Presented by Isabelle Baltenweck, Peter Ballantyne and Michael Victor at the Global Livestock Advocacy for Development (GLAD) Virtual workshop for sustainable livestock champions, 19–21 May 2020

1. From evidence to actions:
how can we use evidence to better inform
investment and policy priorities for the livestock
sector
Isabelle Baltenweck, Peter Ballantyne and Michael Victor
Virtual workshop for sustainable livestock champions, 19–21 May 2020
lobal Livestock Advocacy for Development
Global Livestock Advocacy for Development (GLAD)
Better lives through livestock

2. Workshop objective
The objective of this workshop was to strategize on engagement
and influencing strategies that can be used to realize critical
global, regional and national policy and financial commitments for
the livestock sector.
We sought to leverage partners’ full complement of tools,
systems, knowledge and resources toward shared outcomes and
long-term impact.
The workshop was to co-designing a plan of action and a set of
recommendations for moving forward our collective advocacy and
engagement efforts.

3. Workshop programme
Day 1 ❖ Participant introductions (20 minutes)
❖ Scene setting (15 minutes)
❖ Introduction: pathways to change (15
minutes)
❖ Exercise: Identifying pathways of
change (40 minutes)
Day 2 ❖ Day 1 recap & reflection (20 minutes)
❖ Sharing experiences on evidence to outcomes 5-
minutes stories shared (45 minutes)
• Patrick Bastiaensen
• Alan Duncan
• Jonathan Ocran
• Rupsha Banerjee
• Robyn Alders
❖ Exercise: identifying strategic
interventions (45 minutes)
❖ Wrap up & reflection (10 minutes)
Day 3 ❖ Day 1 and 2 reflections (10 minutes)
❖ New initiatives for review & feedback (25 minutes)
• Michael Hoevel
• Michael Victor
• Karen Smyth
• Muchiri Nyaggah
❖ Exercise: interventions/strategies how we
work together (20 minutes)
❖ Report back (10 minutes)
❖ Wrap-up and evaluation (10 minutes)

4. A few of the participants' profiles
Participant profiles

5. Scene setting
We all know the importance of livestock in global, national
and household economies
• The livestock sector makes up 15–80% of agricultural
gross domestic product in developing countries
• Market value of Africa’s animal-source foods will grow to
some USD151 billion by 2050
• There are over half a billion small holder mixed crop-
livestock farmers, two-thirds of livestock keepers are rural
women
• Activities along numerous livestock value chains provide
large numbers of jobs, along short, often informal’ value
chains

6. Livestock double-edged sword
Provides food and nutritional security
BUT overconsumption is often associated with obesity
and non-communicable diseases
Powers economic development
BUT equitable development can be a challenge
Improves human health
BUT animal-human/emerging diseases and unsafe
foods need to be addressed
Enhances the environment
BUT pollution, land/water degradation, GHG emissions
and biodiversity losses must be greatly reduced

7. Why (another) workshop
Despite the potential that livestock offer to improve livelihoods, data
speak for themselves:
• investments are limited
• many agricultural policies ignore the sector
• strong anti-livestock advocacy campaigns
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
agric % ODA Livestock % ODA
Percentage ODA disbursements for
agriculture and livestock

8. COVID presents opportunity and challenges
Opportunity Challenges

9. The time is now: we need to become more intentional about
how we advocate for livestock!
The objective this week is to strategize on engagement and
influencing strategies that can be used to realize critical global,
regional and national policy and financial commitments for the
livestock sector.
We seek to leverage partners’ full complement of tools, systems,
knowledge and resources toward shared outcomes and long-term
impact.
From this workshop, we aim to co-design a plan of action and a set
of recommendations for moving forward our collective advocacy and
engagement efforts.

10. This workshop is part of the ILRI project on Global Livestock
Advocacy for Development or GLAD
18 months to consolidate experiences, prototype news
ways of working and continue with ‘intentional
engagement’ – launchpad for GLAD 3
1. Evidence synthesized
2. Communicate – using variety of channels and methods
3. Engage – with ‘livestock aware’, build alliances, provide
evidence to influence different stakeholder and areas of
work
4. Influence - investors and policy makers by providing
evidence-based information in appropriate ways.
Iterative and interlinked process of engagement, learning
and action

11. Introducing pathways to change

12. Pathways, changes and outcomes – what works
• We want to identify which approaches – pathways – will help us
achieve the changes we desire
• We start with our goal - more and better investments
in sustainable livestock sectors
• What outcomes and changes do we want to see?
• Who do we need to influence? And to do what?
• What engagement strategies and approaches will get us there?
• How do we know we are making progress?
• What works and what doesn’t - learning together

