Milk Matters: The impact of dry season livestock support on milk supply and child nutrition in Somali region, Ethiopia

Children who live in pastoralist areas are increasingly referred to as some of the most nutritionally vulnerable in the world. In Somali Region, Ethiopia, levels of global acute malnutrition among young children are regularly reported to rise above 15 percent, the level defined as a nutritional emergency by the World Health Organization. Yet from work going back many decades in the Region, we know that animal milk, one of the most nutritionally complete foods in the world, plays an extremely important role in the diets of these children. Whilst there is considerable research and early warning literature that highlights the importance of livestock and livestock products for the income and the dietary intake of pastoralists in Somali Region, there is little work that describes use of these products within and amongst households, or that attempts to evaluate the significance of access to milk for the nutritional status of children.