Assessing transitory poverty among pastoralists of northern kenya using the stages of progress method

Assessment of poverty among pastoral households using conventional methods may at times give an inaccurate picture of pastoral poverty. Pastoral areas generally fare very poorly in terms of common standard indicators and are thus likely to be incorrectly labeled as poor (Devereux, 20071; Tache and Sjaastad, 20102). As a consequence of the limitations of conventional methods in accurately measuring the degree of pastoral poverty and establishing the reasons behind pastoral impoverishment, there has been disconnect between external interventions and actual pastoral needs. This study applied the stages of progress method (Krishna 20103) to establish movement of pastoral households into or out of poverty and reasons for change in two Counties of northern Kenya: Turkana and Mandera.