ILRI People, Policies, and Institutions theme outputs (2025–)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/169324

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Now showing 1 - 15 of 15

Employment and inclusive economic growth
(Presentation, 2025-06-10) Baltenweck, Isabelle
Youth engagement in livestock production and marketing in East Africa
(Presentation, 2025-05-23) Baltenweck, Isabelle
Bridging gender gaps in rangeland resource and conflict mapping: the role of participatory GIS, a case study in Kenya
(Conference Paper, 2025-06) Paliwal, Ambica; Korir, Victor Kipkurui; Kenduiywo, Benson; Galiè, Alessandra; Bullock, Renee; Pacillo, Grazia; Wane, Abdrahmane; Whitbread, Anthony M.
How good are livestock statistics in Africa? Can nudging and direct counting improve the quality of livestock asset data?
(Journal Article, 2025-05) Abay, Kibrom A.; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karguia, Joseph; Breisinger, Clemens
Livestock statistics in most low- and middle-income countries rely on self-reported, survey-based measures. However, respondents may have various challenges to accurately report livestock ownership. This study introduces a novel set of survey and measurement experiments to improve livestock statistics in Africa. We introduce two innovations to conventional livestock data collection methods. First, we address some of the sources of potential underreporting in livestock assets by introducing an explicit nudge to a random subset of survey respondents. Second, we arrange for direct counting of livestock assets by enumerators and local livestock experts. We demonstrate that self-reported data on livestock ownership suffer from significant and systematic underreporting. While our nudge affects only the reporting behaviour of households with larger stocks of livestock, direct counting increases total livestock ownership by 39 percent and the reported number of cattle by 43 percent. These impacts are evident at both the extensive and intensive margins of livestock asset ownership, as well as considering the number and value of livestock assets owned. Such mismeasurement in self-reported livestock data can lead to underestimation of the contribution of the livestock sector to national economies. Furthermore, direct counting generates important spillover effects to livestock species not explicitly counted in the survey. We finally show that underreporting in self-reported livestock data is systematic and hence consequential for statistical inferences. Our findings underscore that survey designs that can address specific sources of bias in self-reported livestock data can meaningfully improve livestock asset measurement in Africa.
A review of gender integration in African food-system policies: insights from Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt and Kenya
(Working Paper, 2025-03) Frimpong-Wiafe, Belinda; Muchiri, Caroline; Mawia, Harriet; Enahoro, Dolapo K.
Ensuring gender equality is a crucial aspect of achieving development goals, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Policymaking stands as a key avenue through which governments can actively pursue gender-responsive development. In LMICs—where agriculture often plays a pivotal role in the economy, and rural livelihoods are closely tied to food value chains—the integration of gender in agricultural and food-system policies is paramount. This is particularly true for many African countries. Although many African governments have recognized the importance of gender equality in agricultural and related sectors, gender disparities still persist in these sectors. This study evaluates national policies across various sectors in Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt and Kenya, considering gender-based distinctions in the needs and priorities of women and men. Employing tools adapted to the broader context of food systems, the analysis of 54 sectoral policy documents reveals an encouraging pattern at first glance—that 89.9 percent of documents integrate gender considerations and perspectives. However, we identify specific gaps in the integration of gender considerations in national policies related to food systems, such as agriculture, livestock, and climate change. This could differentially affect how women and men derive benefits from ongoing or future changes in the countries’ food systems.
Tackling tick resistance: Gender and socio-economic considerations for adoption of an acaricide resistance pen-side test
(Brief, 2025-04-15) Campbell, Zoë; Jumba, Humphrey
Livestock for sustainable food system
(Presentation, 2025-03-15) Unger, Fred; Hung Nguyen-Viet; Baltenweck, Isabelle; Whitbread, Anthony M.; Tarawali, Shirley A.
Gender integration in food-system policies: an adapted policy assessment framework
(Working Paper, 2025-03-30) Mawia, Harriet; Muchiri, Caroline; Frimpong-Wiafe, Belinda; Enahoro, Dolapo K.
Food systems are complex and include multifaceted processes in food production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and post-consumption disposal of food products. Ensuring gender equality within food systems is important because they connect various domains, such as health and nutrition, climate change, environment, fisheries, livestock and agriculture. This interconnectedness within food systems leads to significant implications for human health, including nutrition and diets, as well as climate and environment-related indicators. Interactions of gender within these domains complicate the equitable derivation and distribution of benefits from agricultural activities by women and men. Therefore, policies governing food systems in low- and middle-income countries need to integrate gender-responsive approaches into their design, implementation and monitoring, recognizing the multifaceted processes of food systems and how gender interacts with these processes. The existing tools and frameworks that assess gender integration within policies about food systems do not extend beyond the scope of agricultural production into other interacting domains. This working paper addresses this gap by developing an enhanced framework for evaluating gender integration in policy documents within and beyond agriculture. The thematic reach of this framework includes agriculture, livestock, fisheries, climate change, health and nutrition, environment, and natural resource management. By leveraging a gender and food-systems framework that deconstructs food-systems functions, and how they impact women and men differently, the framework offers structured guidance for incorporating gender-related considerations within policy documents relating to food systems. The framework also has implications for participatory policy processes—design, implementation and monitoring—that aim to foster gender-equitable benefits from food-systems interventions.
