Plan

Stakeholder engagement is crucial for successfully implementing Herding for Health. It helps identify concerns, risks, and solutions, leading to better decision-making and mutual benefits. During the feasibility check, ensure that thorough research and baseline evaluations support the engagement findings. The Herding for Health toolkit provides templates and guidelines for encouraging community ownership right from the beginning, ensuring to engage with minority and vulnerable groups, and using household surveys to gather relevant information about local contexts and livelihoods. The Stakeholder Toolbox is designed to help plan and manage your engagement efforts using stakeholder mapping to identify and track stakeholder’s level of engagement, their roles, expectations and influence throughout implementation, as well as to track issues and record outcomes, thereby helping to document lessons learned along the way.

A local and relevant governance structure is essential for managing the implementation of Herding for Health. The aim is to establish, or support existing, Grazing Area Committees (GACs) who can manage communal natural resources through formal agreements, called Rangeland Stewardship Agreements (RSAs), in exchange for a negotiated benefits package. Additionally, legal entities like GACs are required to enable and handle carbon credit sharing, if this is a desired sustainability pathway. These committees, made up of multiple members with defined roles and responsibilities, ensure proper management of grazing areas informed by a number of co-developed plans, including a grazing plan, a herd health plan, a fire management plan, a water plan, and drought mitigation plan. The toolkit provides resources for governance structures, their functions, and how they collaborate with local government and traditional authorities. Additional details on RSAs and roles within GACs are available, along with guidelines for setting up or supporting these committees. For the livestock business supported by Meat Naturally Africa, a standard operating procedure is used to guide each GAC to outline the roles, responsibilities, and communication protocols between Farmers, Ecorangers, and Ecotrainers to ensure compliance with the Level 1 RSA and effective management of regenerative grazing, herd health, and fire management plans.

Community members sign voluntary rangeland Stewardship Agreements following a free, prior, and informed (FPIC) consent process and select an inclusive governance structure to support the management of livestock for grassland restoration. In exchange for implementing sustainable practices, members receive a negotiated benefit package, e.g., access to livestock medicines, supplemental livestock feed, access to market, or capacity building and enterprise development opportunities.

The most important people in the H4H programme are our professional herders—they’re the key to creating change in our communities! It is essential to invest time and resources to find the right people from local communities and equip them with the tools and training to successfully carry out their work in the rangelands. First, recruit a H4H Implementation Manager who initiates engagements on the ground and begins identifying and setting up Grazing Area Committees (GACs). Once GACs are formed and socialised to the programme, members of the committee select professional herders from their community to be hired and trained. Depending on the project size, additional Team Leaders or assistant managers may also be required to support the Implementation Manager. Each team member has specific duties, so it’s crucial that they understand their roles and receive the appropriate training, equipment, and resources to carry out their work. The toolkit provides job descriptions for each role.

H4H collaborates with several training academy partners to ensure that implementing teams are adequately equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills. Current training partners include the Southern African Wildlife College, AfriVet, and the Africa Center for Holistic Management.

A key part of implementing H4H is planning and acquiring the right resources. Securing these resources is crucial for the program’s long-term success. Without these resources, it becomes challenging to successfully implement H4H, making it imperative to allocate, manage and maintain these resources effectively. Additionally, professional herders and team leaders need to be well-protected with proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and high-quality gear to do their jobs effectively. The toolkit contains some useful procurement plans and guidelines on required gear for team members.