Women and Livestock:
Revisiting the Agenda
Why Women and Livestock
Women play important roles as producers of food, managers of natural resources, income earners, and caretakers of
household food and nutrition security. Livestock offer a fundamental way in which poor people in rural areas, particularly
women, accumulate the assets that allow them to climb out of poverty. Livestock is often the only asset women can own/
control. Thus an explicit targeting of efforts towards women livestock keepers and participants in livestock marketing chains
can help increase the number of households that escape poverty and decrease the number that fall into it.
The ultimate objective of this area of work within ILRI is to improve household welfare through increasing women’s access to
livestock assets, information, technologies, and social capital, and participation in livestock and livestock product markets.
Key issues on women and livestock and strategies for addressing them
Cattle Poultry Goats
Increasing
and
Mozambique 11 13
securing
Kenya 12 80 11
livestock
assets
Rwanda 15 38 41
Uganda 14 36 64
Women’s
economic
empowerment:
Table1 Sex of owner of livestock within households
Improving
access
to
3. Increasing women’s access to
resources,
Understanding
technologies,
gender
Improved
family
well
informa=on
and
being
(income
+
food
services
information, technologies and services
constraints,
roles
in
livestock
security,
nutri=on
produc=on
BeAer
Women’s priorities and constraints are often, but not
integra=on
and
increased
always, different from men’s. They have less access
benefits
from
livestock
markets
to inputs and services. Some strategies to increase
access to inputs include collective action, farmer to
Figure 1. Key gender issues and potential outcomes farmer extension and participatory approaches..
1. Understanding context, gender roles and 4. Increasing participation in and
responsibilities benefits from markets
Understanding gender roles in livestock helps in targeting Sale of livestock and livestock products are often the
resources such as capacity, technologies, and other services. most important source of income for women. Women’s
These roles change with context, country, culture or control of the income from sales is often challenged in
production system. In general however women perform the household. Women are more likely to sell in
50-90% of the labour in livestock production. informal, local markets and derive more income from
1
these markets
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Individual
customer
Male
Private
milk-­‐traders
Female
Mixed
Dairy
coop.
collec=on
center
Chilling
2. Increasing and securing women’s access to Figure 2: Who received money from milk
livestock assets 5.Understanding the links between
gender food security and nutrition
Livestock are often one of the key assets that women can
own. Ownership of assets by women has been associated Within households, women are the key mediators for
with improved nutrition and health as well as household the nutrition of children and other household
wellbeing. Women have different ways through which they members. Lack of access to key assets such as
acquire livestock and threats to their livestock also differ. livestock and services such as training can
undermine nutrition and health.
The good news is … And the not so good news is …
Livestock
are
one
of
the
assets
that
women
can
easily
own
Livestock
research
carried
out
without
a
gender
lens
can
be
a
and
therefore
has
poten6al
to
increase
their
economic
threat
to
women’s
ownership
of
livestock,
their
benefits
from
empowerment
and
the
wellbeing
of
their
families
livestock
markets,
and
their
health
April 2010
1 EADD, 2010: East Africa Dairy Development Project. Baseline Report No. 6: Gender issues in dairy production and Marketing. EADD