CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies’ (NPS) - Seminar.
Zelalem G. Terfa, Gender Quantitative Scientist, ILRI
Over the past few years Ethiopia experienced conflicts and war resulting in displacement of millions of people and destroying social fabrics. Coupled with drought and locust, the conflicts destroyed livelihoods of farmers in war torn regions. Protracted conflicts also exacerbate gender inequalities and vulnerability of those population relying on agriculture for their livelihoods. Post-conflict, women continue to bear the brunt of the war due to destroyed livelihoods, trauma of rape, and the responsibility to feed the family. Therefore, livelihood rehabilitation efforts need to target women to make meaningful impact.
Post-conflict livelihoods rehabilitation programmes often target providing livestock and agricultural inputs. Livestock is a key farm enterprise to address women’s socioeconomic challenges. Livestock have strong women empowerment potential because livestock can be controlled by women more easily than other assets. Livestock also provide daily protein-rich foods for home consumption and hence enables women to secure household nutrition. Realizing the potential of livestock for post conflict livelihoods recovery and women’s empowerment requires developing policies and effective strategic actions.
Conversations and understanding among stakeholders and policy makers is vital to develop effective strategic actions necessary to rebuild livestock-based livelihoods and to support women’s empowerment. Particularly, it is important to understand the gendered constraint and opportunities in livestock systems, and the gender dynamics that affect livestock management during conflict, shocks, and post-conflicts in Ethiopia.
On December 19, 2023, the National Policies and Strategies (NPS) initiative of the CGIAR organized a seminar, “Tracking Evidence and Informing Policy to Rebuild Livestock-Based Livelihoods and Empower Women in Conflict Affected Areas of Ethiopia”. The seminar was organized at ILRI- Addis Ababa, to foster discussions on evidence-based policies to rebuild equitable livestock-based livelihoods in conflict-affected areas of Ethiopia. The event was jointly organized together with the launching of national dairy development strategy of Ethiopia. The seminar took place prior to the launching event and attracted interesting discussions. The seminar brought together key stakeholders including Ministry of Agriculture, the agricultural research bodies, regional government bodies, the Agricultural Transformation Institute, and Ministry of Planning and Development. Scientists from ILRI, IFPRI and hosted institutes also participated in the seminar. Participants and presenters from ILRI-Kenya joined the seminar online.
In his opening remark HE Dr. Fikru Regassa, State Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, highlighted the untapped livestock potential for livestock-based livelihoods recovery and women’s empowerment in conflict and drought affected areas of the country. He emphasised the benefit and complementarity between the national dairy development strategy and livestock-based livelihoods recovery in the opening remark. Insightful presentations and discussion were made during the seminar. Major topics of presentations include agricultural policy of Ethiopia, CGIAR activities and achievements is Ethiopia, overview of shocks and impacts in Ethiopia, the NPS activities in Ethiopia, and gender analysis tools for equitable livestock-based livelihoods recovery in the country.
Presentation from Dr. Anteneh Girma of ATI “Overview of the new rural and agricultural development policy” was important to understand government policies and priorities in the coming years. Dr. Anteneh Girma highlighted the focus on livestock subsector in the new policy. Presentation by Dr Namukolo Covic of ILRI/CGIAR “CGIAR activities in Ethiopia and achievements so far” focused on CGIAR research activities in Ethiopia targeting the five impact areas and highlighted CGIAR innovations to support improve agricultural productivity in Ethiopia. Following these two presentations, participants discussed alignment of CGIAR activities and government policies in Ethiopia. Particularly, participants from government bodies appreciated and encouraged continued close collaboration between ILRI/CGIAR and government ministries.
Dr. Alemayehu Seyoum Tafesse of IFPRI highlighted the overall context in Ethiopia focusing on conflict and shocks in Ethiopia. In the presentation he showed historical shocks in the country and impacts on the economy. He emphasised the need to capture data on recent shocks and impacts to support evidence-based policies towards recovery and rehabilitation. The National Policies and Strategies (NPS) initiative of CGIAR and the livestock-gender focussed study in Ethiopia was introduced to the stakeholders by Zelalem Terfa of ILRI. In his presentation, Zelalem highlighted the NPS initiative activities to support effective policy making across countries, including Ethiopia. Towards effective policy making support of NPS initiative, Zelalem emphasised the need for tracking evidence and informing Policy to rebuild equitable livestock-based livelihoods in conflict affected areas of Ethiopia. Update information on the ongoing household, at national level, survey in Ethiopia to collect data on agriculture/livestock and gender, consumption/expenditure, agriculture activities, and health related topics was also shared with stakeholders.
Dr. Alessandra Galiè and Dr. Immaculate Omondi presented on the topic “Gender analysis tools: Informing policy for equitable livelihood reconstruction”. Their presentation aimed at introducing gender analysis tools, developed by CGIAR researchers, to policy makers and national researchers to guide agricultural policies. The concept of women’s empowerment was presented and the need to support women to achieve equitable livestock-based livelihoods rehabilitation was emphasized. “We need livestock interventions that intentionally support the empowerment of women… empowerment does not just happen, disadvantage does not go away by itself, benefits of interventions do not just trickle down to everyone” said Dr. Alessandra Galiè, Gender team leader at ILRI. It was also indicated that intentionally supporting women’s empowerment requires evidence and tools to guide policy. The gender analysis tool, helpful to prioritize and target interventions to empower women, was highlighted by Dr. Immaculate Omondi. More specifically, Dr. Omondi highlighted on the women empowerment index in livestock (WELI), including findings from previous studies and emphasised on the importance of leveraging WELI evidence to support equitable livestock-based livelihoods development policies.