Ced Hesse
Email: ced.hesse@iied.org
Ced Hesse is a Principal Researcher on Drylands within the Climate Change Group of IIED. His current work focuses on mainstreaming climate adaptation in local and national planning for the drylands of Africa, policy-orientated action research and training in support of pastoral civil society in East and West Africa. Previously, he worked for the International Livestock Centre for Africa conducting research on the socio-economic dynamics of Fulani households in northern Mali, Oxfam-GB Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, managing a regional food security and drought early warning programme, and was the co-founder of the Arid lands Information Network (ALIN/RITA) based in Dakar, Senegal.
Papers Published in World Economics:
Pastoralism: Africa’s Invisible Economic Powerhouse?
Many elements of developing economies are missing from their national accounts. This is more than a statistical dilemma. It hampers the development of government policy, results in under-investment in those missing elements and simultaneous over-investment in others, and helps to paint an incomplete picture of the health, wealth and opportunities existing in these economies. There is a considerable literature on how the informal economy is excluded and the need to strengthen data collection for better policy development. This paper builds on this literature by examining pastoralism in order to exemplify this underinvestment and marginalisation, which creates a vicious circle of impoverishment, conflict and environmental degradation in most developing countries with significant pastoral communities. Investment in data collection and analysis will result in considerable benefits to policy, activities to achieve sustainable development and transparency.
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