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Learning together: the gender and livestock data community of practice

Connect, share and learn to improve gender-sensitive data analysis

By Fiona Allan, Johanna Wong, Anni McLeod, Alessandra Galiè and Beth Miller

In recent years, livestock project funders have asked for more gender responsive programs to close gender data gaps, and private investors have shown cautious interest in how being gender responsive affects their business opportunities and corporate social responsibility commitments. But knowledge is limited on understanding the best universal and local indicators for success, and on measuring the effects of gender responsive interventions on households, communities and countries.

A Community of Practice

To respond to these gaps and demands, a Gender and Livestock Data community of practice (CoP) was established by the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) network, together with members of the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) gender team. The LD4D network, hosted by SEBI-Livestock, brings together a wide range of parties to collaborate on new and innovative livestock data solutions.

Established in March 2022, the Gender and Livestock Data CoP aims to improve understanding about collecting, analyzing and interpreting livestock and gender data. The CoP is exploring a diverse range of topics related to the planning, monitoring and assessment of gendered outcomes in livestock-related projects, such as the selection of indicators for use along livestock value chains, and the practical challenges in improving the granularity of gender-disaggregated data. Members have identified specific challenges of measuring benefits to, and the empowerment of, women, recognizing that simply recording their participation in project activities can be both limited and misleading. Members are eager to develop capacity to access and deploy the methods and tools available to promote gender equality, but find it difficult to know where to start.

CoP Membership

The CoP is open to anyone working on livestock development and gender, including animal health professionals and researchers, program directors, Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation experts, and anyone interested in making livestock development projects more gender equitable and impactful. The CoP provides a platform where members can connect and learn from shared experiences, both positive and negative, and discuss the topics that they want to learn about, via presentations and panel discussions on collecting, analysing and interpreting livestock and gender data.

Members are invited to join these informal and inclusive interactive discussion sessions every two months, hosted by livestock and gender experts Beth Miller (SEBI-Livestock) and Alessandra Galiè (ILRI). Members have direct input into the content of the CoP, as well as the more structured community conversation meetings hosted by LD4D.

Future Plans

At the wrap-up session for 2022, members were asked about the topics they would like to discuss that will inform content going forward. Topics we intend to discuss include steps for operationalizing gender, distinguishing between accommodative and transformative gender approaches, budgeting for gender in projects and engaging men in gender discussions. We are currently developing an online community platform as a place to connect and collaborate and a repository for resources on gender and livestock. The CoP will generate proposals for knowledge products that address specific decision-maker needs. In this case, members would form working groups to collaboratively develop such outputs.

Joining the CoP

If you wish to become a member, please contact Johanna.T.Wong@ed.ac.uk or Fiona.Allan@ed.ac.uk. Join us and connect with the community. We look forward to welcoming you!

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Header photo: G. Smith (ILRI) (source)