The purpose of the two-day Workshop is to create awareness on the Pastoralist Livelihoods and Education project and curriculum to a wide-range of stakeholders and to create a forum for stakeholders further deliberations and capture their views on the project model, the adapted curriculum, as well as the learning resources improvement.

The adapted curriculum will be used to pilot the EU-funded project "Enhanced Knowledge for Resilient Pastoralist Livelihoods and Education in South Sudan". The project is being piloted in Western Lakes & Eastern Lakes States, which has experienced an intensification of the drivers of conflict, within the state itself and among the states of the triangle. Food insecurity, youth unemployment and cattle raiding rank among the top security concerns in the different counties of the state.

To address the lack of access to educational opportunities and alternative livelihoods for the pastoralists, UNESCO and FAO in partnership with relevant line ministries (MLFI, MAFCRD, and MoEST) worked for  over a month to adapt a curriculum that integrates livelihoods and educational content that is flexible in structure as well as relevance and contextualised to the mobile nature of the pastoralist livelihoods at the cattle camps level.

The curriculum builds innovatively on the Pastoralist Field Schools (PFS) approach and Pastoralist Education Programme to address education needs of the pastoralist men, women, boys and girls in the cattle camps. It provides an excellent entry point and platform for improved knowledge and skills and for bringing about attitudinal and behavioural change through livelihoods (Livestock and Agriculture), literacy, numeracy, life skills, and basic conflicts mitigation skills.

The adapted curriculum addresses the three levels of adults, youth and children. The adults’ content has been adapted to lean more on the livelihoods integrating functional literacy and numeracy at opportunity areas. The youth curriculum follows the Accelerated Learning Programme approach but now lays emphasis on livelihood diversification to take up business opportunities and appropriate technology to open up the world beyond the cattle camp. The children component follows the formal school curriculum but now integrates aspects of livestock management and agriculture.

Deliberate efforts were made to address cross-cutting issues such as gender, climate change, HIV/AIDS, life skills, Disaster Risk Reduction, Peace Building as well as issues of persons living with disabilities.

The project provides an opportunity to raise awareness on the model and the need to develop a holistic programme that will empower the pastoralist communities and nurture a culture of peace nationwide.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Jasper Okodi

Education Specialist

UNESCO, Juba office

Tel: +211 928004904

E-mail: j.okodi (at) unesco.org

Or Mr.  Ezana Kassa

Project Manager

FAO South Sudan,

Tel: +211922001698

Email: Ezana.Kassa (at) fao.org