Innovative research approaches for sustainable livestock production and poverty reduction in the developing world

Livestock-related research that aims to increase productivity and enhance livelihoods in an environmentally sustainable manner in the developing world is no longer taking a ‘business as usual’ approach. Innovative new approaches involve interdisciplinary teams linking up with diverse partners. They recognize the multiple roles and functions that livestock play for poor households, identify and tackle institutional, market and policy-related constraints and not just technical constraints, take an innovation systems approach, and employ gender analysis and strategies to ensure poor women’s access to, and benefits from, livestock improve. The ‘multifunctionality’ of livestock for the poor, coupled with the severe institutional, policy and governance constraints found in most developing countries, means that how livestock researchers engage with partners, and how they do and communicate their science, matter even more than they do in Europe or North America. There are a wide range of approaches and tools available that can help enhance both the effectiveness (impact) and efficiency of taking an innovation systems approach. These include processes aimed at lowering the transactions costs involved in developing public-private partnerships and learning platforms. More use of innovative methods such as outcome mapping/impact pathway analysis, social network analysis, innovation histories, cross-country analyses, and game-theory modeling can help improve the likelihood that new knowledge generated by livestock research will lead to actions that help sustainably reduce rural poverty in the developing world

Bridging the Gap: Translating Livestock Research Knowledge into Action for Sustainable Development - Report of a Workshop, Nairobi, 16-17 November 2006

Report of a workshop together with 4 case studies prepared: 1) Fodder innovations for small holders in India (Prasad Vishnubhotla, Dannie Romney) 2) Reto-o-Reto project: Better policy and management options for pastoral lands (Robin Reid, Mohamed Said, Dickson Kaelo, Ogeli Makui) 3) Poverty mapping (Patti Kristjanson, Julius Nyangaga, Paul Okwi) 4) Preventing and containing trypanocide resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa (Tom Randolph, Delia Grace, Hippolyte Affognon

Pathways out of Poverty in Western Kenya and the Role of Livestock

The objectives of the study were to obtain a better understanding of households' pathways into, and out of, poverty, with poverty defined from the communities' own perspective. The authors used a community-based methodology called the 'stages of progress' approach to assess household poverty dynamics in 20 communities and for over 1,700 households representing two different ethnic groups in Western Kenya. The proportion of households that had managed to escape poverty over the last 25 years was ascertained, as well as the proportion of households that had fallen into poverty during the same period. The major reasons for movements into or out of poverty were elicited at both the community and household-level, and in particular, the role that livestock play in the different pathways was examined. The results show considerable movement over the last 2½ decades by households in the study region both into and out of poverty, and the main reasons behind households' escape from poverty are completely different (i.e. not merely the opposite) from the reasons for descent into poverty, and hence have different policy implications in terms of what has been referred to as 'cargo net' versus 'safety net' interventions. Cargo nets help poor people climb out of poverty; safety nets stop people from falling into poverty. Redistributive programs to build up the assets of poor people (such as giving heifers to poor households) may be effective in achieving long-term reductions in chronic poverty, but will have to be complemented by safety net policies.Poverty, livestock, Western Kenya, Vihiga District, Siaya District, stages of progress, Food Security and Poverty, Livestock Production/Industries,

Envisaging change in maize farming: the push and pull factors

Participatory and deliberative approaches were used in order to draw out and evaluate pathways of adaptation in maize farming in the Kenyan districts of Makueni (in Central Province) and Nandi/Nyando (in Western Province), whilst allowing participants to reflect on and share their own perceptions, experiences, and expectations of future change

Catalysing learning for development and climate change: an exploration of social learning and social differentiation in CGIAR

