Tracking Evidence and Informing Policy to Rebuild Livestock-Based Livelihoods and Empower Women in Conflict Affected Areas of Ethiopia

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.

Read entire post on IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Program microsite

Author:

Zelalem G. Terfa, Gender Quantitative Scientist, ILRI

This work is part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS). CGIAR launched NPS with national and international partners to build policy coherence, respond to policy demands and crises, and integrate policy tools at national and subnational levels in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CGIAR centers participating in NPS are The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Potato Center (CIP), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and WorldFish. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.