In 2012 GALVmed commissioned a series of economic papers to address the question: Africa, economics, and poverty – what do livestock add and how can this contribution be improved? Four papers were produced by a team of experts from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, led by Jonathan Rushton:
- Is Africa different? Economics of the livestock sector
- Livestock and Gender: Achieving poverty alleviation and food security through livestock policies that benefit women
- Whatever happened to the pro-poor livestock development paradigm? Backcasting to a sustainable future for Africa’s livestock keepers
- Livestock – a fundamental component of African society and a potential route out of poverty
The aim of these papers is to address the links between Livestock and Livelihoods and to offer expert analysis that is accessible and useful to both policy makers and livestock sector partners alike. These documents also support The Impetus Strategy Paper which was produced under the auspices of the Livestock 2012 Strategic Advisory Committee and facilitated by GALVmed. We very much hope that readers will find benefit from the papers. We express our gratitude to Jonathan Rushton, the RVC team and all the other authors for their hard work and look forward to receiving feedback on the issues raised.