There is convergence between current theory and practice in global environmental change research and development communities on the importance of approaches that aim to ‘engage and embed’, i.e. engage diverse and relevant actors in knowledge creation and embed scientific information into societal contexts. Social learning has emerged as a way to both approach and characterise innovative ways of doing this. Defined here as “a change in understanding that goes beyond the individual to become situated within wider social units or communities of practice through social interactions between actors within social networks” (Reed et al. 2010), a social learning approach situates scientific research as just one form of specialised knowledge amidst other contextual knowledge. Co-learning – by bringing diverse knowledge and social worlds together to exchange needs, values and norms – is considered necessary for addressing complex, wicked problems and for building decision processes and adaptive structures that help navigate uncertain futures. Including socially differentiated groups into processes of knowledge creation and decision- making may fundamentally alter what questions are asked, how changes in practices are framed and how to break down systemic patterns of vulnerability and marginalisation. This paper investigates the synergies (and trade-offs) associated with integrating socially differentiated stakeholders and/or groups – the poor, women, elderly, youth and indigenous – into social learning processes aimed at addressing poverty reduction, livelihood development and longer term resilience. An exploratory scan of CGIAR identifies projects that engage socially differentiated groups in processes of social learning. Cases were characterised for their treatment of i) the particular context, including rationale for the engagement of socially differentiated groups, ii) the design of engagement interfaces, iii) the type of learning loops occurring, iv) particular channels that contributed to learning across networks and, where applicable, v) the outcomes and lessons from the learning process. The findings suggest that diverse forms of social differentiation and learning are occurring across many of CGIAR’s fifteen research centres. This is in part due to institutional reform that has put an increasing emphasis on gender strategies and monitored development outcomes. A more explicit recognition of the role and ‘added value’ that social learning research approaches have can enhance its visibility and ultimately the effectiveness of CGIAR’s vast research partnerships

Coffee Under Pressure

Describes experiences of: CIAT, Oxfam, Catholic Relief Services with Workshops, NetworksContext: Vulnerability of farmers equals vulnerability of supply chain. Inclusive management involves those that contribute to growing, selling and changing strategies. Crop modelling under different climate conditions requires knowledge of who’s growing, selling and involved in the supply chain. It also requires an analysis of who the beneficiaries of the value chain are and who will be adversely affected by changes in climate and in practice in order to identify appropriate adaptation strategies. Gender analysis is critical. Interface: Researchers and stakeholders such as farmers, extensionists, local governments, and ministers are brought together in workshops to discuss history, crop types and harvesting methods and climate change perceptions. Strategies such as visual questionnaires, maps, and models of 20-year crop/climate projections are used to engage and discuss how resources change over time. Learning: Knowledge and networks from collaborative teams are leveraged in order to mobilize practical tools, systems and practices that build adaptive capacity among the poor and among women. Young people understand much faster about climate change. Youth and women are more engaged in participatory workshops. Interactive approaches feed information back into more relevant crop/climate models. Channel: Working with intermediaries such as Oxfam has contributed to ways of integrating gender-sensitive methods into the research process. The collaboration has provided Oxfam with CIAT’s relevant crop/climate expertise and information, and providing an avenue for research to be disseminated more broadly. Engaging with global food companies has typically included Corporate Social Responsibility departments. There is a recognized need that corporate buyers need to be brought into the collaborations in order to mainstream sustainable supply chains more broadly. A gender expert within CIAT is facilitating learning about the need for differentiated gender components in research. Agronomists are paying attention and using this resource now that the need has been identified within the institution. Outcome: Learning that women play a significant role in the supply chain but do not get shares of revenue leads to new research questions about what varieties and practices contribute to more visible and greater involvement. Oxfam included post-harvest facilities in the supply chain, formalizing women’s involvement in the supply chain and ability to generate income. Funding is viewed as a primary barrier to longer term learning cycles and for building continuous partnerships and trust over time. CIAT is working collaboratively with supply chain stakeholders and making links with large development NGOs, to use one part (approx. 8%) of their funding for relevant scientific research that applies to local development projects. Where possible, it is expected that sampling design and the innovative methodologies developed can then be rolled out across extensive NGO networks, including Oxfam and Catholic Relief Services

A pathway to change

People and communities can be amazingly resourceful and innovative when adjusting to change, yet the challenges today are hugely complex. How can we work together to make the changes needed if we are to feed 9 billion people while taking care of the environment