 Thank you very much. The entire IDS fraternity and also to the organizers and for the participants. Thank you so much for taking your time joining us today. This topic that I am going to present today is part of the research that I was doing with the pastures, pastoralism, resilience, and uncertainty, a project that ended recently, whereby my PhD was also part of that. So we co-authored a paper with a colleague from pastures program, Michele Nuri. And the paper is yet not published. So it's part of that discussion. And I'm linking this to the International Year of Chemolids. So happy International Year of Chemolids, whatever you are. And yeah, let's get going. Rahmah, you can move to the next slide. Yeah, because it's the year United Nations declared this year for the celebration or even acknowledging the importance of chemols in people's livelihood. So to begin with, I just want to know what comes to your mind when you hear about chemol or even chemol milk? If you can sacrifice two, three seconds and maybe put down in the chat, what comes to your mind? Like, is anything interesting, intriguing? Just note down what you see when you hear about chemol. Anyway, so please do drop that in the comment just to analyze how people know about chemol or even what they perceive of chemol. So that is it. And then chemol is a very important species. There are seven of them, seven species across the world. But in Kenya, we have this one called dromedaries. So it's really important, especially in terms of contributing to the sustainable development goals around the fight against hunger, poverty reduction, and also women empowerment. Because in the context of Kenya, where my case studies first, most of many a time, chemol milk production is managed and owned by female hiders. So it really enhances females' economic empowerment and also livelihood opportunities. And also why chemol is important, of course, it contributes to nutritional and food security. A study has shown that in Kenya, the nutritional composition of people based in pastoral area, 50% is derived from chemol milk or even chemol related materials. So it's very important in terms of contributing to food security, especially in areas where farming is not viable due to ecological condition. And recently, I know many of you have seen it maybe on TV, you've seen organization restocking chemol to pastoral in Northern Kenya, Samburu, Siolo, Marseille, because it has been identified as one species that can withstand climate change. And also it contributes to sustainable ecosystems because, for instance, compared to cow and other livestock, it produces less methane, which contributes to risk gas emissions. So it's environmentally friendly. And also chemol is very important as it contributes to cultural and social values for people across the world. It is used as a form of exchange for dowry, inheritance, and also for compensation when there are crisis between communities. And also comparing chemol to, let's say, cows or even cattle or even a small dominant, it has longer lactation compared to other livestock. And because of its long, dry drought resistant trade, it can withstand water, stay without water for quite a number of days. So that is what I can tell you about chemol, but you can share what you know about chemol in charts. So in Kenya and in Africa, the chemical population is estimated to be between 32.7 million. But in Kenya, it is 4.7 million. That shows that, of course, it's not visible everywhere. We don't get to hear about chemol everywhere every day, but it is a significant number in terms of population considering how the condition in pastoral areas is variable and also harsh climatic condition. But let me take you to now chemol milk. I was in this WhatsApp group for chemol own association and then someone shared the photo on the price of chemol milk in the US. And it really surprised me because 500 ml of chemol milk was going for 21.99 USD. That is going to about 3,300 Kenyan shilling at the moment. And that is only 500 ml. And then someone visited a store in Isiolo and found that chemol milk powder, which was about 900 grams, was going for 4,700 shilling. But do you know that the price of chemol milk from the farm per liter is only 80 to 90 shilling. And to the final terminal market in the city, per liter is going for 200 shilling. And look at that price. How it is not even double or even triple. It's just so much. So the price difference from the local price to international price is very different. So this shows how chemol milk is valued outside. Rahman, you can go to the next slide. So having seen the price of the chemol, why is that so much valued? I think it has many health and therapeutic benefits, number one, because it has high content of vitamin C, vitamin A. And so it's considered like for treatment like diabetes, asthma, even eczema. So that is number one. And then many a time people with lactose intolerance problem, they can easily digest chemol milk. So it's important as such also. And also, from even practical experience without even scientific evidence, of course, even scientific evidence is there. But chemol milk is close in composition to human milk. That means even like people, children who are very much lactose intolerant or even cannot breastfeed, they can easily be substituted on chemol milk. So it shows how it is beneficial. And finally also, it has a longer shelf life than the cow milk. So what is the reason why the chemol milk marketing is expanding in Northern Kenya or even across the world, including Somalia, Ethiopia and other places including even the market in the US? So as I mentioned earlier, climate change adaptation is one of the key. Why? Because chemol is considered a resilient animal. So it has been restored to the communities and because people need to diversify their livelihood, they have to practice chemol milk marketing. And secondly, initially where this research was based, there was also support, of course, minimal, but infrastructural support, especially milk cooling plants, also training by organizations such as VSF, SNV, quite a number of them, I can't name all of them, but EU funded project USAID. So all these organizations have been supporting resilience program, especially around