Sarah Posner

Local Institutions and Resource Conflict in Northern Kenya: Fieldwork Insights from PhD Candidate Sarah Posner

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:53:10 +0000

Local Institutions and Resource Conflict in Northern Kenya: Fieldwork Insights from PhD Candidate Sarah Posner Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/28/2025 - 13:53

Posner and her Research Assistant, Noor Hussein Noor, piloting the questionnaire with a Samburu pastoralist at his manyatta (homestead) March 2025.

Sarah Posner is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography advised by Professor John O’Loughlin. Her current work focuses on the role of local institutions used by four pastoralist societies to manage resources and associated conflict and thus sustain their livelihoods in an arid region of Northern Kenya.

The arid rangelands of Northern Kenya support the livelihoods of diverse pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities, which depend on natural resources including grazing areas and water sources that are seasonally available and thus prone to environmental pressures. When conflicts arise over resource use, traditional reconciliation forums exist which have evolved alongside mechanisms implemented by formal county and national governments as well as NGOs and other non-state actors, creating increasingly hybridized local institutions.

In March 2025, with CU support from the CARTSS grant, Posner conducted pilot dissertation fieldwork in Isiolo County, Northern Kenya. At the time, US federal funding remained uncertain, and her recently awarded NSF-DDRI (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement) grant had not yet been disbursed. Posner piloted her questionnaire through focus group discussions (FGDs) to refine the design of a large survey (N=1000) and ensure contextual relevance. These FGDs were conducted in three of her four field sites in ethnically distinctive wards. Posner sought to identify the roles and practices of local committees, specifically those responsible for grazing, water, and conflict management. These FGDs built upon earlier participatory mapping exercises Posner conducted in summer 2024 and had two primary aims: first, to validate the participatory maps with a new set of respondents in each site; and second, to understand the institutional architecture governing the management of water and pasture resources, as well as mechanisms for resolving associated conflicts.

Posner and her RA taking notes during a focus group discussion with the local grazing committee in Ngaremara, Isiolo county March 2025.

Posner found that each community manages peace, water, and grazing through committees that range from customary to formalized structures. In two wards, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), which oversees 43 conservancies in Northern Kenya, manages these committees. Respondents generally viewed NRT positively due to its provision of essential services often lacking from the state. However, in one ward, Borana respondents criticized NRT over transparency, accountability, and alleged land appropriation. The Borana rely on a customary system, dedha, governed by elders to manage grazing and water, but its lack of formal recognition hinders negotiations with other groups, including Somali communities in neighboring Wajir and Garissa County. Posner will conclude this phase of fieldwork in eastern Isiolo county to gather Somali perspectives on rangeland management and conflict, particularly over frequent cattle raids with the Borana.

Data from the FGDs was instrumental to Posner’s dissertation work as she used the local knowledge to inform a questionnaire that is more locally appropriate and context specific. The large N survey will be implemented in Summer 2025 to investigate whether the efficacy of these local institutional arrangements is associated with attitudes towards armed conflict and cooperation arrangements.

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Sarah Posner Receives TA Award

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Apr 2024 17:35:19 +0000

Sarah Posner Receives TA Award Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 04/20/2024 - 11:35

Sarah Posner was named the outstanding Geography Excellence in Graduate Teaching - Teaching Assistant in 2023-2024

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Field work in north central Kenya

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 21:36:43 +0000

Field work in north central Kenya Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 15:36

A camel train passing along the main street in Isiolo town in July 2022 on the way to non-traditional grazing.

In July 2022, John O’Loughlin (Professor) and Sarah Posner (graduate student) with Terry McCabe (Institute of Behavioral Science) conducted field work in Isiolo, north-central Kenya as part of an extensive study of the effects of climate change on food security and changing livelihood strategies that can alter attitudes towards the use of violence to gain resources. The study time-frame is coincident with the three-year drought in the Horn of Africa that has now resulted in near-famine conditions for 45 million people.

Sarah Posner and John O’Loughlin with Terry McCabe (Institute of Behavioral Science) interviewing a government official in the Isiolo office on the drought’s extent and effects on local livelihoods.

Though not planned as an examination of how a devastating drought can upend people’s lives and beliefs, the timing of the four waves of a representative survey of household resources and attendant attitudes allows a determination of the impact of worsening environmental conditions. An example from the survey data is that the ratio of respondents who ranked food insecurity amongst the top three problems rose from 38% in February 2020 to 82% in April 2022. This correlates with the rise of those who rated water resources as a top three problem from 12% to 45% in the same period.

The purpose of the July 2022 fieldwork was to share the survey results with local stakeholders (government officials, NGO’s, etc) and to discuss the findings in light of their local knowledge. Key results were presented at the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Geographical Sciences annual meeting in December 2022. Current plans include preparing a research article on the Isiolo case study and write research proposals to extend the study in comparative work on sites across Kenya’s diverse ecological and livelihood zones.

Further accounts of the research were reported in CU Boulder Today in May 2022

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Sarah Posner & John O'Loughlin: East Africa Climate Change

Anonymous — Wed, 11 May 2022 15:30:40 +0000

Sarah Posner & John O'Loughlin: East Africa Climate Change Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/11/2022 - 09:30

In 2008 and 2009, a severe drought swept through much of Kenya and Tanzania. Nomadic herders, or pastoralists, such as the Maasai people in Tanzania, pushed south in search of greener expanses, bringing tens of thousands of cattle with them.

What happened next was largely unprecedented: Locals from a region of Tanzania called Manyara, who were also Maasai, evicted the newcomers, beating some so badly they ended up in the hospital.

Terrence McCabe, professor of anthropology at CU Boulder, has lived and worked with pastoralist groups in the region for more than 30 years. For him, that sudden and shocking violence was a symbol of a changing East Africa—a warning sign that people such as the Maasai may not be able to move across the landscape as freely as they used to. Survey results from the last two years in central Kenya show that life for pastoralist peoples may be getting even worse. Herders are struggling to feed their families in the midst of a pandemic, a historic locust invasion and drought after drought.

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Climate Change, Food Security, Conflict and Cooperation: Results from a 2019-2021 Panel Survey in Isiolo, Northern Kenya

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 23:52:21 +0000

Climate Change, Food Security, Conflict and Cooperation: Results from a 2019-2021 Panel Survey in Isiolo, Northern Kenya Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/29/2021 - 17:52

John O'Loughlin
Professor, Department of Geography
University of Colorado Boulder

Sarah Posner
PhD Student of Geography
University of Colorado Boulder

October 29, 2021
GUGG 205, 3:30 PM

Abstract:

The extent of climate change effects on the potential for violence is uncertain. Research has focused on poor countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa but the mechanisms that might connect climate change to conflict or to cooperation are poorly understood. Our field study in Isiolo and Meru counties in northern Kenya examines the experiences of a panel of 500 respondents in multiple waves across the seasons through an initial face-to-face contact survey and four follow-up telephone surveys. The past 20 months of the project have been a time of additional challenges from Covid-19 and from locust swarms in addition to environmental hazards of floods and drought. Survey data on food security, inter-ethnic attitudes, NGO and government aid, household adaptations, Covid and locust experiences, and weather perceptions and support for violence after three waves show a picture that is much more complex than the usual portrayal of the climate-violence link in the media and in US government documents.

Download Printable Colloquium Poster

Watch Zoom Meeting Recording:

[video:https://vimeo.com/641174109]

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No News

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Aug 2000 06:00:00 +0000

No News Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/24/2000 - 00:00

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