13. Scope of our discussions
• Your
experiences
• Our survey ...
• strengthen the voice of value chain actors
• increase investment on gender
• strengthen global animal health systems
• mobilize sufficient resources
• eradicate peste des petits ruminants
• multiply the benefits of public sector investment through a One
Health lens
• facilitate debate regarding appropriate livestock and
aquaculture indicators for the SDGs
• encourage effective and efficient coordination of activities and
resource allocation
• support and coordinate the sustainable development and
utilization of animal resources
• livestock value chains are more efficient change in livestock
practice and policy

14. Scope of our discussions
• Some earlier ILRI
discussions

15. Scope of our discussions
• A substantial
knowledge base

16. Scope of our discussions
• New thinking

17. What next: working groups
Process:
Day 1: Review outcomes and who/what to
influence
Day 2: Look at types of engagement interventions
needed for different actors/processes and
contexts
Day 3: review and bring together

18. Synthesis stuff

19. What works and doesn't - tips from participants

20. What works – 1 – Politics
• Politics is everything.
• Evidence-based policy or evidence-informed politics?

21. What works – 2 - Pathways
• There is never one way to get there some are just shorter!
• Just because it worked before, doesn't mean it's going to work
again.
• Communications is a means to an end. Keep your eyes on the
prize, not the process.

22. What works – 3 – Personal connections
• Policy influence happens at the golf course and weddings
• Policy decisions are made in the corridor
• It can't only be about schmoozing

23. What works – 4 - Communicating
• Stories are more powerful than data.
• The best op-eds are grounded in personal experience
• No one finds jargon engaging!
• Written reports are not sufficient to influence policies
• Statistics are pretty useless without stories
• Nuanced scientific written reports may accurately convey messages, but they
rarely inspire
• Condense the data to make decisions faster
• Embedding data in pdf's isn't the most effective way of influencing behavior
• The best decisions are not made using data
• The present pandemic illustrates that evidence alone is insufficient to
influence.
• Avoid using online tools that are not sufficiently road tested in advance
• Research benefits don’t last!

24. What works – 5 – Process engagement
• The policy process is of disjointed incrementalism or muddling through!
• Policy-making and shaping is messy ... so our communications should not be
perfect
• Engagement should be owned by communities, otherwise it's no use!
• Partnership is the best tool for policy change.
• Create collectively to achieve better overarching outcomes
• An all-inclusive (public-private + community) engagement strategy
• Partnerships and policy advocacy defines 'patience is a virtue'
• Regional and International bodies and institutions have had their day!
• Scientists' DNA is incompatible with policy engagement

25. What works – 6 – Influential attributes
• To have influence one needs to speak little and listen a lot!
• Honesty is the best policy, and so is transparency!
• We can do our best influencing when we listen and respond to the
concerns of others
• Influence happens when you ask more than tell!
• Trying to be politically correct doesn't generate good policy

26. Engagement and influencing approaches –
participant stories

27. Experience sharing storytelling (5')
1. Patrick Bastiaensen
2. Alan Duncan
3. Jonathan Ocran
4. Rupsha Banerjee
5. Robyn Alders
• What issue did you set out to influence?
• What did you do, with whom, using what engagement/advocacy processes?
• Did your engagement/advocacy strategies work, can you pinpoint the factors that
led to your success? If you did not achieve the intended outcome, why do you think
not?

28. Storytelling notes
Engagement pathways that work seem to be about getting the right
and diverse people together with right messages and evidence and
collective goals and actions.

29. Storytelling notes
Jonathan Ocran shared a #Ghana poultry import policy change.
Success followed from 1) evidence collation, 2) learning how to
advocate for change, 3) influencing policy makers, 4) informing the
general public.
Jonathan: influencing policy on Ghana poultry
imports: researched compelling evidence on import impacts; got
advocacy skills and materials; poultry association engaged/influenced
policy makers; told stories to the public via media. Led to government
changing the policy.

30. Storytelling notes
Policy consultations- engagement- re-engagement:
Robyn: Bangladesh poultry: stakeholders consultations; policy
options brief/roundtable; research and evidence; one health working
group as continuing dialogue mechanism..
And a very interesting story from @RobynAlders about poultry
and zoonotic diseases in #Bangladesh. How 'one health' working
groups formed as mechanisms to move policy formulation forward.

