Presentation from the Livestock Inter-Agency Donor Group (IADG) Meeting 2010. 4-5 May 2010 Italy, Rome IFAD Headquarters. The event involved approximately 45 representatives from the international partner agencies to discuss critical needs for livestock development and research issues for the coming decade. [ Originally posted on http://www.cop-ppld.net/cop_knowledge_base ]

1. Antonio Rota
Senior Technical Adviser on Livestock and
Farming Systems – PTA, IFAD
Silvia Sperandini
Consultant, KM & Partnership Building –
PTA, IFAD
Livestock Week - IADG
IFAD HQ, Rome 4-5 May 2010

2. Introduction - IFAD
Empower poor rural women and men to improve their food
security and increase their incomes.

3. Introduction - IFAD
Since its inception (1978) IFAD has:
Provided more than US$12 billion in loans (796) and grants (2 128);
Supported 829 programmes and projects in 117 countries and territories

4. Introduction - IFAD
Partnerships
Knowledge management
In particular to:
Make poverty alleviation efforts more effective, efficient and relevant;
Combine the best available skills and knowledge;
Develop new and innovative solutions.

5. CoP-PPLD – Overall View
The CoP for Pro-poor Livestock Development (CoP-PPLD) intends to be
a global and inclusive partnership among like-minded people involved in
livestock development.
Through the exchange of experiences and relevant knowledge across
countries and institutions the CoP aim at developing and implementing
more effective, efficient and relevant rural development and poverty
reduction programs
The CoP-PPLD has been facilitated (so far) by IFAD and supported by the
financial contribution of the Government of Italy, the Government of Finland
and DFID, through its Innovative Mainstreaming Initiative.

6. CoP-PPLD – Overall View
Objectives
Learning from and give a voice to the livestock community;
Strengthening connectivity, actions and collaborations among a wide group
of stakeholders;
Enhance the capacity of CoP-PPLD members to acquire and share knowledge
and innovations;
Raising the understanding at various levels of the benefits of PPLD.

7. … Get Knowledge !
Share Knowledge…
Better Designed Projects
Better Implementation
Better Impact

8. http://www.cop-ppld.net/
To upload and exchange knowledge, support cooperation and
common initiatives, participate in general discussions, post
questions.
or, in low bandwidth contests
secretariat@cop-ppld.net

9. 18 months after… where are we?:
The CoP-PPLD was launched in January 2009
402 people from more than 140 organizations are now member;
New communication channels (a Website and a Mailing list) were
developed for continuous and dynamic interaction;
from September ‘09 the portal received 6,049 visits from 145 countries;
New partnerships and new strategic working relationships has been
established among development partners;
Experiences, good practices and lessons learnt have been shared;

10. Access to technical backstopping has been facilitated for better project
design/implementation.
KS/KM tools have been created together with and an Online Roster of
thematic experts;
Various common initiatives (i.e. Online Discussion on Livestock Keepers Rights)
have been facilitated for the CoP-PPLD mutual learning;
The CoP Portal has been selected as the FAO – NGOs sharing platform for
future knowledge management and information exchange;
IFAD should provide soon a small grant to the South Asia Pro Poor Livestock
Policy Programme (FAO India) with the understanding that the programme
will coordinate its KM activities with the CoP-PPLD.

11. Mapping knowledge on livestock insurance;
Case study: “Livestock Insurance schemes for poor livestock farmers and
pastoralists”;
Ask & Answer feature;
10 Livestock Thematic papers for Project Design;
E-conference and online discussions.

12. CoP-PPLD – Ongoing Activities
“Routine” activities (KM/Innovation sharing);
Thematic papers development;
Brokering of technical advisory services;
Identifying appropriate approach for improving
better sharing and interaction among partners;
Strengthening Partnerships with rural/livestock
grassroot coomunities/associations (Kenya-Ghana).

13. CoP-PPLD – Strengthening partnership with grassroot communities
Partnering with grassroot organizations of livestock producers will
result in:
A better understanding of local needs and priorities;
priorities
Opening a channel for sharing knowledge
pening
(traditional/indigenous), practices and innovations;
Strengthening partnerships, connections, and working
partnerships
relations;
Benefiting from multiple sources of knowledge and
learning;
Strengthening advocacy and policy dialogue with
decision-makers and local institutions;
Contributing to the empowerment of women engaged
in livestock-related activities;

14. CoP-PPLD – Strengthening partnership with grassroot communities
Establishing sustainable information exchange
mechanisms on livestock on livestock-related issues.
Participating in the elaboration of common
strategies/policies/operations for pro-poor livestock
development;
Accessing faster problem-solving mechanisms with
problem-
reduced duplication of efforts;
Accessing expertise directly through members and
indirectly through members’ contacts.

15. Findings
In Kenya strengthening connectivity, actions and collaboration with professional farmers’
organizations that are well structured, representative, well governed, and well capacitated is
rather feasible;
It is more difficult with smaller organizations which are dealing with basic problems and needs
like in the case of Ghana.
However, in both cases, the driving force for a successful interaction is the presence of
committed people/champions within the farmers’ organizations who lead for change and
innovative approaches;
Farmer Associations have access to the email.
Therefore the CoP-PPLD Secretariat through his mailing list can act as bridge between them and
the CoP-PPLD partners facilitating knowledge exchange;
Mobile phones in remote areas;
The mission also noted that farmers’ organizations building on traditional knowledge are very
keen to experiment innovative approaches and identify adapted solution to new problems, for
instance in the case of new challenges posed by climate change.