its own (adapting the Kenyan experience);
or scale down the vision to a DL programme of basic education. This
scaled-down programme would have a strong focus on literacy and
numeracy with a functional perspective, keeping away from the caveats and
dead-ends identified in the experience of sedentary and mobile ABEK (see
section on ABEK). The DL structure and a clear and recognised equivalence
with the conventional school system would still give it the potential to
expand gradually, over a number of years, into a full primary education
course.
This second option would not be required to start from square one and could
instead rely on the experience of three DL programmes currently running in
Somalia managed by the African Educational Trust in collaboration with

59

BBC World (presented in section 1). Also in this case, a SCiUG study trip is
recommended.
This said, ABEK is uniquely positioned to provide the solution to these
problems. With its extensive and well established community links and long
standing collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the DEOs it
alone can quickly provide the framework to make these changes a success.
This is an opportunity, for ABEK, to renew the early commitment of
responsiveness towards pastoral children. In many cases the ABEK teachers
are already visiting teachers, working in pairs and taking it in turns to
travel to the learning centres. They work with little resources and against the
impossible task of making the ABEK learning, match the model of a school.
The recommended shift is in the direction of what these teachers can
effectively do (rather than insisting on what they cannot): visit the children
regularly and provide face-to-face support. A radio-based, distance learning
programme, can provide ABEK with a new skeleton skeleton for going
beyond the limits of the present system. Radio broadcasting can provide the
needed continuity in teaching and learning, in all conditions, without
renouncing the open learning approach that has been so successful with the
local communities. The distance-learning component can guarantee highquality standards, offer an entry point for innovation in teaching methods as
well as provide a platform for in-service training and re-training of
facilitators. The integration of a radio-based DL component in ABEK can
also offer a powerful means to enhance communication with facilitators and
strengthen their network.
Considerations on Monitoring & Evaluation
An M&E framework for ABEK needs to be built from scratch. The recent
creation of a new DM&E post is a positive move in this direction. The
difficult task has been undertaken with energy and dedication but after ten
years of neglect, a substantial change will only happen with a lot of support.
This section provides a few ideas.
Monitoring attendance and performance: keeping an index of pupils on
individual cards, one per learner, seems to be more appropriate for the open
learning structure of ABEK than a school register. Cards can be easily
added or taken away and there is no limit to their number. They can be put
to one side if the learner drops out and used again if the learner returns. A
copy of the card could accompany the learner if they decide to enroll in a
formal school. A standard arrangement with the headmasters could secure
continuity of information on the card throughout the school period.
Monitoring the network of teachers: at the moment the information about
facilitators is scattered across districts and levels of competence. Not only
does SCiUG have little knowledge of the ABEK learners: there is no precise
information on the facilitators and in some cases not even the location of
learning centres. This is why the project to construct an ABEK directory

60

was introduced at the beginning of the strategic planning exercise, to be

developed into a fully functional, web-based databank (a simple option
would be to build it in Access, the database component of MS Office). The
goal of the directory is to create a platform of information on the operating
conditions of the learning centres, easily sharable across all levels of
competence and all stakeholders. Obvious data to be collected include; the
name and location of the centre, information on the facilitators
(qualification, experience, distance traveled for reaching the centre, etc) and
information on the learners and the teaching activity. Above all, the
directory would constitute the backbone, easily adaptable and expandable,
of any new M&E system. Once a year it could be printed and made
available to the learning centres. Examples of the required information and
of a possible database structure are provided in Annexes 10 and 11.
Incomplete but substantial data have been collected for most of the learning
centres. Although not an exhaustive set of information, the material
collected so far represents a solid starting point. The data should be inputted
in a database and then circulated amongst the facilitators in order to acquire
the information that is still missing.
Monitoring transition: even if reliable data on transition from ABEK to
formal schools are not available for the past, there are ways of estimating
the impact of ABEK under this respect. One of these ways consists of
looking at the enrolment pattern, over a five year period (or even better a ten
year period if data are available), of all the primary schools in a district to
see whether there is a significant and consistent difference between those
that dont have an ABEK centre in the area and those that do. Of course, in
absence of precise and individualised information on drop-out and
performance, any monitoring system based on enrolment can only speak
about ABEKs persuasion work and not about its actual educational
impact.

61

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Saverio Krtli is a freelance researcher with a background in philosophy,

anthropology of pastoralism, and development studies. He specialises in the
interface between science and policy, with a focus on education provision and
pastoral production strategies. He has carried out extensive fieldwork with pastoral
groups in East and West Africa, with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS,
University of Sussex), and with the International Institute of Environment and
Development (IIED, UK). Saverio has published a review of the literature on
education provision to nomadic pastoralists in 2001, and more recently Krtli S. and
Dyer C. 2009. Mobile Pastoralists and Education: Strategic Options, International
Institute of Environment and Development. Education for Nomads Working Paper
1, London. Saverio is also editor of Nomadic Peoples (saverio.kratli@gmail.com).

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