Innovative and inclusive approaches to global livestock development

1. Innovative and inclusive approaches to global livestock development IFAD Workshop on ‘Communities of Practice forpro-poor livestock and fisheries/aquaculture development’ Dr Wyn Richards, NRInternational Ltd

2. Returns on investment in agricultural research Generally accepted that the investments made in publicly-funded agric research have not had the expected benefits on the livelihoods of resource-poor farming communities in the developing world. Fundamental reasons due to: lack of donor coordination; unrealistic expectations from research; variance and short-termism of political targets and ARD policies; inflexible bureaucratic agendas; minimal resources to market research knowledge; redundant or inappropriate research into use processes; narrow sectoral approaches.

3. 1. Donor COPs Eg. the Inter-Agency Donor Group formed in 2000 – an informal COP Principal purpose of this informal group was to foster greater collaboration, coordination and communication between the public and private sector donor agencies involved in commissioning livestock research directed at poverty alleviation and the attainment of the MDGs.

4. IADG Mission Statement promotes innovative • The Inter - Agency Donor Group (IADG) and collaborative approaches to pro - poor livestock research in the developing world, in the fields of public health , animal health and animal production. encourages active collaboration • The IADG to generate and promote new technologies, policies and information through demand - driven research and development with poor farmers in developing countries. It does this through research and development partnerships involving public and private sector organisations, and civil society. facilitate a common response by its • The Group aims to members to research proposals emanating from implementing agencies and other stakeholders.

5. The story so far …. • 9 IADG meetings since 2000 held in P+P donor establishments in the UK(2), Denmark(2), Italy(1), Switzerland(1), Germany(1), France(2); the 10th due to be held in Belgium in May 2009 • Average attendance of 20 donors (public:private - 4:1) and ca 10-15 invited organisations/experts from IARCs and the private sector • Activities, agreed actions, outputs and outcomes are pasted on the Inter-Agency website http://lri.virtual.org

6. Successes and Missed Opportunities Successes: - increased sharing of knowledge and experiences on livestock research for development • increased information/awareness about on-going public and private donor activities • promoted trust (and friendship) between donor representatives, • increased levels of knowledge on current livestock development issues and research developments • shared potential collaborative opportunities.

7. Further Successes The IADG has: • Collated/published information on the research activities of • the global donor organisations (public and private) in the • livestock sector • Identified the priority livestock ‘disease’ conditions of • relevance to the poor; • Mapped global livestock density and poverty; • Predicted the influence of livestock on/by climate change; • Developed a public/private initiative on global animal • livestock vaccines (GalvMed) funded by DFID/Gates • Foundation;

8. Other Successes • Facilitated knowledge and information on priority • livestock development issues and the activities of the donor community • Fostered a greater level of collaboration at the • programme and project level and in sharing • knowledge, databases and lessons learned. • Facilitated a strong feeling of a community of • practice between donors and with major R+D • partners – CG,UN, AU-CAADP, IBAR etc • .

9. Missed opportunities • We have not been so successful in harnessing the corporate potential of the donors in addressing and implementing initiatives on priority issues, neither in animal health nor in livestock husbandry issues and policy change. This remains an opportunity and a challenge which needs to be addressed. • The reasons for this are many and varied but include: - the short-termism of the majority of research initiatives often dictated by political rather than development agendas; -the dominant political will and narrow interests of donors based on geo-political, thematic, economic, philosophical, trade, historical etc; and - the bureaucratic/administrative difficulties associated with multi-donor funding

10. 2. Lack of investment in marketing Marked differences between public and private sector approaches Need a new COP in livestock Res for Dev to market research findings: need adequate funding and professional resources and approach Need to accept information as a valuable and marketable commodity which is required by and customised for inclusive chains/networks of institutions involved in agriculture – not solely the farmer

11. 3. Redundant/inappropriate processes for getting research into use Traditional linear vs inclusive (many to many)approaches to extension Investment in generating RNRRS products Investment and skills associated with riu RIU Hypothesis In-country activities Lessons learned to date