chemol production. So because of these and infrastructure development, there is highly, people are highly adapting to chemol marketing. And also, beside the infrastructure, the transport infrastructure, especially the motorcycles, which link chemol milk from the rural markets to centers like Oslo and even Nairobi. So this improved transport mechanism has really enhanced chemol milk marketing. And finally, because of need for diversification, especially for women and young population who cannot access livestock, but they can use livestock mints on produce to sustain their livelihood. So now, did you know that in Kenya, Kenya is one of the, it's actually world's largest chemo producer and it contributes 15% of annual milk production. Like if you remove the cow milk and other milk that are available, chemol milk is like 10%. And also recently, FAO starts ranked Kenya's milk production to 1.16 million, 5 million leases. So, but then the major problem is some 50% of this milk goes to waste because of improper handling and also like when it is rejected from the collection time and all. So now having talked about the important about chemol, so there are few challenges that chemol production entities face, especially around land use pressure because chemols have to move and because of pressures and competition from mega infrastructure, insecurities, people cannot move their animals. So it becomes really challenging. And these days, I think disease is something that is almost underscored, but it is a very, it's a very serious thing. Some of them even very mysterious, people do not know the cause. So animals just dying, suddenly having very complicated symptoms. So a lot of emerging disease and even others reappearing. So it's really problematic for chemol producers. And then of course, in development of infrastructure enhances chemo milk marketing, but that is like 0.1% So there's a lot of limitation in terms of cooling and handling facilities, even road infrastructure. Sometimes when there is flood or when there isn't security, it's very difficult to transport milk from the farm to central market and also like weather variabilities. Like recently when the, what was it called? El Nino was anticipated, people who are trying to move their animals to highlands area. So it's very difficult to deal with these variabilities. So now having talked about chemols and the challenges and important, let me take you now to the moral economy. Rahma, you can stay on this slide as long as I talk and then I'll tell you to go to the next slide, please. So moral economy is something that has often actually been overused. It's been used in many contexts in various way. It's one of the time that can be applied in whatever situation as long as it makes sense. So the writer or even the scientist working on that concept. So for this purpose, I'll just take you briefly to how the concept came about and what is the theme that it summarizes. So maybe some of you know, it originated from those early essays by E.P. Thomsons trying to understand, trying to resist the capitalistic exploitation in the early centuries. So this one, they use moral economy to mobilize people so that they can resist that kind of action. They cannot lower the price of bread during that time. And also it is applied also in transnational movement and ethnic nationalism. Basically also all this is trying to bring people in the same identity together, people with the same identity together so that they can look for a particular goal or even protect particular common good. So it's all this aspect of mobilizing sense. So it is rooted in that mobilization, collective action aspect, but also moral economy is rooted in the distributive practices. Like for example, in Islam, the aspect of tax on the one wealth. Like for example, if you have wealth, livestock wealth included, there is a particular tax you pay annually. And this kind of tax is called redistributive. Like it's given to the less endowed community members. So, and it is rooted in religious norms and values. So it is kind of also moral economy, but this one is more on collective mobilization of struggles and stuff like that, but mobilization in terms of redistributing resource. Okay, bringing this moral economy concept back to the pastoral perspective, it's more on livestock transfers and redistribution, livestock transfers and distribution. But in the historic context, it was perceived to be patriarchal because it was only male who can own and have access to that animal. And they are the ones who have say and decision on who to distribute that animal to. So if you talk about like that moral economy among the women, it's mostly pictured in this aspect of rotational savings among women. In Burana, they call it Marro, whereby women can collect resources together and redistribute that resources on a rotationally monthly or even weekly basis. So that is the tenant of moral economy. Next slide, please. So for my PhD because I was looking at the moral economy and how it changed from 1975 to 2020, the 45 year changes, I was looking at how that changed and building on all these resources about moral economy, going back to historic time, I defined it as a set of traditional as well as recently created network of relation centered on collective and redistributive transfer of values, pairs and some form of solidarity to help people survive everyday crisis. So for me, basically it is to survive no matter what means, is it about with distribution with, you know, labor sharing and this kind of stuff. So for that purpose, we have, I had a pipe practices of moral economy. And number one is what we call normative distribution. These ones are the moral economy practices that is embedded in society's norms and cultures and values. Like for example, the one I said among the Burana community, like they redistribute livestock when someone is affected by drought or even calamities. So that is embedded within the norms and values of the community. But also there is moral economy through comradeship and collaboration. And in this case, this moral economy is not necessarily rooted within the norms and values of the community. But because people need to capitalize on their labor relationships, on their resources, sometimes even