Socioeconomic Profile and Gender Characteristics in Relation to Camel Management Practices in the Pastoral Communities of Ethiopia

Pastoralism was one of the oldest forms of organized human society in providing sustainable livelihood opportunities. However, this way of life is increasingly under threat due to a number of reasons. Today’s political, legal, social and economic policies and laws are not taking into consideration the needs of pastoral populations specially women and children. An attempt has been made to evaluate the socio-economic conditions among the pastoral households of Eastern and Southern parts of Ethiopia. The study involved three major pastoral areas of Ethiopia, namely, Somali, Afar and Oromiya regional states. The findings of this study revealed that lacking of formal education except limited religious education for male children, girl children are excluded from any type of literacy. Population size in the study areas reflects above national average, due to custom of polygon. Regionally there has been a variation in decision making on the issues like intensity of production, breeding, camel herding, milking, marketing and other related activities. In general this study observed that there has been a dominant role played by men in most of the revenue generating activities except in few areas of districts other than economic activities. Hence, different types of social and policy intervention should be made. Key w ords : Pastoralism, education, Polygon, intensity of production, Breeding.