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 * SEPTEMBER 2010 PROPOSAL **

revised MARCH 2011 proposal is HERE


 * CGIAR RESEARCH PROGRAM 3.7 **
 * MORE MEAT, MILK AND FISH - BY AND FOR THE POOR **

In April 2010, four CGIAR Centers (ILRI, WorldFish, ICARDA, CIAT) were invited by the CGIAR Consortium Board to work together and prepare a concept note for a Mega Program with the goal of increasing the production of livestock and fish products for global food security. The concept note was approved by the Consortium Board in June, and the four Centers developed a full proposal in consultation with stakeholders. The final proposal was submitted on 17 September 2010.

Read the executive summary below / [|Download the full proposal]


 * More meat, milk and fish – by and for the poor**

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Consumption of adequate amounts of meat, milk and fish is a proven way of achieving nutritional security which enables children to develop normally and reach their ful potential as healthy, productive adults. However, productivity of these animal source foods in the poorest countries lags behind the rest of the world and consumption rates amogst the poor remain well below recommended levels. In many systems, opportunities for increased production and marketing of these commodities lie particularly with smallholder producers and othe small‐scale actors. This offers an opportunity for improved food security through better incomes and livelihood assets.

The vision of CRP3.7 is for the health, livelihoods and future prospects of the poor and vulnerable, especially women and children, to be transformed through consumption of adequate amounts of meat, milk and/or fish and from benefiting through improved livelihoods from participating in the associated animal source food value chains.

CRP3.7 aims to realize this vision by seizing upon an unprecedented opportunity to integrate and exploit three ongoing revolutins – the Livestock Revolution, the Blue Revolution and the Gene Revolution. It will do this by fostering partnerships that harness the respective strengths of research and development partners, including the private sector, and also other relevant CGIAR Research Programs. The Program will be led by ILRI working closely with CIAT, ICARDA and the WorldFish Center.

MP 3.7 is testing the hypothesis that increased access to animal source foods by the poor, especially women and children, can be achieved at scale by strengthening carefully selected meat, milk and fish value chains in which the poor can capture a significant share of the benefits. Technologies and lessons generated through this focused approach will be applicable in broader regional and global settings.

Vision This CGIAR Research Program’s vision is for the health, livelihoods and future prospects of the poor and vulnerable, especially women and children, to be transformed through consumption of adequate amounts of meat, milk and/or fish and from benefiting from the associated animal source food value chains.

Goal

The over‐arching goal of CRP3.7 is to increase productivity of small‐scale livestock and fish systems so as to increase availability and affordability of meat, milk and fish for poor consumers and, in doing so, to reduce poverty through greater participation by the poor along animal source food value chains.

This will be achieved by making a small number of carefully selected animal source food value chains function better, for example by identifying and addressing key constraints and opportunities (from production to consumption), improving institutional arrangements and capacities, and supporting the establishment of enabling pro‐poor policy and institutional environments.

Program objectives

The Program objectives that will contribute to the goal include to:

• increase sustainably the productivity of small‐scale livestock and fish production and marketing systems • increase access to affordable animal source foods to enhance food and nutrition security for the poor, especially women and children • enable participation in and access to pro‐poor and gender equitable production and marketing systems that promote uptake of productivity‐enhancing technologies and increase value generation, with emphasis on addressing current gender disparities • secure household and community livestock and fish assets for sustained livelihoods, and conserve livestock, fish and forage/fodder biodiversity as public good assets that will provide genetic diversity for continued growth and adaptation • protect the natural resource base and its ability to continue providing ecosystem services • strengthen capacity to enable public and private sector actors to support and exploit appropriate research and development effots for sustainable intensification of small‐scale livestock and fish production and marketing systems that provide equitable benefits to men and women •facilitate scaling up and out by undertaking research and emphasizing learning and its communication

At the core of CRP3.7 are a small number of carefully selected national meat, milk and fish value chains. This focus is made in order to effectively implement the Program’s innovative R4D approach and to maximize impact. The focus is on those value chains for which we judge there is a high potential for transformational improvement ‐ from the producer to the consumer. The criteria by which these value chains have been selected include:

a) Evidence of market opportunities for continued expansion of production, through growing demand for livestock and fish products b)Opportunities for smallholder producers to actively participate in those opportunities, especially women and vulnerable groups, either as producers or as other actors in the value chains c) Productivity gaps and identified supply constraints that research potentially offers solutions to overcome d)A supportive policy and infrastructure environment to facilitate uptake and scaling out e) Existing momentum and experience, including key research and development partners, that can enable outcomes and impacts to occur within a relatively short timeframe