31. Storytelling notes
Patrick: Expanding PPP in animal health: mapped
what exists; produced a handbook and typology (evidence);
capacity building as a way to engage actors; tailored policy
messages; technical content. societal as well as economic benefits;
progress mixed across countries..
Liked also the story about public private partnerships in animal health
by @furrysentinel. Bringing together the un-usual groups a key way
to advance the change and build capacities

32. Storytelling notes
Alan Duncan: Enhance dairy livelihoods and role of women in India:
Via local innovation platforms. Local decisionmakers changes their
practices to benefit target producers. connecting decision makers
from their offices towards producers a positive. connected people
who did not normally connect. built trust among actors. strong local
facilitator.

33. Storytelling notes
Rupsha: IBLI project: Aiming to convince private sector and others to
invest in dryland areas and IBLI approach. Develop and test the tool;
Roll out implementation; get into policy-level taskforce; use
evaluative data to show positive effects; include in political party
election manifestos; led to a multi-actor national program in Kenya;
now looking to Africa regional level.

34. New initiatives presentations
Presentations on new initiatives for participants' feedback were
made by:
1. Michael Hoevel – Marchmont
2. Muchiri Nyaggah - Local Development Research Institute (LDRI)
3. Michael Victor - International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
4. Karen Smyth – Supporting Evidence Based Interventions (SEBI)

35. New initiatives - Summary
Michael Hoevel made a presentation on the targeted media support Marchmont will provide
to the GLAD community in order to get their voices heard in media coverage about livestock
for development. Marchmont hopes to help them bring to life their research and stories
from across the range of themes that livestock can impact -- from food security and
nutrition, economic livelihoods, gender and climate/environment. The engagement will
work via the GLAD community's existing dgroup set-up
https://dgroups.io/g/gladlivestock.
Muchiri Nyaggah presented on zydiPlus, a collaboration with a county in Kenya and a
technology partner to develop a pilot a technology platform for administrating extension
services. zydiPlus makes it possible for crops and livestock extension officers to collect data,
manage relationships with farmers, disseminate information, produce reports for senior
management and provide trend and forecast analysis for policy makers. Participants can get
in touch on email muchiri@developlocal.org or leave a message at zydiplus.com for more
information and opportunities to collaborate.

36. New initiatives – Summary
Michael Victor presented on the whylivestockmatter.org website that is being revamped to
provide more compelling information to users as well as more regular content and ways to
tell the livestock story. The website was initially developed as an independent stand-alone
‘micro-site’ featuring a range of facts, evidence, stories organized around 5 areas: nutrition,
health, economic opportunity, gender and climate and environment - with many sub
themes.
Karen Smyth presented on SEBI’s (Supporting Evidence Based Interventions), a livestock data
project, LD4D (Livestock data for decisions) community of practice website
livestockdata.org. Livestockdata.org has been created to expose the community’s data and
make it easy to access through interactive data visualisations. The website aims at generating
‘demand driven’ resources for use by the LD4D community. SEBI seeks to make the best-
available livestock data and evidence available to decision makers and would welcome input
on how we can develop the website to meet these objectives. Anyone wishing to comment
on livestockdata.org can email the team on LD4D@ed.ac.uk.

37. Engagement and influencing approaches –
organizer take-aways

38. Engagement/influencing strategies
• National multi-stakeholders POLICY FORUMS/working groups (on e.g. one health) to
advance multi-sectoral / inter-sectoral inter-connected investments and
interventions.
• GUIDELINES or standards that really broaden understanding of complex issues by
diverse actors.
• Compile and communicate EVIDENCE on which interventions are actually cost-
effective.
• COLLECTIVE ACTION and ownership to achieve critical buy-in to critical issues beyond
narrow specialist groups.
• Agree consistent shared (one health) GOALS to guide priorities; with associated
terminology, indicators etc.
• Compile and communicate baseline DATA on investments/burdens across the OH
sectors - to justify the smaller pillars.
• Evidence based true STORIES to demonstrate return on investments.
• PUBLIC awareness and education for citizens.

39. Engagement/influencing strategies
• Political-will requires cover and support (usually from constituency/voters) to
implement evidence-based policies.
• Engagement must always be early, continuous and involve communication
specialists; it must also be clear the target of the engagement.
• Early engagement should seek to build the appetite for information that you
want to provide later.
• Use a trusted, authentic, and balanced actor is necessary, they should also be
women and not always top-down people, beneficiary voices are also very
powerful.
• Reach out to influential actors as champions, but they should be credible and ‘fit
the bill’.

