BETTER SCIENCE, BETTER LIVES
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI),
headquartered in Africa and working in poor countries
worldwide to provide better lives through livestock,
held its Institute Planning Meeting from 4 to 7 Oct 2016.
This is the seventh of a series of blog articles reporting on
plans for ILRI research programs, including ILRI’s
work in west and southern Africa and south, east and southeast Asia.

Steve Staal and Isabelle Baltenweck presented
the Policy, Value Chains and Livelihoods program.
Its goal is to maximize livestock-mediated livelihoods.
—ILRI’s Ben Hack reporting on #ipm2016

The Policy, Value Chains and Livelihoods program has five teams:

The ‘Foresight and Policy’ team pulls together
livestock sector planning from across the institute
and works closely with national partners and supports them.

The ‘M&E and Impact Assessment’ team helps set priorities
better understand likely impacts and outcomes.
It leads and supports the ‘theory of change’ approach.
This team works closely with the technology teams.

‘Gender and Equity’ is an area we want to strengthen.
This team aims for more equitable control of livestock.
A new important focus is youth.

‘Human Nutrition’ adopts a whole diet and food systems
approach to improve nutrition in livestock-keeping communities.

‘Value Chains’ is the largest and most established of the teams.
Extension services are increasingly becoming important to their work.
Private-sector partners are central to their theory of change.

—ILRI’s Ben Hack reporting on #ipm2016

The program is active in India, Vietnam, Senegal and Burkina Faso
as well as in East and Southern Africa.

Dolapo Enahoro and her team assessed the role of livestock
in eight developing countries undergoing rapid change.
They looked at national food supply, food self-sufficiency
and nutrition and developed projections for future scenarios.

Results conclude that these countries will face major imports.
Livestock is growing in importance for nutrient supply.
In this lies also a chance for small-scale livestock keepers
to be part of the ‘livestock revolution’.

—ILRI’s Ben Hack reporting on #ipm2016

Immaculate Omondi spoke about linking
small-scale farmers to larger enterprises.
Dairy hubs act as links between processors and farmers.
Omondi’s team analyzed nearly one thousand
dairy households in Kenya and Uganda.

Participation in dairy hubs was found to be linked to higher incomes.
But while linking to large enterprises does increase income,
there is no evidence that it trickles down to farm level.

—ILRI’s Ben Hack reporting on #ipm2016

For more information, contact ILRI’s Policy, Value Chains and Livelihoods program leader Steve Staal: s.staal [at] cgiar.org