Nomad Sedentarisation Processes in Afghanistan and Their Impact on Conflict

“The sedentarisation of nomads is often seen by policy makers as the way to more fully integrate nomads into Afghan society, make services available to them and eliminate nomad-settler conflict. In fact, many nomads have already settled, sometimes as a result of government-sponsored schemes, but much more often as a result of spontaneous processes. This “watching brief” focuses on the issue of if and how nomad sedentarisation impacts nomad-settler conflict, in order to establish whether sedentarisation could be a viable policy for reducing nomad-settler conflict. It does so by looking at four case studies of nomad settlements: two state sponsored cases and two spontaneous cases. The paper first discusses pre-2001 experiences in sedentarisation, then outlines post-2001 sedentarisation processes before reviewing the four case studies of nomad settlements, which were all affected by conflicts with neighbouring communities. In total, for this “watching brief” we interviewed 16 settled nomads (four per settlement, all community elders and all males) during spring 2019. We deliberately focused exclusively on nomads (ignoring neighbouring settled communities) because we wanted to get a perspective from within the community about the dynamics of sedentarisation. We started from the assumption that settler communities in surrounding areas would have had rather negative views about the nomad settlements.”