Who we are

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality science and capacity-building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development for poor livestock keepers and their communities. ILRI works in the tropical developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, with offices in East and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, China and Central America, and projects in Southern Africa, North Africa and the Middle East.

ILRI is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organisation with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We employ over 700 staff from about 40 countries. About 80 staff are recruited through international competitions and represent some 30 disciplines. Around 600 staff are nationally recruited, largely from Kenya and Ethiopia.

All ILRI work is conducted in extensive and strategic partnerships that facilitate and add value to the contribution of many other players in livestock for development work. ILRI is adopting an innovative systems approach as a powerful tool to enhance the effectiveness of its research in contributing to actual innovations reaching the poor. This approach leads to the acknowledgement of the key roles of diverse and powerful partnerships with a range of stakeholders involved in the research development continuum. A fundamental change in culture and process is envisaged to support innovations at all levels, from individual livestock keepers to national and international decision makers.

WHY LIVESTOCK RESEARCH FOR THE POOR?

Farm animals are a vital natural resource throughout the developing world and a means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty. Livestock in developing countries contribute up to 80 percent of agricultural GDP; 600 million rural poor people rely on livestock for their livelihoods. Globally, livestock are becoming agriculture's most economically important sub-sector, with demand in developing countries for animal foods projected to double over the next 20 years. Livestock not only provide poor people with food, income, traction and fertiliser but also act as catalysts that transform subsistence farming into income-generating enterprises, allowing poor households to join the market economy.

Holding back livestock development in poor countries are inappropriate policies, scarce livestock feeds, devastating diseases, degraded lands and water resources, and poor access to markets. Research by ILRI and its partners is helping to alleviate these problems by developing with partners new technological and policy options.

POVERTY FOCUS

ILRI's strategy places poverty at the centre of an output-oriented agenda. The strategy focuses on three livestock-mediated pathways out of poverty: (1) maintaining assets, (2) increasing productivity and (3) enhancing market access. ILRI's research portfolio comprises the following five themes.

Three of ILRI's five cross-cutting themes (middle row) address the severe constraints to livestock production in poor countries, including poor access to markets, underutilised biotechnology and genetic resources,and insufficient integration of natural resources. Two themes are over-arching. Targeting Opportunities pinpoints where and what livestock research has the greatest impacts on the poor.Enabling Innovation determines the participatory means for both creating research products and getting them into the hands of those that need them most.

Theme 1: Targeting opportunities

Anticipating how livestock systems will evolve and where, when and how livestock-related policy and technological interventions can best alleviate poverty, sustain rural livelihoods and protect the environment.

Theme 2: Enabling innovation

Understanding mechanisms that make research more effective and efficient, knowledge more contagious, processes more inclusive and outcomes more in favour of livestock-dependent poor people.

Theme 3: Market opportunities

Bringing together their policy and technical capacities from macro- to micro-levels, ILRI and it's sister institute,the International Food Policy Research Institute,have developed a joint programme to improve the market success of poor livestock keepers.

Theme 4: Biotechnology

Developing and applying technologies that allow poor livestock keepers to secure their livestock assets through the development and application of biotechnology.

Theme 5: People, livestock and the environment

Enhancing the role livestock play in the sustainable livelihoods of poor households, in particular managing natural resources and human health.

GOVERNANCE

ILRI is guided by a cross-disciplinary board of trustees comprising 12 leading international professionals in livestock research and development. The Institute belongs to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). This association of more than 60 governments and public- and private-sector institutions supports a network of 15 Future Harvest agricultural research Centres working to reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation in developing countries. The co-sponsors of the CGIAR are the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

FUNDING

ILRI is funded by more than 60 private, public and government organisations of the North and South. The Institute's expenditure for 2003 was US$30.2 million. Some donors support ILRI with core and programme funds whereas other finance individual research projects. In-kind support from national partners such as Kenya, Ethiopia and the Philippines, as well as that from international collaborators, is substantial and vital. This mix of generic, specific and in-kind resources is essential for the partnership research we conduct.