About Us

The World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP) is a social movement of grassroot organisations of  nomadic peoples and communities sharing pastoralism with various forms of mobility as a livelihood strategy while conserving biological diversity and using natural resources in a sustainable way. 

History

WAMIP was created in an unofficial form by about 26 representatives of mobile peoples, tribes and communities from four continents gathered on the occasion of the 5th World ParkCongress in Durban, South Africa, in September 2003. The representatives of the mobile people decided to form their own association, identified themselves as indigenous and expressed their solidarity with the larger and well-established indigenous and tribal peoples’ movement worldwide.

The first WAMIP Congress was held during 15-18 September 2007 in Segovia, Spain. Around 300 participants included community elders, leaders and representatives of different mobile indigenous communities from 20 different countries across five continents. During the Congress the newly constructed WAMIP Statutes were amended and adopted.

Click here for Segovia Pastoralist declaration pdf.

The next general council of WAMIP met in 2010 at Mera, India during the Global gathering of Women Pastoralists (GGWP). The leadership and governance was reconstituted at Mera. 

Following the 3 years period,  general council and Global Gathering was held in Kiserian, Kenya in 2013.. In that meeting the Council was restructured with a fixed number of Councillors per regions, and the definition of Regional Coordinators , two per region, composing a Board of Regional Coordinators, decentralising WAMIP  into 9 regional alliances—North , Central, East and West Africa; Central, South, and West Asia; Latin America and Europe. Subsequently, each alliance undertook vision building exercise and selected a focal point for each region. Download the_kiserian_pastoralists_statement.

In Brussels in 2018 , the Board of Regional Coordinators met in Brussels to resume the actions on governance and redefine the structure . An additional region for political representation was created, the Artic, 

International representation of WAMIP 

WAMIP is an independent grassroot movement , global alliance of nomadic peoples and pastoralist communities and their organisations. We represent customary forms of pastoralism and other forms of mobility as a livelihood strategy while conserving biological diversity and using natural resources in a sustainable way. Since its establishment in 2003, WAMIP family has grown to 200 members in 48 countries. The primary members of WAMIP include the indigenous/mobile communities and their organisations. In 2013 and 2014 WAMIP consolidated and restructured its work through the formation of sub regional alliances. WAMIP now has alliances in 9 regions including North, Central, East and West Africa; Central, South, and West Asia; Latin America and Europe. 

WAMIP also substantiated its presence at the global level and played an important role in advocating for the rights of mobile, indigenous peoples, particularly the pastoralists. Due to continued advocacy and lobbying efforts of WAMIP in past years, the pastoralists are now recognized as a constituency alongside the peasants, fisher folks and other constituencies in the UN system and other international platforms. One of the most important outcomes has been the inclusion of the term „pastoralist‟ and „rangeland‟ in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT). 

Globally the small food producers are on the precipice. In this exigency the social movements need to come together to protect and advance the interests of small food producers. WAMIP thus evolved in the role of a „watchperson‟ on behalf of the small livestock keepers and the pastoralists. WAMIP has strongly advocated for Food Sovereignty through its participation in different forums in 2013 and 2014 , together with La Via Campesina . It is the efforts of WAMIP and its partners that successfully negotiated for inclusion of „Livestock‟ as a priority issue for CFS. We look forward to the CFS Report on Sustainable Agricultural Development, for Food Security and Nutrition, including the role of livestock to be tabled in 2016. Towards the end of 2014, WAMIP facilitated the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub initiative supported by FAO. The Hub was a three year project  expected to strengthen the regional alliances and create a mechanism for participation of pastoralists in policy advocacy.

We also participated in the discussions and process leading to the approval in late 2018 of the UN Declaration on Peasant Rights, after many years of joint effort with other grassroot farming organisations. 

WAMIP in different Forums

Civil Society Mechanism for Committee on World Food Security (CSM4CFS): The coordination Committee of CSM4CFS has two WAMIP members—Khaled Al Khawaldeh and Verdiana Morandi. 

Indigenous People’s Forum at IFAD

World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP): WAMIP is one of the members of Steering Committee of WISP.  

Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership : WAMIP is one of the steering committee members. WAMIP was chair of LEAP in 2014. 

The Rangelands Observatory , involves organisations and research and development institutions in 22 countries jointly defined the type of observatory that is needed most and that would best complement the work currently done in support of pastoralists in their struggle for securing access to land. The Rangelands Observatory is an International Land Coalition (ILC) project to build an observatory on land acquisitions and tenure securitisation in rangelands. The Rangelands Observatory inception workshop was organised in India during the 4-6 June 2013, in collaboration with WISP-IUCN and MARAG. Over 42 participants from pastoralist Rangeland Observatory Inception Workshop, India

 The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) is an autonomous and self-organised global platform of small-scale food producers and rural workers organizations and grass root/community based social movements to advance the Food Sovereignty agenda at the global and regional level.

WAMIP is one of the 7 Facilitating Committee members at IPC. WAMIP and IPC together are responsible for promoting the rights of pastoralists and small livestock keepers. WAMIP is actively involved in facilitation process at IPC to strengthen the Food Sovereignty movement from micro to macro level. WAMIP also coordinates the Livestock working group at IPC.

Other spaces in which WAMIP participate: 

WAMIP participated in a range of events to reinforce its commitment to small food producers, and to be the voice of mobile indigenous peoples at global platforms: 

CFS Regional Consultation on Responsible Agriculture Investment (RAI) in Asia Pacific, 2014.  

Terra Madre: 8 WAMIP members participated at the Terra Madre in Turin in 2014.  

ICN2: 3 WAMIP members joined the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in 2014. 

WAMIP participated in various events organized in 2014 for the International Year of Family Farming IYF).