Patterns of systemic problems in Ghana's poultry value chain: A group model building approach
(Journal Article, 2025-04-01) Aboah, Joshua; Enahoro, Dolapo K.; Mensah, Charles; Agyemang, Nana Adwoa; Kondo, E.; Ayertey, D.
Ghana's poultry sector faces different interrelated systemic challenges, often diagnosed in isolation, leading to interventions that neglect unintended consequences across the value chain. Consequently, a holistic prognosis of the impact of these systemic problems that considers the different facets of the poultry industry is required. This paper aims to examine the system archetypes emerging from the inherent industry-level and farm-level problems in Ghana's poultry sector. Adopting a participatory group model building process, causal loop diagrams and feedback loop analyses were applied to understand the interacting factors in four systemic problems prioritised by stakeholders in Ghana's poultry value chain. Four causal loop diagrams were mapped for these systemic problems; (i) inadequate research funding (ii) low adherence to biosecurity measures at the farm level; (iii) lack of access to credit; and (iv) the competition from cheap imports of poultry meat products. The findings highlight three emerging problem archetypes. First, the underachievement archetype, specifically the limit to growth, emerges when technology adoption due to increased research funding interacts with the non-adherence to biosecurity measures as a cost-cutting strategy at the farm level. Second, the out-of-control archetype emerges when the misuse of antimicrobials due to the non-adherence of biosecurity measures interacts with the industry's collapse and the consequential surge in chicken imports into the country. Third, the relative achievement archetype emerges from the reinforcing feedback loop which centres around the surge in imported chicken as a response to looming food insecurity concerns arising from insufficient domestic supply. The “success to the successful” archetype is thus created, where importers in the poultry value chain become more prosperous at the expense of the entire industry. The paper presents solutions to the emerging problem archetypes, providing stakeholders with a chance to evaluate the unintended consequences of proposed government policies aimed at rejuvenating local poultry production.
Synopsis: The dynamic impact of alternative livestock sector interventions and spending options in Rwanda
(Brief, 2025-03-24) Aragie, Emerta A.; Bahta, Sirak T.; Baltenweck, Isabelle; Enahoro, Dolapo K.; Karugia, Joseph T.; Thurlow, James; Warner, James
This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of various livestock interventions—feed, breeding, and health—and budget allocation strategies (balanced, feed-oriented, breeding-oriented, and health oriented) in the context of Rwanda’s economic and livestock systems. Using an economic and livestock systems integrated framework, the research highlights moderate yet sustained impacts on agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and significant improvements in the livestock sector. Breeding interventions have the largest cumulative effect on agricultural GDP, while health measures, particularly dewormers, yield long-term gains in livestock productivity. Under the balanced scenario, breeding contributes significantly to both meat and milk sector GDP, while feed interventions show a smaller impact overall. The model estimates the economic and livestock systems over a period of five years (t1-t5) from a base year at t0, which corresponds to the Fifth Structural Transformation in Agriculture (PSTA5) period.
Inclusive and gender-transformative seed systems: Concepts and applications
(Journal Article, 2025-05) Galiè, Alessandra; Kramer, Berber; Spielman, David J.; Kawarazuka, Nozomi; Rietveld, Anne M.; Aju, Stellamaris
CONTEXT Seed is vital to the nutrition and livelihoods of millions of women and men small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Seed systems interventions can significantly enhance food security and nutrition by accelerating the adoption of improved varieties and the use of quality seed, which in turn increase the rate of genetic gain, productivity, and household welfare. These interventions can be particularly effective when advancing gender equality by supporting women's empowerment and addressing discriminatory gender norms. However, there is relatively little evidence on the ways in which seed systems can be an entry point for advancing gender equality by transforming discriminatory gender norms. OBJECTIVES We develop and illustrate a gender transformative approach applied to seed sector development. Our first objective is to provide a framework to better understand how seed systems interventions can contribute to gender equality by (1) integrating gender-accommodative and gender-transformative approaches; and (2) assessing their gendered impacts. Our second objective is to apply this framework to a particular innovation – gender messaging via information and communications technologies (ICTs) – and explore how seed system interventions can be made more gender-transformative. METHODS We first reviewed the existing literature to develop a framework that defines gender-transformative and accommodative seed system interventions and their impacts. We then synthesized lessons learned from the application of this framework to case studies from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda that used ICTs that contained gendered components. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION We discuss how a gender-accommodative approach aims for gender considerations to improve seed systems, while a gender-transformative approach flips the goal around by aiming at progress toward gender equality through seed systems. We find growing evidence on the potential of gender-transformative seed systems interventions to influence positively the empowerment of women and also men, and to create more conducive gender norms, as shown by three case studies on ICT enablers. These case studies also show that accommodative and transformative approaches are often complementary. SIGNIFICANCE We introduce research questions that research and development practitioners can ask to develop accommodative or transformative approaches in seed system interventions, and show the potential of both approaches to progress toward gender equality. The case studies indicate the feasibility of gender-transformative, ICT-enabled seed system interventions, with clear indications of the potential for low-cost adaptation at scale. However, the transformative potential of these interventions requires careful consideration of messaging content, format, and context, as well as strategic public investment and strong political will.
