One of the most powerful moments of the World Pastoralist Assembly was having the time to sit together, region by region, and talk about what is happening on the ground and our visions for the future.
This is how our global pastoralist movement is organised: horizontally and inclusively, with grassroots pastoralist organisations coming together in the face of growing challenges. Restrictions on mobility, conflicts over resources, land grabbing, climate change, and policies that make pastoralism increasingly difficult are affecting our communities in many different ways.
An important problem, despite all the celebrations, is the real recognition of the importance of empowering the pastoralist movement (nothing about us without us), and respecting our governance and representation system.
However, as we listened to one another, we also recognised how our struggles are connected. The regional discussions gave us the opportunity to share experiences, learn from strategies developed by pastoralist movements in other parts of the world, and ask an important question: how can we face these challenges collectively?
We then brought these conversations into the plenary to discuss what we can do together, strengthen our voices, and build a stronger global pastoralist movement.
The WAMIP plan for the following months was prepared from there. Stay tuned for updates! ✊