Sustainable solutions for the livestock sector: The time is ripe!
1. Sustainable solutions for the livestock sector:
The time is ripe!
Friday 19 January 2018
1000–1200 hrs
CityCube Level 3
Room M2 / M3
Organized by
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
and
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
Experts in nutritional well-being, economic development and environmental protection from both
developed and developing countries will debate the roles livestock play, and could play, in ensuring
sustainable food and nutritional security for all the world’s peoples. The event will conclude with a
panel and audience discussion to identify the highest priority actions and solutions for sustainable
livestock futures supporting human and environmental well-being.
Key messages
1. The global livestock sector takes diverse forms—from families in southeast Asia keeping a flock of
chickens or pigs in their backyards, to nomadic herders walking their cattle, sheep and goats across
vast drylands to new pastures, to the highly intensive poultry, pork and beef production systems
common in industrial and emerging countries. Each of these production systems requires its own
solutions to become sustainable and equitable as well as profitable. We must find ways to better
communicate this diversity. We must ensure that the negative views of the livestock sector in
developed countries do not hamper the financing and sustainable development of the livestock sector
in poor countries.
2. Including very modest amounts of milk, meat and eggs in the diets of the world’s most vulnerable
people improves their health as well as their nutritional well-being, and providing these animal-source
foods remains essential for children of the developing world in the first 1,000 days of their lives,
without which they are set to become physically and mentally stunted for life.
3. Many big and as yet unexploited opportunities exist to significantly improve the efficiency of livestock
production in developing countries, thereby both reducing livestock greenhouse gas emissions and
enhancing the livelihoods of more than three-quarters of a billion people living in poverty today.
2.
Welcome, opening remarks
Jimmy Smith, director general, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
Opening speech
Stefan Schmitz, deputy director-general and commissioner for the ONE WORLD—No
Hunger Initiative, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ),
Germany
Overview of livestock contributions to the sustainable development goals
Fritz Schneider, chair, Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock
Presentations and discussion
Facilitator: Shirley Tarawali, assistant director general, International Livestock Research
Institute, Kenya
Climate adaptation and mitigation in animal production
Robin Mbae, deputy director of livestock production (climate change) at the Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Kenya
Livestock and human nutrition
Lora Iannotti, associate dean for public health, associate professor, Brown School,
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Livestock and household-level economic development
Emma Naluyima, pig farmer and chair of Uganda’s National Multi-stakeholder Piggery
Value Chain Platform and an Aspen New Voices Fellow
Discussion
Adrian Aebi, assistant director of the Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland, will
open the discussion
Open discussion—questions/comments
Closing statement
Jimmy Smith, director general, International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya
3.
Speakers
Jimmy Smith, a Canadian, is Director General of the International Livestock
Research Institute, a position he assumed in October 2011. Smith has worked for
the World Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency. Still earlier
in his career, Smith worked at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock
Centre for Africa, where he served as the institute’s regional representative for
West Africa and subsequently managed the ILRI-led Systemwide Livestock
Programme of the CGIAR. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urban-
Champaign, USA, where he completed a PhD in Animal Sciences. He is widely
published, with more than 100 publications, including papers in refereed journals,
book chapters, policy papers and edited proceedings.
Stefan Schmitz is deputy director-general and commissioner for the ONE
WORLD—No Hunger Initiative, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ), Germany. For the last five years, he headed the rural
development, agriculture and food security unit at the BMZ. Before that, he
worked as senior advisor to the Secretariat of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, coordinated the German bilateral
cooperation program with South Africa and Namibia and was deputy head of the
infrastructure division at the BMZ. He graduated from Bonn University in
geography and mathematics and received a PhD in geosciences from the Free
University of Berlin in 2000.
Fritz Schneider is chair of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock. He has
been active in the Livestock Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD) since
1997 and has been co-editor of the publication Livestock in a Changing Landscape
(2010). He holds a master’s degree in livestock science. He is affiliated with the
Bern University of Applied Science, where he was professor for livestock systems,
vice director and head of agriculture (1993–2015).
Robin Mbae is director of livestock production at the Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Fisheries, Kenya . He is currently the head of Climate Change in the
State Department of Livestock. Mbae has worked with the Kenya government for
around 30 years in various capacities including being director of Apiculture
Institute for over 10 years, before initiating the Climate Change unit in 2012. He
has been a key player in development of Kenya’s climate change policy, act,
response strategy, action plan and nationally determined contribution. He also has
been involved in development of Kenya’s Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy and is
currently working on the Climate Smart Agriculture Framework Programme and
Kenya’s Dairy NAMA, among others. He holds a BSC in agriculture and an MBA
from Nairobi and Kenyatta Universities respectively.
4.
Lora Iannotti is Associate Dean for Public Health, Associate Professor, Brown
School, Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Iannotti has expertise in maternal
and young child nutrition and nutrient deficiencies (zinc, iron, vitamin A, B12, and
choline) related to poverty and infectious diseases. Her research focuses on
epidemiological and intervention studies to reduce stunting and anemia in low-
resource populations. Dr. Iannotti leads projects in Haiti, Ecuador, and East Africa
where she collaborates with local partners to test innovative, transdisciplinary
solutions using sustainable animal source foods and small livestock development.
Dr. Lannotti received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg
School of Public Health, and a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Affairs from the
University of Virginia. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked for over ten years
with UN agencies and non-governmental organizations on nutrition and food
security programming and policy.
Emma Naluyima is a smallholder farmer and a private veterinarian focusing on
clinical medicine and herd health. She has previously worked for the National
Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank and as an officer in Entebbe in
charge of a livestock environmental station. She has also worked for the
president of the Republic of Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, on his
personal dairy farm to improve the genetics of his herd through artificial
insemination. She has served as the chairperson of Red Cross Mbarara. She holds
a BSc in veterinary medicine and a masters of health services research from
Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
Adrian Aebi is assistant director of the Federal Office for Agriculture,
Switzerland. He is head of the International Affairs Unit. Adrian Aebi is an
agronomist of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, specializing in
agricultural economics, and has a MBA. He was formerly manager of the
Marketing and Sales unit of Teva Pharma AG. Afterwards, he was CEO of the
S.A.M. Group AG and managing director ad interim of the Emmental Show
Dairy before taking up his present position at the Federal Office for
Agriculture.
Shirley Tarawali is assistant director general at the International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI) based in Nairobi, Kenya with responsibilities
spanning strategy, planning, partnerships, communications and knowledge
management as well as institutional management, decision making and
representation. She is also secretary to the ILRI Board of Trustees. Prior to
this Shirley led an ILRI research theme with responsibilities across sub-
Saharan Africa and Asia, and including scientific coordination and leadership
of a portfolio covering livestock-environment, animal nutrition and natural
resource management. Shirley has over 30 years’ experience implementing
and leading research for development in Africa and Asia. Shirley holds a PhD
in plant science from the University of London, UK