you need to bond with people so that you can access secure grazing land. So this kind of relationship, we call it moral economy through comradeship. And then there's also the third one, the moral economy through diversification. This one not necessarily diversifying into economies, but the most important thing is the non-economic aspect of diversification. For example, how can the resources that is diversified redistributed access? And also who has the power to decide on which economy to diversify? So all these things, it takes power relationships within the household to decide to send children to school, to send a woman to market to sell meal, to send the man to herd the animal. So it is within this family circle negotiation that communities are able to diversify and we categorize this as a form of moral economy. And then before last one, it is the institutional and it's moral economy. As you know, pastoral areas have been interacting with agencies like states, development agencies, religion, because many of these pastoral communities initially had their own customary practices, but now because the state is moving closer to them, the religion like Islam or even any other religion is going closer to them. So they have to adapt to this changing dynamic. So what's happened is there are nomative practices are becoming institutionalized. I can give you an example for instance, the case of Harambe. Harambe has a root in political move like social pulling together. Pastoral communities now are highly practicing this aspect of Harambe because they are no longer so much embedded in redistributing livestock, but they are so much practicing redistributing cash or even supporting people to go to school and stuff like that. And also like Zakat, one of the institutional support is also being practiced like annually you see people giving hayfares and camels and small ruminant to their hard men and stuff like that. So finally, there is the component of moral economy where we define it as collective defense whereby pastoralists can band together to respond to crisis or even to collectively make voice for a particular thing that they want to achieve. So we can go to the next slide. Okay, now that we know what moral economy is and how it is categorized within pastoral communities, let us now tie this to camel milk marketing. And for this purpose, I use the case of Anolei. Anolei is a women-owned camel milk cooperative based in Isiolo. It was established in the 1990s and then it started with about, I think, nine people and to date, they're about 90 plus people who are members. So some members coming and go. So you see how it has transformed throughout this. It was established as a cooperative in 2010. So now in a nutshell, this is how Anolei Cooperative works. So membership, as I said, it's by women and they have a main manager and also technicians who are helping within the cooperative. And then there is the milk source whereby it's located in a very interland, very rural remote place area. And this one is now the hardest or even sometimes the members themselves have camels. So, and then the milk is taken from that rural place to what rural border, border, border, border is a motorcycle transport within Kenya. So there's special border, border within the rural context who collect milk from the farm and bring it to the Central Tamak Collection Center. And still remember, this is in rural place which has not yet come to Central Market in Isiolo. Once it is collected in now, like in Central Collection in rural area, it is taken by another border, border team. That is now the Tamak or even the other part of the journey. They take it and now bring it to milk processing centralized places. And in this case, Isiolo Central whereby Anole have their cooling plants. So they do, they test the milk, they test for water content, germs and stuff like that and some milk are rejected. That is why I was saying there is 50% wastage many a time because some milk is rejected, some is contaminated. So once the milk is now processed then it is transported to terminal market in Nairobi. Initially what Anole used to have is they used to put their plastic jerkan on the roof of public buses and lorries. But these days they have refrigerated truck came to the external support that they got. And then finally the milk goes to Isli and then it is sold in market as wholesale to restaurant. And these days you find many places like camel milk tea, camel meat soup on so many camel related products, camel yoghurt, camel cheese, camel sausage, all stuff like that. And then finally the payment mostly is done by cash and also in PESA because the most interesting part is those people who are based in a very, very remote farm the camel farm and those based in Isiolo and those now taking milk in Nairobi some of them have never met but they just send the money through in PESA they send the milk. So it is a transaction that goes on without people meeting and then it is a very dynamic and reliable system of marketing compared to this demand supply-led market. So these entities, these people ensure that the milk is supplied even in difficult time even if there is insecurity they have to make ways of maneuvering through to deliver this milk. And this is the backbone of this economy that is all often not given consideration. Please go to the next slide. Okay, now let me tie the three together. Now the moral economy, we understand what moral economy is and then we go to know the cooperation of camel milk marketing because of Anolei. But now what traits does that camel milk marketing entity have in terms of moral economy? I'll take you back to the slide. If you remember, I was talking about the moral economy through identities and collective struggle. This membership, the membership like yeah, just continue on that slide. Yeah, let's stay here. So you see the foundation of moral economy it's about collective action it's about mobilization of people to resist negative thing but also it's about protecting common goods but also this women group who are coming together sometimes perceived women are perceived to be vulnerable because they don't have access to life. But now despite that difficulties they bond together they form women group or even that