Based on these criteria and the evidence available, the selected value chains and countries are:

• Small ruminant value chains in mixed crop‐livestock systems in Ethiopia and Mali • Tilapia and catfish aquaculture value chains in Uganda • Smallholder dairy value chains in India (selected states), Tanzania and Nicaragua/Honduras • Smallholder pig value chains in Uganda and Vietnam

The inclusion of multiple countries and regions, together with some common species of focus, will allow comparisons and cross‐system learning that will support the development of strategic lessons, methodologies and technologies of wide applicability, and the delivery of strong international public good knowledge outputs.

The program will have as its centre three Research Themes. These are organized so as to: a) provide significant critical mass and investment in generating improved productivity through technology development and adaptaion, in the main areas of feeding, breeding and animal health, b) ensuring that the technology development is driven by the real world context of agricultural value chains, and c) providing the cross‐cutting analysis of development process and outcomes to ensure that target beneficiaries benefit. These coherent research themes will also play a key role in generating the strategic and global public good outputs the lie atthe heart of the CGIAR’s comparative advantage, by working and employing harmonized approaches across the selected value chains and regions. The three themes are:

Theme One: Technology Development. This Theme is concerned with adaptation and generation of technologies to address priority constraints in the focal value chais, especially for feeds, genetics and health. Here a careful balance will be maintained between adaptive research to meet current pressing needs, and ‘blue sky’ research to provide transformational advances in the medium to longer term. Strong linkages between those responsible for technology generation and the value chain actors will be established to ensure tat former address the real needs of the latter.

Theme Two: Value Chain Development. This Theme will provide a setting for integrating the technology adaptation and generation work, improving delivery systems, and developing value chains that promote intensification through new partnerships and innovation capacity. Strong emphasis will be on action research, and on working closely with development partners, including the private sector, and governance actors. Piloting and assessing interventions within the context of target value chains is required to avoid past failures that may hae led to inappropriate or ineffective technologies and strategies.

Theme Three: Targeting, Gender and Impact. The final Theme is concerned with ensuring that the Program has its intended impact among target beneficiaries, including women and vulnerable groups; monitoring and assessing the level and manner of that impact, and the outcomes that brought it about; understanding and supporting the processes of innovation and research to development, to improve the performance of the Program and its partners; understanding the political economy and governance of value chains; supporting the internal M&E, planning and decision functions, and the communication strategy of the Program to continually ensure efficiency, accountability and relevance.

In addition to achieving impact at scale in each of the selected value chains, it is anticipated that the research products and lessons generated will be applicable and, with adequate promotion, will be taken more broadly, such as in neighbouring countries. Some research products (such as new generation vaccines and improved varieties of dual‐purpose food‐feed crops) and lessons are also likely to have even broader applicability. So, while direct impacts are anticipated to benefit tens or hundreds of thousands of poor people for each value chain, broader regional impacts could reach millions, while international public goods could reach tens or hundreds of millions.

Finally, an organizational and implementation strategy and framework will be established to ensure the smooth functioning of the Progra and its partnerships. The elements of this include:

• a Partnership Strategy for ensuring that the key partnerships that the Program will rely on are developed and supported, so as to make a strong contributions to the Program goals • a Gender and Equity Strategy to ensure that the distribution of Program impacts is particularly significant among those target roups of particular need • a Communications, Advocacy and Knowledge Management Strategy to enable key potential users globally of the Program’s knowledge products to make est use of those, to reach the decision‐makers and investors that can scale up Program outcomes, and to ensure the knowledge generated is organized and made available for wider user,

• a Capacity Development Strategy to maximize the potential for increase capacity for research for development among a range of prtners, and • a Management and Governance Structure that aims to both exploit the strong skills and capacity of the Program partners through oint processes of decision‐making and implementation, while at the same time providing a streamlined structure to limit transactions costs of Program implementation.

After six years, this Program will have had direct impact on up to eight value chains which will result in significantly improved livelihoods fr value chain actors and better nutrition security for poor consumers. It is anticipated that these direct impacts will benefit tens of thousands of households who will participate in more effective vaue chains, with larger numbers is an of consumers enjoying increased access to more affordable animal source foods