Herder-Related Violence, Agricultural Work, and the Informal Sector as a Safety Net

Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Damon, Amy; Francis, David C; Mitchell, Harrison

Herder-Related Violence, Agricultural Work, and the Informal Sector as a Safety Net

Autores

Editor

World Bank, Washington, DC

Descripción

Violent conflict between nomadic herders and settled—mostly agricultural—communities in Nigeria occurs as both groups clash over the use of land and resources, in part, due to a changing climate. This paper uses panel data from 2010 through 2019 to study the labor responses of individuals to exposure to herder-related violence during the post-planting and post-harvest seasons. Specifically, it considers a “shadow of violence” channel, where recent exposure to a violent event alters labor-related responses to a subsequent event. Results find that in the post-planting season, exposure to a herder-related violent event leads to an increase in informal work for both men and women, a decrease in agricultural work for men, and an increase in total hours worked for women among households that have previously been exposed to herder-related violence in the preceding six months. The paper also considers two other specific forms for a “shadow of violence” channel—namely, raised tensions over open-grazing bans enacted in 2016 and 2017 within three states and a drastic peak in violence in the first half of 2018— and find similar results. Lastly, findings show how household exposure to violence can have so-called knock-on effects. Households exposed to herder-related violence in the previous post-planting season shift consumption and crop selling patterns in the post-harvest season. These findings highlight the gender-specific labor response to violence and document the role of the informal sector as a partial safety net for individuals in the presence of adverse shocks.