Formal or Informal, Legal or Illegal: The Ambiguous Nature of Cross-border Livestock Trade in the Horn of Africa

TLDR

Cross‑border livestock trade in the Horn of Africa occurs across extensive border zones with few customs posts, forcing states to turn a blind eye and exposing the region’s diverse policies that undermine simple informality classifications. The article investigates cross‑border trade by contrasting the viewpoints of state institutions and their agents with those of private merchants and pastoralists. The study finds that while state and private agendas often clash, occasional accommodations arise despite the trade’s illegality, and recent government efforts to formalize the market have largely failed.

Abstract

In this article, we address cross-border trade from the perspectives of state institutions and their agents, on the one hand, and private merchants and pastoralists, on the other. It will be shown that at times their agendas strongly conflict, but in other situations workable accommodations and policy interpretations are found even while acknowledging the illegality of the actions. Because of the extensive border zones in the Horn with few custom posts and banking facilities, the state often has no recourse but to turn a "blind eye" to cross-border trade. Throughout the paper, it is shown how vastly different border policies and international relationships among neighboring countries (i.e. Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia) in the region challenge generalizations about informality and cross-border trade. In the conclusion we assess recent attempts by government authorities to coerce the trade into formal channels, but with minimal success.