Presented by Tom Randolph (ILRI) at the Livestock and Fish Expert Workshop on Systems Analysis for Value Chain Transformation, Amsterdam, 19 November 2014

1. The vision for systems analysis
research within the Livestock and
Fish research program
Tom Randolph
Livestock and Fish expert workshop on systems analysis for value chain transformation
Amsterdam, 19 November 2014

2. Key features of L&F
• Food & nutritional security objective: ensuring there
is as much or more good quality animal-source food on
the plate of the poor in 2050
• Also opportunity for poverty reduction: creating
viable, sustainable, inclusive production and marketing
systems
• Testing a faster, more effective AR4D approach:
enhance relevance and accelerate uptake by
harnessing research and development partnerships to
transform selected value chains
• Emphasis on research from discovery to delivery

3. Medium-term agenda
2015-16
Extension
Period
1st CRP
cycle
2nd CRP
cycle
3rd CRP
cycle
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
• Good progress, but many ambitions not being met
• Underachieving on setting a good systems analysis
framework
• Challenges to program stability and funding

4. Why focus on the value chain?
Piece-meal approach: solutions developed for isolated issues
in specific settings, but ignoring other constraints in the value
chain that discourage uptake
Inputs & Services Production Processing Marketing Consumers
Consumers
...in Country A
Consumers
Consumers
...in Country B
...in Country C
...in Country D

5. Urgency and focus for relevant research
by considering the whole value chain
Inputs & Services Production Processing Marketing Consumers
Major intervention led by development partners
CRP Research Platforms
• Productivity: Health, genetics, feeds
• Market Innovation
• Systems analysis, Targeting, Gender
Aiming our research to
transform selected pro-poor
value chains
Research partners working together in value chain
GLOBAL RESEARCH
PUBLIC GOODS
INTERVENTIONS TO
SCALE OUT REGIONALLY
Focusing research to design
and generate evidence for
large-scale development
interventions
Prioritizing an appropriate
balance of short and long-term
research on the productivity
drivers and social science
For local solutions but with
regional and global benefits

6. Role of systems analysis
Global physical, socio-economic, policy environment
Local physical, socio-economic, policy environment
En
Inputs &
Services
Production Processing Marketing Consumers
Understanding :
• Complexity and inter-connectedness
• From micro to macro
• Between different parts of the value chain and its environment
• Across disciplinary perspectives: biophysical, ecological, socio-economic,
policy, etc.
• How external drivers at different levels influence the value chain and implications
for innovation: foresight, scenario development
• World market prices
• Climate change
• How an innovation in one part of the value chain will affect the value chain and
outside the chain: ex-ante feasibility and impact assessment
• Competitiveness vis-à-vis other value chains
• Distribution of benefits by subsector, gender, income group
• Environmental stresses

7. Vision for systems analysis
At the end of 10 years
• A basic set of tools used across our
value chains
• But tailored to each specific value
chain
• Developed with and being used by our
national partners
• Economic
• Market trend analysis and targeting
• Assess implications of change in cost structure (due to
innovation, policy, external shock) in one part of value chain for
competitiveness, distribution of benefits
• Biophysical
• Assess implications of change in a biophysical dynamic for the
system (biomass demands, nutrient flows, human nutrition)
• Environmental
• Assess externalities and trade-offs

8. CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish
livestockfish.cgiar.org
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. The CGIAR
Research Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems
in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world.