Livestock Services and the Poor: A global initiative - IFAD

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26 LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR HIV/AIDS increases the poverty and vulnerability of poor households Women can lose strategic roles When livestock production becomes more commercial, gender roles can change, and women can lose control of the income generated through livestock that they may have previously controlled. In the worst cases, women are transformed from producers to labourers in commodity production (Box 1.4). Box 1.4: Nandi people of Kenya Among the Nandi people, cattle form part of traditional household property. Traditionally, men inherited and controlled livestock. Women gained access to livestock products through their position as household managers and their obligation to provide food. When married, a woman would have cattle assigned to her house to provide milk for her and her children. Men could not dispose of these cattle. Men and boys would receive the morning milk, and women and girls the evening milk. With the increasing commercialization of dairy production, the large herds of Zebu cattle are being replaced by a smaller number of cross-bred cattle. These are usually purchased with the husband’s money and are therefore considered his property. Women’s rights to the milk from specific cattle are gradually disappearing. Because the morning milk is now often sold, the entire household consumption must be covered by the evening milk. Huss-Ashmore (1996). Livestock and AIDS The HIV/AIDS pandemic has strong implications for livestock production because it increases the poverty and vulnerability among poor livestock keepers. Nonetheless, livestock production represents, at the same time, a means for the affected households to deal with the crisis. It is therefore essential that development programmes within the livestock sector address the specific needs of poor AIDS-afflicted households. AIDS is a reality and a major threat in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is leading to a huge rise in poverty, and is becoming very important in Asia and Latin America. Over time, HIV/AIDS
CHAPTER 1: POOR LIVESTOCK KEEPERS changes, amplifies and deepens the way poverty is manifested. Yet, almost all features of poverty promote the vulnerability to infection and aggravate the impact of AIDS (Topouzis and du Guerny, 1999). In rural areas affected by AIDS, households lose labour time in agricultural activities. In Ethiopia, labour losses have thus reduced the time spent on agriculture from 33.6 hours to between 11.6 and 16.4 hours per week in AIDS-affected households (Loewenson and Whiteside, 2001). This leads to falling agricultural production, shrinking incomes and rising food insecurity. Households with sick members must meet the extra costs, such as the expenses for medical care, for special food for the sick and, eventually, for funeral and mourning ceremonies. These costs are often met by selling livestock. If a family member contracts the disease and dies, the spouse is also likely to be infected and will leave the household, which will now become a group of orphans and perhaps elders without the strength and skills to produce adequate food or earn income. Furthermore, traditional inheritance customs in many areas require that widows and orphans must give up assets such as housing, land, capital and livestock. Cattle and perhaps small livestock may be confiscated by other family members, thereby consigning the household to the poverty trap (Engh and du Guerny, 2000; Barnett, 1994). The ownership of livestock can reduce the vulnerability of the household to HIV/AIDS. Livestock can be used to generate a regular cash income, or it can be sold to cover the costs of medical care, funerals and so on (Barnett, 1994). Meanwhile, work oxen can reduce the labour needs in the fields, and families with oxen have the possibility to exchange oxen for labour in times of need. Small livestock play a particular role in households affected by HIV/AIDS. Women have, in many cases, more well established rights over small livestock such as poultry in the case of a husband’s death, sometimes even goats and sheep. Moreover, it often seems easier for women to manage small livestock in times of crisis when they lack land for grazing and labour for herding (Haslwimmer, 2001). There is a strong linkage between vulnerability to AIDS and gender inequity, according to several authors, for example, Orphans may lose assets like land, capital and livestock The ownership of livestock can reduce the vulnerability of the household to HIV/AIDS 27
Page 1 and 2: Nearly one billion livestock are ke
Page 3 and 4: © 2004 International Fund for Agri
Page 5 and 6: iv Figures Figure 1.1 The poverty c
Page 8 and 9: Foreword About 900 million of the w
Page 10 and 11: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report, prepa
Page 12 and 13: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The world communi
Page 14 and 15: E XECUTIVE SUMMARY HIV/AIDS AIDS-af
Page 16 and 17: E XECUTIVE SUMMARY delivery of serv
Page 18 and 19: E XECUTIVE SUMMARY access to credit
Page 21 and 22: INTRODUCTION The fight against pove
Page 23 and 24: INTRODUCTION identity. Livestock is
Page 25: INTRODUCTION adequate for livestock
Page 28 and 29: 8 LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR P
Page 30 and 31: 600 million poor livestock Keepers
Page 32 and 33: 12 LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR
Page 36 and 37: Livestock can help cement social ne
Page 48 and 49: 28 Enhancing gender equity may redu
Page 52 and 53: The poor should define their own ne
Page 60 and 61: 40 Inappropriate livestock producti
Page 66 and 67: The public sector must provide an e
Page 68 and 69: Decentralization brings decision-ma
Page 70 and 71: 50 The interests of NGOs are not th
Page 72 and 73: Alternative models linking local pa
Page 74 and 75: Dominated by government and NGOs Th
Page 76 and 77: Producer organizations can also aim
Page 78 and 79: 58 Supply public support through or
Page 82: 62 LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR
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Page 91 and 92: Box 3.2 shows five biases of livest
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CHAPTER 3: POVERTY FOCUS OF LIVESTO
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limited, and the dependency on purc
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Box 3.6: A rabbit project in Togo C
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Table 3.1: Primary features of two
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Box 3.14: Self-help groups in the I
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Box 3.16: Loans for women dairy soc
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RECOMMENDED ACTIONS The overall con
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Focus on Key Issues CHAPTER 4: RECO
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Recommendations CHAPTER 4: RECOMMEN
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The following are required for more
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CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDED ACTIONS Init
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126 LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR
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