Gender, Livestock and Asset Ownership
in Rural Bangladesh
Context
In most developing countries, rearing livestock and poultry providesthe opportunity tothe poor,
especially to poor women,to benefit from household-based income generation and subsequently
build their own assets. Women in rural Bangladesh, as in many developing countries, consider
livestock to be one of the most important assets within the household.
Though women contribute significantly to the agricultural activities in Bangladesh, theirparticipation has
always been under-recognized. This is because women are given very little right to control or own
landand have limited access to resources and to participate in income generating activities. These
limitations can be largely attributed to Bangladesh’s patriarchal and traditional gender norms.
Though women play an instrumental role in contributing to household finances through livestock rearing
and other income generating activities, they often have little say in household financial decisions.
Alongside agricultural activities, smallholder households rear various kinds of livestock, cattle being the
most favored. Rearing livestock and poultry provides poor families, particularlypoor women in
Bangladesh, with the opportunity to earn and acquire assets. With effective savings and some financial
literacy, livestock owners are able to grow their investments over time, progressing from poultry to
goats and eventually dairy cows. Although women are usually the technical owners of their own
livestock, they have little to no control over these assets and the income they generate. Figure 1
demonstrates the access and control of assets according to gender.
Since women from poor rural households traditionally rear poultry and livestock as part of their
household work, they often get to manage the income from sale of eggs and milk. More expensive
livestock assets (i.e. cattle) are often controlledby husbands or male guardians, regardless of whether or
not they are the actual owners of the animal.Generally speaking, the more livestock assets a
Bangladeshi woman owns, the more say
she has in household decisions and in
Women’s position in acquiring assets in rural Bangladesh
controlling the use and sale of those
 Bangladeshi women have limited control over the income
assets.
Most of the assets that rural women own
are inherited from their parents or
purchased with their own money.Sadly,
women scarcely have insurance or
protection for their assets, and theirs are
the first to be used or sold to pay
foremergency
medical
treatments,
funerals, school fees and weddings.
earned from their labor, and very little access to procure and
control assets
 Women’s mobility is limited because of traditional patriarchal
attitudes and therefore are secluded to the home and limited
in their role in the dairy value chain, mainly as producers.
 Women can own productive assets such as livestock and
poultry if bought with their own money or as gift from
parents; however they may or may not have decision-making
power over these assets.
 Women are responsible for care of livestock and dairy care
and production, however there are no formal livestock
property rights in Bangladesh and women owning cattle can
still be at a disadvantage when ownership of cattle is
challenged.
Women prefer to have cattle, poultry and
jewellery as assets since these are items
they are allowed to own and they can control or decide to sell or save. Men usually want ownership of
land and large items of livestock since they are able to manage the family by the income from these
assets (SDVC-GAAP study findings).Women’s control over their assets varies from one household to the
next. In many cases, female owners of livestock assets require their husbands’ permission to sell the
animals or make decisions about how the spend the money that the animals generate.In other
households, women are allowed tosell assets of lesser value (chickens, eggs, milk, small jewelry) without
their husbands’ permission. Men, on the other hand, can sell any assets that they or their wives own
without consulting with their wives ( SDVC-GAAP study findings).
Figure 1: Access and Control of assets according to Gender
Source: SDVC-GAAP study
Dairy farming, which is a traditional occupation of rural homesteads and is often managed by women, is
a feasible pathway to engage women more intensively in household decision-making processes. Their
participation in the dairy sector is critical in increasing their income and improving their status at the
household level and within the community. Unfortunately, the dairy farming sector in Bangladesh,
particularly in the North and Northwest regions, face many challenges that impede on the level of
success that dairy farmers can achieve. Poor cattle breeds, low milk yields compounded further by
inadequate infrastructure and a complex array of challenges in the input supply and service provision for
poor smallholders all reduce the profit that farmers are able to generate from their milk sales. CARE,
through the SDVC project, has sought to improve the dairy farming sector while enabling and promoting
women’s empowerment through intensive
engagement in the dairy value chain and by
Specificobjectives of SDVCP were to:
increasingly diversifying the roles they can take
on within the dairy sector.
1. Improve milk collection systems in rural and remote
CARE-Bangladesh’s Activities – the SDVC
project
To tackle the problems across the various levels
of the Bangladeshi dairy value chain, CARE–
Bangladesh, with funding support from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, implemented
the Strengthening the Dairy Value Chain Project
(SDVCP) in nine districts in North-western
Bangladesh from October 2007 to December
2012. The project aimed to increase the income
of 35,000 targeted smallholder and landless milk
areas;
2. Improve access to inputs, markets, and services by
mobilizing groups of poor farmers,
producers,andchar *dwellers;
3. Improve the artificial insemination (AI) network;
4. Ensure access to quality service at the producer
level; and
5. Improve the policy environment in the dairy sector.
*Chars are remote lands located on sand bars on the
major rivers which grow through a continual process of
erosion and deposition
producer households, and to create employment opportunities for extremely poor households, especially
for women, through various activities throughout the dairy value chain.
