Case Studies

Pro-poor livestock policy and institutional change

Searching for a new approach to livestock policy and institutional change to improve the
livelihoods of poor livestock keepers has been the focus of a DFID-funded initiative,
which was reviewed at a recent meeting at FAO in Rome.

Launched in 2001, with funding from DFID, the rationale for the Pro-Poor Livestock
Policy Initiative (PPLPI)’s focus derived from the experience that technology-oriented
livestock projects had failed to deliver significant improvements in the livelihoods of the
poor. "At the time, DFID was looking to have a more sustainable, widespread impact on
poverty and ways in which this could be achieved," explained Peter Bazeley, previously
with DFID’s Livestock Advisory Group.

The nature of livestock farming, however, is generally determined by policy and

institutional frameworks that are rarely pro-poor and may even encourage forms of
production that threaten long-term environmental stability and public health. While
technology-oriented projects in the sector had largely failed, developing an enabling
institutional and policy environment held out potential to enhance impact on the poor.

Potential benefits

Working to achieve pro-poor policy and institutional change has taken PPLPI across
three continents. Some of the outcomes highlighted at the FAO meeting included:

• Southern India: PPLPI was part of a collaborative donor effort to reform animal
health services. The result of the bottom-up consultation process has been the
ratification of the 2007 Minor Veterinary Services Act of Andhra Pradesh, which
could benefit six million households dependent on livestock.
• Peru: PPLPI was instrumental in managing conflicting interests and building
consensus in the camelid sector, to secure the livelihoods of poor alpaca
producers and the fibre sector’s international market share, which were under
threat as a result of declining fibre quality. The adoption in 2007 of a national
strategy for the camelid sector ensures international competitiveness, and has
increased income opportunities for over 150,000 alpaqueros.
• West Africa: PPLPI was a key partner in a regional policy process to harmonise
the animal health and food safety regulations across eight countries. The 2007
 UEMOA Regulation on food safety and animal health will help an estimated 20
million poor livestock keepers to access growing urban markets in the region.

In its work, PPLPI has acted as a neutral facilitator, helping to bring together a wide
range of stakeholders, fill knowledge gaps and manage conflicting interests. It has
learned from experiences of other stakeholders within and outside the country and
ensured that the interests of poorer segments of society have been taken into account.

Continuing the search…

The recent meeting began and ended with Professor William Easterly, a former World
Bank economist and author of The White Man’s Burden. Easterly is a renowned critic of
the lack of impact of the US$2.3 trillion spent on foreign aid over the last 50 years,
particularly on agriculture and alleviating poverty in Africa. He attributes this poor record
mainly to "planners", who see poverty as a technical engineering problem, and apply
blueprints to determine what to supply.

In the recent independent external evaluation of FAO, PPLPI’s work on policies with
respect to the poor was acknowledged to have "influenced global thinking in these areas."
At the end of the meeting, Easterly acknowledged that that PPLPI appears to have found
a more constructive way to facilitate pro-poor policy and institutional change. In his
concluding remarks, Easterly recommended that a further rigorous and independent
evaluation be conducted to confirm the success of PPLPI and, once validated, that FAO
should initiate more work of this type.

• PPLPI website
• Article in New Agriculturist: Searching for a new approach: pro-poor livestock
and institutional change
• Project record on R4D: FAO Pro-poor Livestock Policy Facility (PPLPF):
Fostering the Policy Dialogue in Support of Equitable Safe and Clean Livestock
Farming

Video case studies

• A Living from Livestock - Peru (English)

• A Living from Livestock - Peru (Spanish)
• A Living from Livestock - India (English)
• A Living from Livestock - West Africa, Burkina Faso (English)
• A Living from Livestock - West Africa, Burkina Faso (French)

Source: WRENmedia
Web Link: http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/pplpi/home.html
Categories: Social and Political Change, Sustainable Agriculture
Date Added: 14 May 2008
Accessibility