Overview of Livestock Contributions to the
Sustainable Development Goals
Fritz Schneider
Expert panel: Sustainable solutions for the livestock sector. the time is ripe! 10th Global Forum for Food and
Agriculture, Berlin, 19 January 2018

But also water resources, biodiversity, human health …
Livestock – compelling figures

Livestock matters to human development!
o Demand for livestock products is growing rapidly due to growing
incomes, urbanisation, population growth and changing food habits
o To meet the demand traditional smallholder livestock systems and
modern forms of intensive livestock production are needed
o Smallholder systems have an enormous potential to increase production
and to reduce the GHG emissions per unit produced
o Livestock has environmental impacts
• Both positive and negative impacts need to be addressed

The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock
Global Food Security and Health
Equity and Growth
Resources and Climate
> 100 members

The Global Agenda in support of the Sustainable Development Goals
The Reference Frame
of the Global Agenda

The Global Agenda and the SDGs
o All SDGs are relevant to the livestock sector
o The Global Agenda has identified nine with particular importance for the sector

900 mio. people living on less than 1.9 US$ per day,
750 mio. depending directly on livestock
Livestock contributes to pathways out of poverty by:
o Increasing resilience. E.g. by sustainable mixed
farming practices
o Improving smallhoder and pastoral productivity
o Increasing market participation of small and
marginal livestock keepers
To end poverty is not possible without giving
due imortance to livestock
SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Livestock provide 14 % of the total calories and 33 % of
the protein in people’s diets at global level
o Animal based products provide micronutrients
o Livestock provides draught power and manure for
crop production. Extremely important for millions of
smallholders in mixed farming systems
o Livestock converts grass, straw, agro-industrial by-
products into high quality food
o Only 14 % of the global animal feed is fit for human
consumption
In intensive systems there remains a feed – food
competition which needs to be tackled to
improve sustainability
SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture

Animal-source foods are important to nutrition for
children, pregnant women and for the elderly
o Animal based foods provide a wide range of
micronutrients and vitamins
o Looking at human and animal health together can
improve human and animal well being substantially
> 60 % of animal diseases are zoonotic
Antimicrobial resistance needs to be reduced by
reducing use of anibiotics in livestock production
SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

o Livestock provides up to 40 % of agricultural GDP
o Livestock is one of the fastest growing economic
sectors in developing countries
o Capturing the economic benefits of the expanding
livestock market can help to sustain overall
economic growth
o The development of national «Livestock
Master Plans» to support effective investment
planning to optimize livestock’s contribution to
economic growth is key to achieve this goal
SDG 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,
full and productive employment and decent work for all
7 Multi-stakeholder Partnership (MSP) meeting

o Hunger, malnutrition and stunting on the one hand
o Overconsumption on the other hand
o Food waste: Almost one third of produced food is
lost or wasted between field and fork
o In industrialised countries most lossses occure at
the consumer level
o In developing countries the losses occure in the
post harvest processes
The multiple stakeholders of the livestock
sector have to work harder towards a more
responsible consumption and production of
animal based products along the entire value
chain, including consumers
SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

o Livestock with its GHG emissions is contributing
significantely to climate change
o Livestock keepers are affected by climate change.
E.g. more frequent draughts and floods
o Resilience to climate change in livestock production
can be built by improving water management and
breeding for drought resistance.
Resent studies have shown that livestock
production has a huge potential to reduce GHG
emissions. Packages of mitigtation techniques
can bring large environmental benefits.
SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact

o 26 % of terrestrial areas of the planet are pastures
o > 25 % of cropland is dedicated to feed and fodder
production, more than half of it is not suitable to
produce food crops
o Inproper rangeland management, overstocking and
overgrazing leads to desertification
Improved grazing management can contribute
to grassland restoration, carbon sequestration
and can reduce deforestation. Good examples
are agro forestry and sylvopastoral systems.
SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,
sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and
reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

o Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue
o Of the > 750 million poor livestock keepers,
about two thirds are rural women
o Women often have better access to livestock than
to agricultural land
To be successful towards sustainable
livestock development, gender aspects have
to be part of all interventions
SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

o A successful sustainable development agenda
requires partnerships between governments, the
private sector , research and civil society.
o In the livestock sector, stakeholders have joined
together to form the…..
….recognizing the UN SDGs as their strategy
SDG 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global
partnership for sustainable development

o Facts are known
o The analyses are done
o The many involved stakeholders have
positioned themselves
– Public sector,
– Academia research,
– Private sector,
– NGOs,
– Civil society,
– Financial sector)
o The UN Agenda 2030 with the SDGs is accepted
as common reference frame
Conclusions 1: Context is well known and understood

Now it’s time to deliver,
the time is ripe!
Conclusions 2: Time for decisive action, time to deliver!