Assessing the Causes and Impact of Drought and its Coping Mechanisms of Pastoral Community: The Case of SeweynaWoreda, East Bale Zone, South Eastern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT <em>Droughts are slow-onset disasters caused by climate change and water shortage. Drought is unquestionably one of the most difficult and complex natural disasters. It is a recurring phenomenon. In Ethiopia, droughts have occurred almost periodically over the past centuries. Ethiopia is experiencing a prolonged drought after three consecutive unsuccessful rainy seasons since late 2020, affecting 6.8 million people living in Oromia, SNNP, southwest and Somalia. The purpose of this research is to investigation the impact of drought, coping strategies in association with Pastoralist societies of SeweynaWoreda.SeweynaWoredawas purposively selected from East Bale Zone due to prolonged occurrence of the drought, four kebeles’ using quota samplin Thus, a descriptive survey research method with both quantitative and qualitative research approach was used. A household survey was conducted with 357households. g. Hence, questionnaire, semi- structured interviews and focus group discussions were used as the instruments of data gathering. The data collected through the questionnaire were tabulated and analyzed through descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentage, and mean and, the qualitative data gathered through interview were analyzed by using narration. The results of the study indicated that majority of respondents (75.63%) identified climate change as a primary cause of drought and about 56.02% attributed drought to deforestation and land degradation. Whereas, impact of draught due to overgrazing was cited by 57.42%. Furthermore, 84.03% of the respondents identified the impact of draught as a result of unsustainable land use practices. On the other hand, the main coping strategy by pastoralists are mobility which in account about 86.83% followed by Destocking through the sale or slaughter of livestock about 81.23% and 70.03% of households are applying store hay and manage forage reserves as a coping strategy. Finally, Community-based support systems are also coping strategies with only 37.82% of households relying on traditional networks. In line with these findings of the study, some recommendations were forwarded. </em>