About three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas. Among those, women constitute a particularly vulnerable, yet crucially important group for social and economic development. Investing in rural women is thus not only a moral imperative; it can also be a promising strategy to...

Alrededor de tres cuartas partes de los pobres del mundo viven en zonas rurales. Entre ellos, la mujer constituye un grupo especialmente vulnerable pero de importancia decisiva para el desarrollo económico y social. Invertir en la mujer rural, por tanto, no es sólo un imperativo moral, sino...

The prices of many staple food commodities have increased substantially over the past year. As a result, many developing countries are facing larger food import bills. The cereal import bill of the world’s poorest countries is forecast to rise by 56 percent in 2007/08, following an already...

In the period leading up to the July 2008 WTO ministerial meeting, the crisis of soaring food prices was used both to argue for a speedy resolution of the negotiations, and to argue against any further reductions in protection that might result from a new agreement. Are the arguments relating to...

Peasant livestock producers are particularly disadvantaged internationally and within their national systems because their political participation tends to be mediated through patron-client ties. The consequence is that poor producers most often trade their collective interests for very modest...

This paper reviews the diverse and changing roles of livestock as they relate to the process of economic development and poverty reduction, departing from the premise that livestock production plays an important role in contributing to the livelihoods of most of the world's poor and in meeting...

This paper presents a case study of how livestock policies are made and implemented in a national context, and how they can be improved to better serve the interests of the poor in Cambodia. Opportunities exist for improving rural livelihoods in Cambodia through the export of livestock. While...

Privatisation of animal healthcare systems in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, has had very limited success. Introduced with inadequate transition time and too few resources, many livestock owners either cannot afford or, just as likely, are unable to gain access to the...

The present study is a part of the PPLPI effort to identify significant political and institutional factors and processes that currently hinder or prevent the poor in developing countries from taking greater advantage of opportunities to benefit from their livestock resources. The rapid...

This paper presents a case study of how livestock policies are made and implemented in a national context, and how they can be improved to better serve the interests of the poor. Livestock is a sector with a great potential for growth compared to other sectors in agriculture. However,...