Information flows within farmer networks and the implications for farmer-to-farmer extension: evidence from the Kenyan dairy sector
(Journal Article, 2025-02-11) Morrison, Rosie; Cassar, Xandru G.G.N.A.; Duncan, Alan J.; Rao, E.J.O.; Barnes, Andrew P.
Purpose This article analyses the information flows within farmer networks to understand how farmer-to-farmer extension strategies can be made more effective. Design/methodology/approach Sociograms are used alongside regressions to provide a novel insight into information flows and power dynamics within dairy farmer networks. Primary survey data from four farmer networks (n = 255) collected through a method of snowball sampling in western Kenya in 2022 is analysed. Findings The findings show that farmer networks are heterogenous and have varying levels and types of social capital which impacts how information is shared. Certain individuals within the networks are well positioned to transfer information to other network members and therefore may make effective lead farmers. These individuals tend to be market-orientated and male. Practical implications The results of this study highlight that training a lead farmer to spread information and awareness of agricultural technologies may not always be effective due to low social capital. Therefore, whilst farmer-to-farmer extension may be a low-cost alternative to traditional extension services, policy makers should also consider implementing interventions that focus on increasing the social capital base of farmers. Theoretical implications This study increases our knowledge of how agricultural innovations diffuse through networks. This contributes to our wider understanding of how innovation systems work providing greater insight in the role of farmers as agents of change. Originality/value This study offers insight into how farmer network structures can differ depending on context and how this influences knowledge diffusion. It also offers a unique insight into the characteristics of farmers who may make ideal ‘lead farmers’ for knowledge exchange due to the position they occupy within their networks. KEYWORDS: Farmer interactions extension social networks Kenya
Protocol: Food environment, food choice, diets, and nutrition outcomes of pastoralists in Africa: Scoping review protocol
(Journal Article, 2025-03) Omosa, Esther; Cattaneo, Francoise; Kibbee, Matthew; Dominguez-Salas, Paula; Bishop, Natasha; Brouwer, Inge D.
This is the protocol for a Campbell scoping review. The objectives are as follows: (i) To define and characterize the food environment of pastoralists in Africa; (ii) To identify the domains of the food environment that have been studied in pastoralist settings in Africa; (iii) To assess the relationship between the food environment and food choice, dietary intake, and nutrition outcomes among pastoralists in Africa; and (iv) To map the study designs, methods, and geographical coverage of the studies.
A review of approaches to the integration of humanitarian and development aid: the case of drought management in the Horn of Africa
(Journal Article, 2025-01-24) Mohamed, Tahira Shariff; Crane, Todd A.; Derbyshire, Samuel F.; Roba, Guyo Malicha
Whether and how to link humanitarian assistance and long-term development aid are questions that have underlain polarized debates in policy, practical, and theoretical spaces over recent years. This is due in large part to the diversity of actors, institutional mandates, funding sources, programmes (themselves always changing), and operational dynamics that exist between the two domains. In pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa, which experience recurrent drought emergencies, integrating the two forms of assistance has been attempted in several instances, which have often been disjointed and have sought to grapple with an unpredictable terrain of shifting policies and program designs. Such challenges have been further compounded by a substantial disconnect between programming (across humanitarian aid and resilience building) and existing pastoralist practices and strategies comprising local social safety nets. Using a comprehensive literature review, this paper explores some of the practical strategies that have been implemented to integrate these two forms of assistance over recent years. It surveys implications that arise in relation to the question of how best to address persistent drought in the Horn of Africa. Interrogating mechanisms for enhancing aid efficiency and effectiveness including crisis modifiers and contingency planning, the paper examines what progress has been made in transitioning from reactive, short-term emergency response to long-term development and what barriers still exist. It also considers Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR), a modality envisaged by many as a bridge for enhancing local ownership and thus sustainability of both kinds of intervention. In doing so, the paper argues that despite multiple policy shifts and the adoption of new frameworks (including, recently, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development's Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative - IDDRSI), when it comes to practical implementation, there has been little progress. We suggest that this is due in part to the well documented complexity of the aid system, and the forms of bureaucracy and upward accountability that make change extremely difficult, and in part to a lack of meaningful community participation in planning and practice.
Early warning systems save lives but more funding is critical
(Opinion Piece, 2025-01-21) Roba, Guyo Malicha

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