40. Group work exploring engagement pathways for
“real” priority outcomes

41. Outcome areas for our work
Improving performance of
value chains (Isabelle)
Improving animal and
human health (Peter)
Improving livestock
investments in Africa
(Michael)
Livestock is perceived as a
critical development
pathway (Cynthia)
Outcomes from survey clustered into 4 areas:

42. Working groups day 1: what outcomes do we seek and
who/what to influence
Objective: to explore what outcomes we seek and who/how to
influence to achieve this
Process:
• Participants assigned to a breakout room (1 per outcome cluster)
to work through an exercise to 1) identify priority changes and, for
each 2) indicate who/what influencing pathways (30 minutes)
• Each group to share back for 5 minutes on key findings
• Facilitator to help manage the MURAL and discussion

43. Day 2: Working group exercises
Participants will go back into 4 zoom groups – 45 minutes
Objective: identify specific engagement interventions that 'work' for the specific
changes in the outcome areas
• Process
• Go back to the outcome and changes that were agreed upon-review
• Take at least 1 key change and dig deep to identify specific engagement interventions – use
engagement intervention matrix to analyse different activities
• Questions
• What are engagement interventions and actions that would work for that key change in what
circumstance — what evidence do we have that these interventions work? Are any
interventions that we heard helpful?
• What is needed for them to succeed?
• What has not worked and why? What failures can we learn from
• Report back will happen on morning day 3

44. Group 1: Improved performance of value chains

45. Changes we want to see
▪ Private sector actors able and willing to invest in the supply and delivery
of livestock inputs and service with less ‘interface’ from public sector.
▪ Value chain actors cooperate more, thanks to the development of
institutions (e.g. contracts, producers' organizations) with adequate
information flows between actors.
▪ Donors and investors effectively use evidence to support the livestock
value chain.

46. Group 1: Improved performance of value chains

47. Higher livestock value chain performance: what interventions
have worked?
▪ Start small, ‘pilot test’ with well-chosen and fewer partners before going to
scale, to be able to learn lessons
▪ Invest in the capacity building of actors.
▪ Generate and disseminate relevant research evidence about what works where
▪ Have key messages to convey in different spaces.
▪ Identify and engage influential actors, and ‘use’ them strategically to support
the intervention.
▪ Work with umbrella organizations, associations, federations to support the
member organizations
▪ Work with financial institutions to develop tailored products to livestock sector
– either public or private sector.
▪ Design M&E common frameworks with partners to get buy-in, also
understanding public and private partners’ needs and interests

48. Group 1: Improved performance of value chains
Some of the interventions listed on the
previous slide were further characterized,
by 'ease of doing' and 'likelihood of
success'
•The ‘pilot tests’ have a high chance of
success but are complicated to conduct
•Translation research outputs to influence
policy makers is relatively easy to do, but
the chance of success are modest
• The intervention relatively easy to do
and with a good chance of success is the
engagement of influential actors

49. Group 2: Healthier people, healthier animals and
healthier environment

50. Changes we want to see
• Governments and private sector invest more in the interventions that really work to deliver healthier
people, healthier animals and healthier environments
• More (and better presented) evidence and data on the cost effectiveness of approaches and
interventions shape investment decisions to achieve healthier people, healthier animals and healthier
environments
• Public and private sector actors invest in more, and more relevant research that provides evidence,
solutions and practice changes that can tackle the challenges in achieving healthier people, healthier
animals and healthier environments
• One Health is embraced by governments, development actors and others as an operational
approach to address inter-sectoral inter-connected challenges around healthier people, healthier
animals and healthier environments
• Evidence based true stories are used in the right places to demonstrate return on investments in
healthier people, healthier animals and healthier environments
• Citizens are convinced by public awareness and education activities to adopt healthier behaviour and
practices

51. Group 2: Healthier people, healthier animals and
healthier environment

52. One health is embraced: engagement/intervention
pathways
• Improve/extend and implement OH guidelines to help improve understanding
of OH and its benefits beyond current narrow actor groups /and capacities to
implement it
• Compile and communicate evidence on which interventions are more cost-
effective if done as a OH approach
• Compile and communicate baseline data and investments/burdens across the
OH sectors - to justify the smaller pillars
• Extend ownership and collective action and buy in to OH beyond
WHO/FAO/OIE
• Re-vitalize / strengthen OH working groups in countries
• Agree consistent OH goals to guide priorities; with associated terminology,
indicators etc

53. Group 2:
Healthier
people,
healthier
animals and
healthier
environment

54. Group 3: Improve livestock investments both
quantity and quality in Africa

55. Changes we want to see
▪ More opportunities for farmers and other livestock actors to participate in policy
processes.
▪ Improved investments in data to better understand where livestock investments are
made (or lacking).
▪ More compelling cases on the benefits of investing in livestock that make a
collective case around identified priorities.

