National Policies and Strategies

Livestock plays a crucial role in sustaining the livelihoods of farm households and other participants in the livestock value chain in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Approximately a third of the African population relies directly on livestock for their incomes and overall livelihoods. In Ethiopia, the livestock subsector stands out as a vital source of income for farm households, generating employment opportunities across the entire supply chain. However, the growth and productivity of the livestock sector in many LMICs is not keeping pace with the increasing demand for animal source foods.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, which aims to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, outlines policy coherence as a major pathway to achieve this. At the basic level, policy coherence aims to identify trade-offs and mitigate negative impacts between policies. At a more ambitious level, it aims to foster synergies and draft policies that mutually reinforce each other and ensure that policies are inclusive of the concerned stakeholders’ perspectives.

The Raji community is a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) that lives in and around Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region. Historically, the Raji people have depended on the forest for resources and livelihoods. “But now that all the water sources in the mountain are drying up and banj (Himalayan oak) and bamboo forests are being taken over by pine, depending on the forest is no longer a possibility,” says Mahesh Rajwar, a member of the Raji community in Jouljibi village of Uttarakhand. As a result, community members are now moving towards agriculture and wage labour.

Mamta Patel, a local farmer of Onta Purwa village in Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh, reported that the irregular monsoon has posed significant challenges for the kharif season. Farmers in the village are grappling with the adverse effects of erratic rainfall on their groundnut cultivation.

Explore how NPS strengthen collaborations, uses analytical framework, empower through training initiative, collaborate with gov't for knowledge exchange, & foster innovation to drive progress. Read more into these insights by reading NPS 2023 Annual Technical Report.

Overcoming future sustainable development challenges will require significant transformations in food, land, and water systems. However, the challenges faced by countries are varied and complex. Produced by IWMI, the Policy Pathways podcast will examine the policy coherence of food, land, and water systems in six of the CGIAR’s National Policies and Strategies Initiative countries.

Since September 2022, the government of Kenya has been implementing policy measures under its “Bottom-Up Transformation Agenda (BETA)”. Alongside measures aimed at promoting economic recovery and improving livelihoods, the government is also redesigning revenue mobilization instruments geared towards fiscal consolidation and supporting economic growth.