Thread by @SusanMacMillan

Happening now:

@ILRI's Iain Wright is presenting:

'Future-proofing Africa’s livestock sector policies: lessons from African countries and the Covid-19 pandemic'

At a Malabo-Montpellier Panel Webinar
#WhyLivestockMatter

Wright reminds us that access to 'high-quality diets' is very difficult for poor people.

Women often control household diets—and raising and selling livestock and livestock products helps them to enhance their family's diets.

BUT bugs like livestock foods as much as most people do, so ensuring the safety of milk, meat and eggs is extremely important, especially in developing countries, where 80 of these foods are sold in 'informal markets' where infrastructure is rudimentary.

The topic of 'livestock and the environment' is the 'achilles' heel' of the livestock sector. But, says @ILRI's Iain Wright, there are huge opportunities to raise the efficiency and productivity of smallholder livestock systems throughout the developing world.

What about #COVID19? We looked at the impacts of the pandemic all along the livestock value chain in 5 counties of northern Kenya. There have been significant reduction in household incomes. Other studies in other regions show the same thing.

We must apply #OneHealth approaches to fight disease, says @ILRI's Iain Wright. To prevent the next pandemic, we need surveillance systems in animals as well as people. The earlier zoonotic pathogens are detected, the less costly zoonotic diseases will be.

@ILRI and @UNEP produced a seminal report last June that tellingly argued for enhancing human, animal (including livestock) and environment health together: hdl.handle.net/10568/108707

Despite all these reasons to invest significantly in livestock, few countries or organizations do this, even though livestock provide on average some 40% of agricultural GDP.

Livestock remain poorly represented in the CAADP processes. National 'livestock master plans' are being developed in Africa. These 5-year investment plans, based on quantitative models, should help redress this. ILRI had been working with countries to develop these plans.

Read more here: 'Meat, milk and more for Africa: Four countries with successful livestock policy innovations to emulate'
clippings.ilri.org/2020/07/17/mea…

Notes #1 of #2: The secretariat of the Malabo Montpellier Panel is hosted at a new organization, AKADEMIYA2063, which also manages the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), which supports implementation of CAADP.

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