Livestock identification and traceability systems (LITS) are an increasingly prominent component of national livestock development policies around the world. In theory, LITS allow governments to track and respond to disease and livestock theft efficiently. However, this paper argues that LITS are suffused with sedentist assumptions that are at odds with the livestock management practices of pastoralist communities. Drawing on qualitative interviews with implementing bureaucrats and affected pastoralist communities as well as one author’s experience of growing up and managing cattle in a pastoralist community, we review the sedentist assumptions that animate the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (NamLITS) and describe how pastoralists in north-western Namibia perceive that NamLITS has affected their economic, social and political lives. Speakers then show the strategies that pastoralists use to comply and circumvent NamLITS, and conclude with lessons for governments and development practitioners considering livestock tracing systems and mobile communities affected by them.
Event Speaker
- Max Mauerman, Senior Staff Associate at Columbia University
- Veno Tjiseua, PhD student in Natural Resources Management and Policy at the Namibia University of Science and Technology
Event Information
Free and open to the public; registration required. Registration closes at 1 PM on October 23. Contact [email protected] with any questions.
Part of the Co-Production of Knowledge Initiative at the Center for Science and Society.