56. Group 3: Improve livestock investments both quantity and
quality in Africa

57. Engagement/intervention pathways
▪ Bring different actors together.
▪ Media to shape how information can be packaged and provide opportunity
to hooks.
▪ Social media of COVID, huge audience and ability to change minds
▪ Develop livestock investment maps, details can be made available to donors,
private sector.
▪ Lead with entry points and hooks where people see themselves. Example of
hybrid maize need fodder for livestock – this carries livestock message.
▪ Link to connected issues – show how livestock benefits these actors, do not
think livestock alone. Look at all development issues.
▪ Private sector not keen – public investments in livestock are not there.
▪ Getting evidence to technical teams so they are confident to go to the
Ministry of Finance and committees (presentation skills and evidence).

58. Group 3:
Improve
livestock
investments
both quantity
and quality in
Africa

59. Group 4: Livestock is treated as a critical
development pathway by influencers and decision
makers

60. Changes we want to see...
▪ Significant increase in financial and intellectual investments by
national governments (worldwide) and private sector.
▪ Recognition by farmers that livestock are important.
▪ Realized/achieved political commitment.
▪ Recognition by consumers that livestock is important.

61. Group 4: Livestock is treated as a critical development
pathway by influencers and decision makers

62. Realized political commitment: engagement/intervention
pathways
▪ Make information transparent and available to enable people/constituents to hold
their governments accountable. To do this effectively, partner with credible and
influential messengers including non-state actors and communities better placed to
hold governments accountable.
▪ Have deliberate and international engagements with targeted messengers using
targeted messages as a way to reach to the political class. One way of doing this is to
create a matrix of messages aligned to different recipients and identify (and work
with) non-traditional messengers as influencers.
▪ Use storytelling to build allegiance and influence and use examples to create
balance and draw everyone in.
▪ Present evidence in a way that will speak to a specific individual/group's political
interests, you need to start where they are at and draw them in.

63. Group 4:
Livestock is
treated as a
critical
development
pathway by
influencers
and decision
makers

64. Engagement and influencing approaches – final
session take-aways

65. Engagement and influencing strategies: synopsis of our
discussions
General strategies- cutting across the 4 areas
• A clear message and agreed goal, based on solid evidence
• Early engagement- never too early to engage!
• Use a trusted and neutral actor to facilitate
• Rope in some influential actors
• Bring in non-livestock sectors- either to support, or to minimise obstacles
• Continuous capacity strengthening
• Monitoring, learning and evaluation to guide adjustments and feedback into
evidence
• Communicate SMART with Stories for Measurable progress, providing Available
information, establishing a Rapport towards Tailored/ Transparent evidence (or
Translate)

66. Engagement and influencing strategies: feedback from
day-3 group work
▪ What organisation to be the "trusted actor to facilitate"? No one is neutral. We need a balanced and authentic
organisation.
▪ The current whylivestockmatter.org website is PRO livestock and not balanced
▪ Scientists take too much time to review a controversial paper, wanting to make their reviews ‘perfect’.
Suggestions are:
▪ Set up a ‘rapid response team’ to get inputs from various organizations, leveraging their expertise and
networks; focus on the most important flaws to be able to respond quickly; and, reference using weblinks
▪ Consider doing a YouTube video on balanced view for livestock
▪ We recognize the difficulty working in contexts where data are scanty- start with what we have and continue the
efforts towards livestock data harmonization.
▪ Attach the livestock discussion to other sectors- system approach.
▪ Media training is a must! How language is used is critical in communicating scientific evidence that is often hard
to communicate and consequently lost in debate.
▪ A new way of communicating is needed that makes clear the implications of evidence that creates a narrative
that is open, accessible, and useful to everyone.
▪ There is need for need everyone working in this space (and especially scientists) to get better at story telling

67. About 620 ILRI staff work in Africa and Asia to enhance incomes and livelihoods, improve food security, and reduce disease
and environmental degradation. Australian animal scientist and Nobel Prize laureate Peter Doherty serves as ILRI’s patron.
Organizations that fund ILRI through their contributions to CGIAR make ILRI’s work possible. Organizations that partner ILRI in
its mission make livestock research for development a reality.
www.ilri.orgThis presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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