This brief aims to draw learnings from better understanding if and how pastoralists share food aid, and if and how this affects their ability to cope with and recover from drought.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing increased frequency, duration and severity of droughts, strongly influenced by climate change. Considerable attention has been given to targeting food aid, concerned that its impact may be diluted by recipients sharing food with others or diverting it to better-off households. Community social structures and coping mechanisms are perceived by government and aid agencies to be weakening to a point of failure.
To understand if and how pastoralists shared food aid, and if this affected their ability to cope with and recover from drought, we studied households in three purposively selected kebeles of Su’ula (Afar), Asli (Somali) and Fuldowa (Oromia) that had received food aid during the drought of 2020–2023.