VICE President Jessica Alupo has launched the African Pastoralist Women Network (ARPWN ) and Learning Centre to advance gender justice, climate resilience and equitable land governance across Africa.
The continental network and learning centre were launched during the ongoing 5-day African Pastoralists Women Gathering (APWG) aligned to the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026).
It attracted over 200 participants from the Northern and Sub Sharan, West and Central, Eastern and Southern regions of Africa representing Grassroots Pastoralists Women, Leaders, Government officials and Civil Society Organizations committed to advancing gender justice, climate resilience and equitable land governance across Africa.
It is under the rallying theme: “Voices from the Rangelands: African Pastoralist Women Rising for Land Rights, Climate Justice, Equity, and Peace” at Speke Resort Munyonyo Kampala.
While launching the network this morning, VP Alupo said female pastoralist women are the backbone of Africa’s rangelands, who sustain livelihoods, protect ecosystems, preserve knowledge, and build peace, but their voices have remained underrepresented in land governance, climate policy, and decision-making spaces.
“Pastoralist women play a crucial role but often invisible in animal care, food production, household resilience and peace building that needs to be recognized. This gathering creates space for sharing experiences, challenges, success and learning about value addition with regards to pastoralist products, cultural preservation and livelihood diversification,” Alupo said.
She therefore challenged the gathering to actively deliberate on and provide concrete answers on the following themes; objectives of Pastoral women’s leadership Association, and offer proposals on Gender responsive national, regional and global pastoral policies and frameworks.
Others themes included Women’s land rights and tenure security measures, Climate resilience and ecosystems stewardship and their contribution, Contribution of Pastoralism to Sustainable Food Systems and Agroecology and recognition of pastoralists women and pastoralists mobility as a basic right.
The vice president assured the pastoralist women that government will continue to create a conducive environment for pastoralism to thrive by putting in place good policies, laws and regulatory frameworks that govern pastoralism and rangelands.
For example, she highlighted that Pastoralism is provided for in the National Land Policy, the National Climate Change Act 2021. She lauded President of Uganda for bringing peace in rangelands for example the disarmament process in the Karamoja sub-region.
Alupo however said the government acknowledges challenges faced in rangelands which include; abuses against the pastoralist communities, Land Use and Degradation thus conversion of hitherto grazing rangelands into crop farming, mining zones, and infrastructure projects, conservation and fragmentation of grazing lands.
Others challenges include decline in food and nutrition security with reduced livestock productivity, limiting milk and meat supplies and the absence of organized systems for pasture production, pasture seed banks, and veterinary services aggravates livestock losses and limits mobility.
She added that women and children disproportionately bear the brunt of these challenges, facing increased workloads and reduced educational opportunities. “Urgent, inclusive, and sustainable interventions are essential to reverse these trends and protect pastoralist livelihoods”, she said.
On Climate Adaptation, Alupo explained that there are limited strategies to address the impacts of climate variability, such as more frequent and persistent droughts and erratic rainfall patterns disorganize the traditional planning for mobility hence compromising food security and increasing livestock mortality.
Knowledge Gaps: Insufficient understanding of pastoralism’s ecological and socio-economic value among policymakers and the general public leads to prescription of often unworkable interventions.
Institutional Gaps: she said Governance structures often exclude traditional pastoralist systems, resulting in ineffective management and resource conflicts.
Livestock Health: the Vice President said limited veterinary services and delayed disease control measures leave pastoralists vulnerable to livestock losses, especially during mobility.
On Data and Monitoring, she noted that lack of comprehensive, long-term data on rangeland conditions and pastoralist livelihoods hinders evidence-based decision-making.
As government of Uganda; Alupo pledged to continue creating an enabling environment for pastoralism and rangelands to flourish, to strengthen the rights of pastoral communities especially the women and also to address the impacts but also mitigate climate change effects particularly in rangelands.
Ethic and Integrity Minister Rose Lilly Akello applauded partners and funders who contributed to the success of the gathering which included; GIZ, NIATERO, ACC, FAO, ILC, NLC Uganda, Reconcile, Impact Kenya, and WHH among others.
Uganda has a total area of 241,038 sq. km and 44% (84,000 sq.km) of this is covered by rangelands. The rangelands are a home to a population of over 6.6 million. The term rangelands is used in a broad sense to cover natural grassland, bush land and wood land. This lands form what has been called the “Cattle Corridor”. The rangelands are concentrated in the ‘Cattle Corridor’ stretching from the north-eastern border with Kenya and South Sudan to the south-western borders of the country with Tanzania.
The rangelands are spread over several districts whose proportional coverage varies from complete coverage (100%) as is the case in Moroto, Kotido, Soroti, to over 60% in Kiboga, Mubende, Nakasongola, Sembabule, Mbarara and Ntungamo to the very low levels in Kabarole and Mbale.