Presented by Annet A. Mulema (ILRI) at the Workshop on ICARDA-ILRI Training on Tools for Benchmarking Sheep and Goat Value Chains in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 6-9 November 2013

1. Innovation Strategies for Integrating Gender
into a Livestock Value Chain
Annet A. Mulema (ILRI)
ICARDA-ILRI Training on Tools for Benchmarking Sheep and Goat Value
Chains in Ethiopia,
Addis Ababa, 6-9 November 2013

2. Presentation outline
Introduction
Definition of key terms
Gender issues in Agriculture
Livestock value chain
Livestock value chain analysis and gender analysis
Strategies to integrate gender in the livestock value
chain

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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).

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. Livestock value chain
Traders
Adapted: http://www.researchintouse.com/nrk/RIUinfo/images/value-chainoverview2.gif

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Livestock value chain and gender
analysis
IFAD. 2010. Value chains: Linking producers to the markets

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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