Women and Livestock: A Research Initiative
Jemimah Njuki
Presentation to USAID Washington DC, September 2009
The context: Livestock and Poverty
600 million of the poor in rural areas keep livestock----they have too few livestock and resources to sustain production
Livestock as an asset, as a form of saving, a source of income providing 6-63% of household income depending on system, as social capital, important source of household nutrition
Women are responsible for most of livestock
Role of livestock in reducing vulnerability due to HIV/AIDS
Why a Women and Livestock Research Initiative?
Why women? Women play important roles as producers of food,
managers of natural resources, income earners, and caretakers of household food and nutrition security
Women however face constraints different from men
The control of assets including livestock and income derived from these assets by women has positive consequences for their decision making within the household and for household well being (nutrition, education, food security)
Why a Women and Livestock Research Initiative?
Why livestock?Livestock, especially small stock, form a
critical rung on the asset ladder out of poverty Livestock are among the few assets women can
ownLivestock are “productive” assets; livestock
and their products contribute to food and income security
A targeted approach to livestock development programmes will improve overall impacts in terms of gender equity and poverty reduction
Existing knowledge, gaps and opportunities for a pro-poor, pro-
women R&D agenda• Women’s ownership of
livestock• Women’s role in livestock
keeping• Women’s participation in
livestock markets• Links between women,
livestock, nutrition and health
Women’s “ownership” of livestock
• Livestock are most important asset for women• Complexities / changes in livestock ownership• But most livestock are owned by men• How to close this gender-asset gap?
Gender of owner, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda (% households)
Cattle Poultry Goats
Mozambique 11 13
Kenya 12 80 11
Rwanda 15 38 41
Uganda 14 36 64
How do women gain and maintain control over livestock?
• Women are less likely than men to acquire animals in the marketplace.
• Threats:
– Drought and disease
– Dissolution of the household
– Commercialization?
Women’s role in livestock keeping
• Women often control products even where they don’t control animals
• For example, women often control some or all milk even if they can’t decide where the cow is grazed or whether it is sold.
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Morning Milk Evening Milk
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Male Female Mixed
• Women provide a large share of the labor in livestock keeping, especially in mixed systems and poor households
• Women’s priorities and constraints are often, but not always, different from men’s
• Women have less access to inputs and services
Key messages
• Division of rights and responsibilities affects incentive and ability to adopt new technologies and practices to increase production and productivity.
• We need to understand this better to develop appropriate technologies and design more effective interventions.
Women’s participation in markets
• Sale of livestock and livestock products are often the most important source of income for women
• Women’s control of the income from sales is often challenged in the household
• Women are more likely to sell in informal, local markets
• Women’s marketing costs are often higher than men’s:– Information—women face higher costs, but
groups can help– Most often have to pay male intermediaries
Women, Livestock, and Nutrition
"Even small additional amounts of meat and milk can provide the same level of nutrients, protein, and calories to the poor that a large and diverse amount of vegetables and cereals could provide”
“The Cow Turns Green,” Newsweek, September 7, 2009
• Livestock ownership alone is not sufficient to ensure consumption of animal source foods (ASF)
• Women play a key role in household choices about food consumption, dietary quality, and intra-household allocation.
• Women’s status is key to making good choices here
Women, Livestock and Health
• Many important diseases are zoonotic, and food safety can be a major issue with animal source foods
• A gendered risk assessment found:– Women’s higher exposure to high-risk activities
such as feeding, milking, and cleaning of livestock– Women and men exposed to different diseases, by
species– Women much more exposed to food-borne diseases
because of role in food and by-product processing, food preparation, and selling ready to eat
.
Women and Livestock Challenge Dialogue: A participatory process for co-
developing and R&D agenda
• A global challenge dialogue initiated in 2008, with over 200 people invited to participate
Some outputs of the dialogue
• An informal partnership with R&D organizations working on livestock and
• Some initial areas of focus for a investments in women and livestock
• A video-clip to highlight the role of women in livestock development and potential impacts of investing on women and livestock Women and Livestock
Initial Areas of Focus for ILRI
• Mechanisms for securing women’s access and control of livestock and other assets
• Promoting women’s participation in formal and informal livestock and livestock product markets
• Analyzing intra-household dynamics, asset ownership, and nutritional and health outcomes
• Women, livestock and natural resource management
Mechanisms for securing women’s access
Objectives Co-develop and pilot test with development
partners different mechanisms for increasing and securing women’s livestock assets:
Index Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) for women and women-owned livestock
A Women and Livestock Fund (e.g Bangladesh micro-credit and poultry development)
What institutional arrangements would be required to make these work?
Partnerships Insurance and micro-finance organizations, NGOs-PROLINOVA
2. Promoting women’s participation in formal and informal livestock and livestock product markets
Objectives What are the pro-poor, pro-women
livestock value chains? What segments of the value chains
have greatest benefits for women and their households?
Role of collective action for increasing market participation (e.g co-operative dairy development scheme in India)
Partnerships Heifer International (dairy cows),
Farm Africa (dairy goats), **** (pigs, poultry, other small ruminants)
Comparing income share to women across traditional and non-traditional
cash crops
• Women have higher income share from some crops and types of markets compared to others
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3. Intra-household dynamics, asset ownership and nutrition and health outcomes
Objectives Qualitative, quantitative and nutritional analysis of
the implications of livestock ownership, intra household dynamics and health and nutrition outcomes
Action research to test strategies that can improve health and nutrition outcomes of livestock keepers (e.g integrating nutrition education with dairy interventions)
Partners Emory University (development and public health
departments), NGO partners working on livestock, nutrition
4. Women, Livestock and NRMKey Issues• Managing NR to increase access by women to feed
and fodder resources (private and common property lands)
• Gendered impacts of climate change and the role of women in adaptation mechanisms
Objectives• Increasing livestock productivity and
competitiveness, as well as food security though dual purpose feed and feed resources
• Action oriented research to test different interventions and resources (including information) for men and women for dealing with climate variability/change
Partners• IDRC, Regional Universities (Sokoine), ICRAF?
Compiling empirical evidence of gender issues in livestock:
• Analysis of a gender implications of a decade of ILRI research on issues such as markets, food safety and health, NRM, poverty.
• Integrating gender and poverty indicators into the research process, monitoring and evaluation
Broadly:
• Mainstreaming gender into the project design and planning process, and gender analysis as an integral part of the research process
Other gender work in ILRI
Key methods and approaches
Action research and pilot testing of innovative approaches, technologies, services
Analysis of existing secondary data, especially gender-disaggregated data
Evaluation of livestock R4D projectsNew research to better understand
women and livestock issues
Thank You