How ILRI and its partners can help reduce poverty

To reduce poverty levels around the globe is a goal that many share. ILRI is just one of a multitude in this complex process, so if it is to be effective, it must focus on contributions in which it can play a valuable role and in which through effective partnerships it can have significant impact. Presently, based on researchers’ estimates, ILRI expends approximately half of its resources on mixed crop–livestock systems, 19% on rangelands, 13% on peri-urban and the landless, and 19% on research cutting across all systems. In terms of the poverty reduction pathways, it estimates that some 42% goes towards securing assets, 45% towards enhancing productivity, and 13% towards improving market opportunities. With regard to type of research, some 20% of funds is estimated to be expended on promoting adoption of new technologies, 41% on improvement of tools and strategies for their delivery and adoption, and 39% on new research. From a regional perspective, it is estimated that 72% of funds have been directed at sub-Saharan Africa, 24% at Asia and 4% at other regions. As far as livestock species are concerned, about 82% of ILRI’s research is directed at cattle and 18% at other species.

Given recent and continuing changes in the external environment, increases in our understanding of poverty, the need to respond to new partnership and funding opportunities, as well as new developments in science, ILRI envisages various shifts in the current research profile over the next decade, which will influence its agenda:

  • The increasing demand for livestock products in developing countries projected to 2020 and beyond and the shifts of human populations to urban centres suggest that more attention should be paid to involving the poor more in all levels of markets. A shift in ILRI’s portfolio of research is therefore proposed to increase market-oriented activities.
  • Similarly, a shift in types of research is proposed that will significantly increase the proportion of ILRI’s activities that promote innovations directly affecting the lives of poor people. ILRI will work with appropriate partners to demonstrate real and lasting impact at all levels, including household, institutional and policy.
  • ILRI and its partners need to maintain strength in the mixed crop–livestock systems, in which the majority of poor livestock keepers engage, and in generic research to develop international public goods, since this is one of ILRI’s collaborative advantages. For the future, a shift to greater work with peri-urban and landless systems is proposed, in view of predicted increases in demand for livestock products. At the same time, given the almost complete dependence on livestock of pastoralist peoples, their tendency to be marginalised, their vulnerability, and the dearth of alternative research institutes working in this sector, efforts will continue on rangeland systems, particularly those in Africa.

Geographical focus of ILRI’s research

Issues that reduce poverty by using livestock and their products, not geography, drive ILRI’s research. Where the weight of poverty bears most heavily will influence ILRI’s geographical focus. Few may dispute this simple statement. But two key questions arise: How is the distribution of poverty being measured? And, should we be measuring the distribution of poverty, or rather the distribution of research opportunities to reduce it, or the effects of research products? While the first question has been the subject of recent studies by ILRI, we do not currently hold the answers to the second, but this will become an important component of future ILRI research.

Recently ILRI mapped poverty,1 by region and production system. South Asia emerged as the most important region of the world, with 57% of the world’s poor that are associated with livestock living there (compared with 37% in sub-Saharan Africa). However, with the rate of growth of poverty as an indicator, sub-Saharan Africa emerges as the most important region, with a 3% growth rate, compared with 1% in South Asia.2 ILRI currently directs 72% of its effort towards sub-Saharan Africa and just 24% at Asia, the majority of which is currently in South-East Asia.

    1. Thornton P.K., Kruska R.L., Henninger N., Kristjanson P.M., Reid R.S., Atieno F., Odero A. and Ndegwa T. 2002. Mapping poverty and livestock in developing countries. ILRI, (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. 132 pp.; also CD-ROM.

    2. World Bank. 2001. World development report 2000/2001: Attacking poverty. Oxford University Press, New York, USA. 135 pp.

But what about other regions of the world, such as Central America, East Asia and Central Asia, where poverty is also important? While ILRI is making its geographical focus on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia quite clear, the international public goods it is developing with its partners will have wider application, and with appropriate resources and partners, these should be put to the test in other regions of the developing world.
  • Given sub-Saharan Africa’s high, increasing rate of poverty, ILRI proposes to maintain more than two-thirds of its research effort there. Much of ILRI’s current research in Asia is in South-East Asia. An increasing focus on activities in South Asia is proposed, where there are large numbers of poor livestock keepers (more than a third of all poor livestock keepers are located in South Asia), and where there are potential niches for ILRI’s research activities.
  • As many of the poor do not keep cattle, research is therefore proposed to cover a wider range of appropriate species.

Livestock species in poverty-focused research

Research on ruminants, in particular cattle, is ILRI’s historical strength. Cattle are vitally important to the livelihoods of the poor in many regions of the developing world, and constraints to their feeding, management, health and breeding have been the focus of much effort by ILRI and its partners in the past. However, many other species of livestock are also important to the poor. The importance of different species varies by region and production system. Many of the poor have no livestock at all. Those who own livestock usually keep more than one species, taking advantage of the different, often complementary roles each species can play, as well as spreading their risk. Furthermore, each species serves multiple roles. ILRI currently expends over 80% of its resources at research targeted at cattle and less than 20% at other species. With a greater focus on poverty reduction, this proportion will almost certainly change.