Pastoralist societies, including Borana, are known for their strong social networks, which provide social- and livelihood-related functions. This paper explores the role of marro - women’s social security network in accessing resources to overcome household food security in Borana, southern Ethiopia. The paper investigates types of resources shared and the role of shared resources in augmenting household food security. The study employed individual interviews, group interviews, focus group discussions and field observations to generate data among two communities engaged in pastoral and agro-pastoral production systems. Results show marro is a voluntary social support network between friends, neighbours and families in which all women participate, regardless of livelihood bases, economic status and age differences. The majority of women use marro when need arises, while a significant number of poor and elderly women depend on it for daily survival. Marro relations resemble both bonding and bridging networks in which resources are mobilized and shared between neighbouring and far-distant households respectively. In both bonding and bridging marro, women share resources such as food items, labour and cash on the basis of trust and solidarity. The primary aim of the shared resources is to overcome household food shortages that increase during drought. However, increases in drought combined with lack of proper external support are limiting the scope of marro in building household food security by limiting the availability of resources and increasing the number of poor people demanding help that need serious attention. The findings of this study add knowledge on the role of social security networks in improving household food security that must be taken into consideration for designing responsive and sustainable food security programmes and projects in pastoral areas in general and Borana in particular.

中文翻译：

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Borana妇女的土著社会网络-建立家庭粮食安全的Marro：来自埃塞俄比亚的案例研究

包括博拉纳（Borana）在内的放牧社会以其强大的社交网络而闻名，这些社交网络提供与社会和民生相关的功能。本文探讨了埃塞俄比亚南部博拉纳市marro-妇女社会保障网络在获取资源以克服家庭粮食安全方面的作用。本文研究了共享资源的类型以及共享资源在增强家庭粮食安全中的作用。该研究采用了个人访谈，小组访谈，焦点小组讨论和实地观察，以在从事牧业和农牧生产系统的两个社区之间产生数据。结果表明，marro是朋友，邻居和家人之间的自愿社会支持网络，所有妇女都可以参加该网络，而不论其生活基础，经济状况和年龄差异如何。大多数妇女在需要时使用marro，而相当多的贫穷和老年妇女每天都依靠它。马洛的关系既类似于联系网络，也包括桥接网络，在网络中，动员和共享资源的对象分别是邻近家庭和远距离家庭。在建立和弥合婚姻方面，妇女在信任和团结的基础上共享食品，劳动力和现金等资源。共享资源的主要目的是克服干旱期间家庭粮食短缺的情况。但是，干旱增加加上缺乏适当的外部支持，限制了资源的可利用性，并增加了需要认真关注的需要帮助的贫困人口，从而限制了建立家庭粮食安全的马洛范围。