Pastoralists (broadly speaking, people dependent on extensively grazed livestock for their livelihoods), are a vulnerable group of people who have been marginalised in developmental and political terms, and whose problems are very different from those of people in mainstream agricultural areas. Pastoralist Parliamentary Groups (PPGs), groupings of MPs concerned with the issue of pastoralism, have been formed since 1997 in the national parliaments of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda (Mohammed Mussa 2004, Livingstone forthcoming a and b). A research project investigated the context, successes and failures of the three PPGs, using interviews with their members and other stakeholders and document review.