Enhancing women’s access and ownership of livestock

 In many developing countries, women provide much of the labour for livestock tasks. Yet their role in livestock production has been undervalued by policymakers and research on this issue widely ignored.

In many countries, women are often deniedownership rights for large stock (cattle, camels, horses), but ‘allowed’ tokeep small stock (sheep, goats, rabbits, poultry). Reasons include:

• Livestock ownership patternsare linked to social class, religious systems and paternalistic cultures – thismeans women have weaker ownership rights than men, especially in times ofstress.
• The migration of men to findseasonal work makes it harder for women in their households to use land oraccess credit and technical inputs for livestock production.

There are examples of women becomingempowered in livestock production. The HillsLeasehold Forestry and Forage Development Project in Nepal, which leased degraded forest for livestock foodproduction, managed to improve women’s bargaining power within communities andgovernment institutions. Local women doing extension work, and their supporterswithin the Department of Forests, were able to change male foresters’ attitudesabout women’s capacities in livestock production and roles as communityleaders.

Further actions canenhance women’s roles in livestock production:

• More female extension agents mustbe trained, requiring an end to restrictive college entrance and employmentprocedures.
• People designing new livestock technologiesmust consider the potential impact on women’s status and economic control ofresources. Until women have stronger ownership rights to larger stock, developmentswith small stock have the most potential; bee and silkworm-keeping are also potentiallylucrative.

More widely, developmentplanners and livestock officers must change their thinking and do more tosupport women in livestock production, for example working more with women’sorganisations and making capital available to women for income-generating activities.