entity. And then they respond to crisis in terms of getting economic autonomy they have access to resources so that they can run their families. That membership itself shows a certain trait of moral economy. And then in terms of identity what even ties this group is so many complex identities apart from being women like there are also that clan interaction like women from the same clan so I am in this group so I tend to influence women from another my clan so and then religion also most of them they are Muslims and then some of them get to know of this entity through family network, kinship, ed stuff like that. So it is a very fluid identities and of course there are negative and positive aspect of it in terms of who is included, who is excluded but the thing is that gives them identity and make them even like consider it's not just the economic gain but the aspect of social gain because this person comes from my family my kinship, my lineage or my agement then we have to bond together to do this business together. And then thirdly aspect of labour organization this chemical marketing many a time gets attention because it's important thing is nutritious but then deep down the hinterland what happened is like from the milking milk is smoked traditionally by different harps and then levelling of the jerican they have this plastic jerican then transported from different cooling until marketing. Do you think all these things is happening in vacuum? No, what happens is this labour is really is facilitated by different forms of communication like you have to be reliable you have to be timely you have to adhere to certain rules you have to make sure that the milk is not contaminated and this labour organization people have overcome the barriers by building trust and also establishing different norms and values that guide their relationship. And then I know critics of moral economy like there is the aspect of individual and collective action the business is individual business but what makes it morally, economically viable is the aspect of collectiveness, solidarity and flexible perspective. Let's say if there is crisis like there is insecurity within the milk transport route what happens? They have to communicate they have to look for a means of hiring a van or something so that the milk can be brought together to see that togetherness these people do not like they are hauled by this aspect of being together and showing solidarity in short term and also beyond economic gain especially the women like they have the monthly contribution whereby they support the sick among them they support the needy among them to take their children to school so it's the social aspect that comes out of this other individually driven business and finally maybe you can also put in the chart here what are the limits of this moral economy who is included and who is excluded? That's a challenging thing because as I said sometimes it is rooted in clan family stuff like that but also it's free for people, other people to join but then one thing I forgot to mention is among this women group who are forming this cooperative they are widows, they are like widows they are divorces all kind of vulnerable women so it's a aspect of building solidarity within themselves so let's go to the next slide. Ahira try to move faster, the time has come. I don't have the slide. Okay. Yeah, so just this is the second last slide so why seeing chemical milk marketing through moral economy is important? Number one, many studies that which amazing studies that has been happening is mostly looking at value chain, microbial content of chemical milk marketing, economic return, et cetera, et cetera but the moral economy perspective brings out the hidden adaptive capacities of local agents and network to respond to social, political and ecological uncertainties in milk production because of course market is important the nutrient content of chemical milk is important but these adaptive capacities of individual is what makes pastoral livelihood resilience and it is these people who many a time are not recognized and even acknowledge for resilience building purposes in pastoral areas and also as I mentioned earlier diverse network within this network connect urban and rural places and also support livelihood of marginal groups especially the women and young by creating employment opportunities and also generating income but also there is policy dilemma here like this informal network and arrangement is very vibrant dynamic and helpful but then we have this external intervention that come with fixed market places fixed infrastructure making people follow rules and regulations very formalized so how can the trade off between these two can be balanced so it's a question that we need to think about and maybe come together again to discuss the answer final slide please okay now to summarize you've seen how chemo is important the challenges that it has and then the moral economy behind the commoditization of this amazing product so how can chemical milk marketing and chemical production be supported to get value for its global outlook I think we can contribute to this debate by putting our notes in the chat but I have four takeaway points number one is taking the moral economy line seriously we need to go beyond the market infrastructure or the cooling plant and recognize the importance of flexibility of these agents involved in chemical milk marketing secondly, I think there is significant need for infrastructure support especially cooling plants and also transport and I mean in terms of even facilitating transportation between these places and then thirdly, resource allocation especially the national government county government and international they really need to rethink how the budget and resources are located for chemical production because you've seen the value of this animal even internationally and finally, there is high need for investment in chemical health, vaccination, disease control and stuff like that because of course people also need knowledge on how to manage this animal because many agencies are talking this past release of this animal so know how and also investment in disease is very important yeah, that is from my end thank you very much