The Role of Gender in Strengthening the Causal Linkages between Livestock Production and Human Nutrition Jemimah Njuki Presented at the BECA-CSIRO Workshop on Human Nutrition ILRI Nairobi, 26-29 th April 2010

How can we improve nutrition? Breastfeeding Complementary feeding Vitamin A Zinc Hygiene INSTITUTIONS POLITICAL & IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK ECONOMIC STRUCTURE RESOURCES ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE Food/nutrient intake Health Water/ Sanitation health services Interventions Immediate causes Underlying causes Basic causes - Agriculture - Poverty Reduction - Education - Health Systems Strengthening - Income generation - Women’s empowerment Maternal and child-care practices Access to food

Livestock production and human nutrition? What do we know? Figure. Hypothesized causal linkages between livestock keeping and human nutrition and health outcomes among the poor (adapted from Nicholson et al., 2003). ASF = animal-source food; HH = household (Randolph et al. 2007) Its complex!

Assuming some simplicity……….. ? ? What are the intervening issues What are the pre-conditions