ABSTRACT
Livestock trade has been an important feature of most pastoral societies in Africa for centuries and pastoralists increasingly use purchased inputs, especially veterinary drugs, and are consumers of many other goods and services purchased from the market. This chapter examines two case studies of recent private sector involvement in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia, and extensive mixed crop-livestock systems in Uganda. The case studies had different geneses and objectives, but a theme of the private sector ‘teaching but not learning’ emerged independently from both. There is a real potential for engaging the private sector in pastoral development, in ways that go beyond companies’ short-term business interests, and appeal to what could be called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some companies had engaged in closely related activities within the general field that could be labelled CSR, specifically drought-time destocking, and educating pastoralists on the requirements of the livestock market.
