Herding change: a call to action by young women pastoralists

Globally, many pastoralist women and girls wake before dawn to care for livestock and sustain pastoralist cultural traditions that have shaped their communities for generations. The knowledge they hold is fundamental for the sustenance of the pastoralist food systems.

Building on this rich knowledge and experience, young pastoralist women are emerging as important agents of change with the potential to contribute to the long-term sustainability of pastoral systems and to advance socio-economic development. However, the ecosystems and livelihoods on which they depend are increasingly threatened by climate change and other environmental and socio-economic pressures. Against this backdrop, the designation of 2026 as both the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) and the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF) provides a timely opportunity to recognise the vital contributions of pastoralist women, raise awareness of the challenges they face, and strengthen their participation in decision-making processes. As emphasised during the Global Gathering of Pastoralist Women (GGPW), there is an urgent need to ensure that young women are meaningfully engaged in shaping the policies, programmes, and investments that affect pastoralist communities.

To explore pathways for strengthening the empowerment of young women in pastoralist food systems and to generate actionable recommendations for policy and practice at local, national, and global levels, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and IYRP Gender Working Group jointly organised a dedicated youth session during the Global Gathering of Pastoralist Women, held from 26–29 May 2026 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The session brought together participants from pastoralist communities and organisations across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Through group discussions and collaborative exercises, participants identified the following priority actions.

1. Gender-transformative and psychosocial empowerment

Pastoralist communities are predominantly located in rural areas, where deeply rooted patriarchal social norms and cultural practices shape gender roles.

These gender norms are reinforced from childhood, with boys encouraged to herd livestock and inherit assets, while girls are largely confined to household responsibilities, caregiving, and other forms of unpaid care work.

As a result, girls often face limited opportunities to participate as equal actors in pastoral systems and decision-making processes.

In many pastoralist communities, women continue to face barriers to owning land and livestock, to the intergenerational inheritance of other productive assets, to participation in decision-making, and to access to education. Harmful practices, including child marriage and child pregnancy, remain prevalent in some middle- and low-income countries and further constrain opportunities for young women. Whilst some positive changes are being made, these long-standing structural inequalities continue to undermine women's confidence, leadership, and aspirations.

Yet, throughout the discussions, participants shared stories of resilience and determination highlighting how young pastoralist women are challenging these barriers and creating new opportunities for themselves and their communities. The women pastoralists emphasised the need for gender-transformative and psychosocial interventions that discourage discriminatory social norms, strengthen young women's self-confidence and leadership, and promote equitable participation in pastoralist livelihoods and decision-making.

2. Strengthening women's participation in pastoral value chains

Young women are increasingly engaged in pastoral value chains, particularly through the production, product diversification and sale of dairy products, livestock products, agro-tourism, and handicrafts. However, limited access to quality inputs such as feed and fodder, livestock shelters, livestock handling equipment, appropriate technologies, processing facilities, markets, finance, and capacity-building opportunities often prevents them from securing fair prices and increasing their incomes. This, to some extent, discourages women from continuing a pastoralism-based livelihood and pushes them to urban areas.

Participants highlighted that women face significant barriers to accessing affordable finance, including high interest rates and the inability to use land as collateral because properties in remote areas often have low market value.

Although financial services are available in some countries, particularly high-income countries, lending conditions, collateral conditions of high value land, and high interest rates do not align with the needs and realities of pastoral livelihoods.

Participants called on financial institutions to develop financing mechanisms that better reflect pastoral production systems and seasonal income patterns which not only increase women's access to finance, markets, and skills, but also strengthen their decision-making power, ownership of productive assets, and share of the benefits.

Priority actions identified included:

• expanding access to affordable credit and financial services tailored to pastoralist collateral and their enterprises;
• promoting subsidised climate-resilient and labour-saving technologies;
• strengthening self-help groups, producer organisations, and cooperatives; and
• increasing support for value addition, product quality improvement, and market access.
•  Veterinary training opportunities to young women pastoralists.

3. Capacity building and improving access to essential services

The remoteness of many pastoral areas presents significant challenges, including weak transport infrastructure, high production and marketing costs, and limited access to storage, extension, veterinary, health, and education services.

Participants stressed in investing in inclusive, resilient infrastructure and expanding access to essential public services, that of transportation, education, health and agro-advisory. They also highlighted the need for capacity development in value addition, entrepreneurship, digital technologies, livestock health, and veterinary services.

Digital innovations were identified as an important opportunity to improve pastoral livelihoods. Participants noted that building the capacity of young women in technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS)-based livestock tracking, and digital monitoring systems can support livestock management, reduce the time spent to locate and track animals, improve responses to emergencies, and reduce livestock losses.

4. Inclusive and participatory rangeland management

Rangelands that support pastoralism are increasingly affected by hazards exacerbated by climate change, such as droughts, floods, landslides, lightning, and other extreme weather events. These hazards reduce water availability, degrade rangelands, and limit the availability of forage, adding pressure on pastoral production systems.

Similarly, these lands also extend across administrative and international boundaries and, internally, intersect with protected areas and forests governed by strict conservation regulations, creating challenges for mobility, resource governance, and cross-border cooperation.

Participants therefore called for more inclusive and participatory approaches to rangeland management that:

• strengthen gender inclusive community participation;
• increase sensitivity for the pastoral system where it spans across multiple countries and intersects with protected areas and forests; promote climate-resilient practices, including water harvesting, water-use efficiency, and sustainable rangeland restoration; and recognise, document, and conserve by utilisation of Indigenous and local knowledge related to livestock breeds, management and sustainable rangeland stewardship and equitable benefit sharing
• addresses the safety and specific needs of women pastoralists, reducing risks associated with accessing grazing lands, water, and other natural resources;