Digital Services for Livestock Methane Management Solutions Group

Reducing methane emissions from livestock is essential for addressing climate change. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this challenge is compounded by the need to increase productivity and ensure food security. Digital services can support farmers by improving access to information, enabling practices that reduce methane while improving productivity, and strengthening resilience. However, adoption in many countries remains limited or fragmented, due to policy gaps, low investment, and a lack of coordination among stakeholders. 

To address these barriers, Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) has convened a multi-disciplinary Solutions Group in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and with support from GIZ, the German Development Agency. The goal is to develop an Investment Roadmap to guide governments and international financial institutions (IFIs) in scaling digital innovations that support methane abatement and mitigation in the livestock sector. 

The group will:

• Explore key barriers and opportunities related to adoption, financing, and institutional integration.
• Identify strategies to promote more investment and develop appropriate policies.
• Synthesize insights, evidence, and recommendations into a clear, action-oriented Investment Roadmap to guide governments and international financial institutions in decision making.

The Roadmap will provide tailored guidance for governments and international financial institutions (IFIs), focusing on:

• Overcoming barriers to investment and uptake of digital tools.
• Incorporating digital innovations into national livestock development plans and climate policies.
• Strengthening linkages between digital tools and greenhouse gas (GHG) assessments, including their role in Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) frameworks.

Solutions groups are a new collaboration platform bringing together decision makers and experts from the LD4D network. Solutions Groups work on a specific data challenge and together produce a tailored data tool or knowledge product that can support decision making. These groups are designed to deliver measurable outputs within 6-12 months.

We have created Solutions Groups to address the gaps between data producers and decision makers. Available livestock data does not always address decision making needs. Our motivation is to promote ongoing dialogue and collaboration between LD4D members and decision makers. We want to harness the wide range of expertise we have in the network to try to bridge the gap between data and decisions.

The first LD4D Solutions Group was launched in 2024, focused on Livestock and Climate Finance. In developing this new model for collaboration focused on decision maker needs, we will measure its impacts and generate learning to inform similar work in other contexts and scale up.

To learn more about the Solutions Group, please contact LD4D.

If you are interested in supporting our work and exploring partnership opportunities, please visit livestockdata.org/partnership.