Annet A. Mulema (ILRI)

ICARDA-ILRI Training on Tools for Benchmarking Sheep and Goat Value Chains in Ethiopia,

Addis Ababa, 6-9 November 2013

Innovation Strategies for Integrating Gender into a Livestock Value Chain

Presentation outline IntroductionDefinition of key termsGender issues in AgricultureLivestock value chainLivestock value chain analysis and gender analysisStrategies to integrate gender in the livestock value chain

Discussion questions

• What is the difference between sex and gender?• Why is examining gender roles important

(especially in the livestock value chain)?• What strategies are you using to integrate gender

in your work?• What challenges are you facing to integrate

gender in your work?

Introduction

• Demand for livestock products will double in the next 20 years

• Livestock has potential to benefit the majority of a country’s rural poor

• The livelihoods of about 600 million people who earn an average of less than a dollar a day depend significantly on livestock.

• Expanding the capacity for livestock production and its marketing outlets is a potent catalyst for rural poverty reduction.

Introduction…

• Trend in coordination of market channels– Shift from farming systems to targeting agricultural

value chains to increase production and participation in markets

– Achievement of balanced approach (including actors in the value chain)

– Adoption of technologies by small scale producers influenced by market availability

• Gender inequalities critical in understanding and addressing the ‘weakest links’ within value chains.

Definition of key terms• ‘Sex’ refers to biological differences between males and

females. These are fixed and mostly unchangeable and vary little across cultures and over time .

• ‘Gender’ refers to socially constructed roles and responsibilities of women and men, and includes expectations held about characteristics, and likely behaviors of both men and women; the roles that we learn to fill from childhood onward, change over time and are cultural specific.

• The “livestock value chain” refers to the full range of activities required to bring a product (e.g. live animals, meat, milk, eggs, leather, fibre, manure) to final consumers passing through the different phases of production, processing and delivery (IDRC 2000).

Gender in agriculture• Role of women in agriculture

– Undertake a wide range of activities relating to food production, processing and marketing

– Perform most of the household labor devoted to animals.

– Responsible for land and water management

– They have access to a store of local knowledge on environmental management

Gender issues in Agriculture

• Gender issues of significant importance in agriculture and rural development are:

– unequal access to resources and services (land and water resources, labor, and to credit and other support services;

– gender differences in roles and activities;

– unequal access to agricultural extension and research;

– gender differences in participation in decision-making.

• Failure to recognize the roles, differences and inequalities between men and women posses are serious threat to the effectiveness of agricultural development agenda.

Obstacles to integration of gender in research and development• Lack of interest and skepticism about the usefulness

of gender in agricultural research and development• Gap in gender information• The idea that gender is the responsibility of NARS

and gender experts• Lack of mechanisms or strategies to integrate gender• Little senior scientists’ involvement in gender issues• Lack of experienced social scientists

Value chain development

• Value chain development is key in achieving increased production and improve livelihoods of the rural poor

• Creating and sustaining competitive markets will require integration of gender components in value chain

Livestock value chain

Traders

Adapted: http://www.researchintouse.com/nrk/RIUinfo/images/value-chain-overview2.gif

Livestock value chain…

• Although the marketing chain is well known, the social, economic and institutional barriers to livestock marketing limit livestock-sector development. – Gender– Infrastructure,– Quality standards,– Inadequate and uncoordinated livestock market

information systems – Multiplicity of intermediaries

Livestock value chain…

• Distribution of risks and gains along the value chain varies according to the gender of – Producers– Processors– Market agents (input suppliers, traders, transporters

etc)

Why Value Chain Analysis

• Livestock Value Chain Analysis is essential to understand:– The existing markets (market opportunities)– The structure and relationships –power relations– The participation of different actors, men and women – Critical constraints that limit growth of livestock production– Competiveness of smallholder farmers

• Gender analysis and integration of gender issues is however the weakest point in most value chain analyses and largely ignored in most value chains

Gender analysis

• Gender analysis provides a lens through which we can explore and assess the differences between:– the roles that women and men play– The varying levels of power– The needs of men and women– Constraints and opportunities– And impact of these on the lives of men and women

Gender analysis in value chain

• Gender analysis frameworks: Gender dimension framework or Women empowerment framework– Practices and participation - Who does what?

– What do men and women do, and how, where do they do it and with whom?

• Access to and control of resources - Who has what? Who controls what?

– Who has access to and control of knowledge, resources, services and decision-making, who produces what, who benefits and how?

– Influencing factors– What is the socio-cultural /beliefs and perceptions, political, economic and

environmental situation that explains the prevailing circumstances and what are the cross-cutting issues?

• Implications on power relations

Livestock value chain and gender analysis

IFAD. 2010. Value chains: Linking producers to the markets

Strategies to integrate gender in livestock value chain

• Empowerment: Empowering poor smallholders especially women, so that they can provide high-quality and sustainable livestock production– assuring adequate access to basic production inputs, – Access to credit,– capacity-building in terms of knowledge and skills,– dissemination of market-related information

• An enabling environment: Facilitating poor female and male farmers’ and livestock keepers’ access to markets – improving their business management skills and marketing strategies, – ensuring that they have the knowledge and technologies required to meet

quality and sanitary standards,– providing adequate infrastructure – policy environment

Strategies…• Equity: Ensuring that the economic gains in value

chains are fairly distributed among the various actors, including poor male and female farmers and livestock keepers– building strong relationships among various chain actors

(strengthening innovation systems)– strengthening farmers’ organizations and livestock

traders’ associations

• Monitoring and evaluation: Tracking change along the value chain

CRP Livestock and Fish

• Design of a gender strategy– Capacity building– Increased participation of women in the value chain– Transformative approaches _ transforming norms,

attitudes and behavior that hinder women's’ access and control of resources

– Nutrition – increased access to meat and milk

References• International Development Research Centre. 2000. A Handbook for

Value Chain Research. Ottawa: IDRC. • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2007.

Approaches to Linking Producers to Markets. Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Occasional Paper No.13. Rome: FAO.

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2007. Livestock and Livelihoods: Priorities and Challenges for Pro-Poor Livestock Policy. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2002. Market. Developments for Organic Meat and Dairy Products: Implications for Developing Countries.

• IFAD. 2010. Value chains: Linking producers to the markets. Rome, Italy: International Fund for Agricultural Development

• World Bank. 2009. Gender in Agriculture Source Book. D.C: The World Bank