The settling of formerly mobile pastoral populations is occurring rapidly throughout East Africa. Pastoral sedentarization has been encouraged by international development agencies and national
governments to alleviate problems of food insecurity, health care delivery, and national
integration. However, it has not been demonstrated that abandoning the pastoral way of
life, and particularly access to livestock products, has been beneficial to the health and well-being of
pastoral populations.
This document provides an approach and a toolkit to help those designing and conducting an assessment of mental health and psychosocial needs and resources in major humanitarian crises. These could include major natural and human-made disasters and complex emergencies (for example armed conflicts). In general, assessments are aimed at:
providing a broad understanding of the humanitarian situation;
analysing people’s problems and their ability to deal with them; and
analysing resources to decide, in consultation with stakeholders, the nature of any response required.
Assessments are also helpful to start engagement with stakeholders, including governments, community stakeholders and national and international agencies. There is no ‘one assessment that fits all’. This document is not a cookbook. Rather, it provides a toolkit and an approach to selecting the right tools. You should select a few tools and adapt them within each assessment project and specific situation,