The SDVC project took every stage of the value chaininto consideration. The project
mobilizedsmallholders into producer groups and gave them training on livestock health, the benefits of
cross-bred cows and the use of artificial insemination, feeding practices and financial management.82%
of the producers were women and through various project activities, many of these women have been
able to bring about a positive change in their status as cattle owners and as decision-makers with
regards to their own incomes and household assets.
Challenges faced
Despite the fact that women traditionally take care of the livestock at the household level (some may
even be the actual owners of these assets), many women do not have control over these assets and
the incomes they generate. The husband or a male guardian traditionally manages these assets,as
Bangladeshi women have limited rights and decision-making power within the household.
This is because Bangladesh’s patriarchal culture limits women’s involvement tomake financial decisions
and to play greater roles with regards to livestock management (for instance, milk collector or livestock
health worker). A lack of financial literacy and confidence is also partially to blame for women’s
disinterest in taking on greater roles with regards to livestock management, both at the household and
village level. Furthermore, many women have reported being forbidden to leave the house to purchase
inputs, sell milk, participate in training programs or and savings groups. They have to depend on their
husbands to purchase most goods and inputs and thus have little say in how much money is spent on
which products and investments. Men scarcely consider women’s contributions to the household
(raising children, cooking, cleaning, rearing cattle) to be work, and thus don’t think women should have
a say in how a family’s money is spent. They also doubt women’s abilities to make smart, sensible and
financially savvy decisions due to women’s lack of education and professional skills.
The women feel that by not being fully responsible or involved in the management of their cattle, mainly
in case of treatment, vaccination and insemination services, they are not getting the optimal output in
milk production, calf reproduction and growth and are therefore losing out on financial gains.
Throughout the project period, the challenges faced by women with regards to acquiring livestock,
managing financial assets, making decisions with regards to input purchases and milk selling among
others were assessed through a collaborative research with the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Projects
(GAAP), under the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI). The findings under this study were complemented by external qualitative and
quantitative studies (baseline, mid-term and end-line).
Achievements
Increases in the amount of livestock owned by female producers within the project alongside
apositive change in women’s decision-making power at the household level are the key achievements
for the SDVC project.
SDVCP has been successful in mobilizing the existing population of femaleproducers and engaging them
more formally with the dairy value chain by linking them with input dealers and livestock health
services, organizing them into producer groups and by linking them with trained milk collectors, chilling
plants and therefore the formal milk sector.Project research and monitoring has found that project
activities such as individual and group discussions with family members and community people,
particularly with household heads, have instigated positive changes female producers’ asset ownership
and mobility.
In comparing baseline and end-line data, it was found that while the majority of assets are still owned
and controlled by men, there has been an increase in women-owned assets, both non-livestock and
livestock, among female producers (Figure2). Female producers claim that this change has been brought
about by engaging men in project activities and by allowing women to become more meaningfully
involved in dairy farming.
50000
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
Project Baseline
20000
Project Endline
15000
10000
5000
0
Male assets
Female assets
Male nonlivestock
assets
Female non- Male livestock
livestock
assets
assets
Female
livestock
assets
Figure 2. Male and female owned livestock and non-livestock assets, weighted (adapted from SDVCP
Endline report)
By attending the group sessions conducted by the project, women have found a forum where they are
educated on improved dairy management practices as well as financial management matters. This
forum has built female producers’ confidence so that they can take dairy matters into their hands. As
the women now know how to take better care of cattle and receive a higher income from increased milk
production and milk sales, husbands and in-laws have begun allowing women the freedom to make
decisions regarding cattle management. Women who are cattle owners now have more say in decisions
regarding cattle management and sale.
Women report an increase in the ownership of assets, both individually and jointly. If we consider the 3way definition of men’s, women’s and joint ownership, then it has been found that there is an increase
in joint ownership indicating a step towards gender equality (Fig 3 and 4).
Figure 1: Decision-making on use of milk sales income
Source: SDVC GPF Data (Datassist analysis)
Participation in project activities has also enabled female producers to become more mobile.
Figure 4: Participation in Decision for cattle purchase
Women Only
Men Only
Jointly
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
84%
49%
31%
9%
0%
Oct'09
87%
60%
47%
5%
76%
78%
Mar'10
11%
5%
Aug'10
16%
8%
Jan'11
12%
10%
Aug'11
7%
6%
Apr'12
Source: SDVC’s GPF data
Prior to participation in project activities, women were mostly secluded to homestead based activities of
caring for the livestock. Since attending producer group sessions on dairy management, participating
women take more decisions regarding cattle care and have thus increased their involvement in the
value chain, working alongside and interacting with input dealers (feed and medicine), veterinarians and
livestock health workers and milk collections point managers. It has also been found from the SDVCGAAP analysis that the women who own cattle have more freedom to attend meetings at their own
discretion, they have more control over the buying and selling of cowsand over their own savings.
Throughout the project period, the need for female participants to take permission from a man to
attend a project meeting has gone down by 10%, indicating an improvement in women’s mobility.
Overall, many of the challenges SDVC’s female participants used to face with regards to cattle
management and empowerment have been addressed by the project’s staff and training
activities.Participating in the SDVC project has enabled women to create stronger roles for
themselves within their families, starting with dairy farming and livestock ownership.
The story of the women producers from Abdullapur Hindu Para (Box 1) show that these women have
become significant contributors to the household income and with the ability to procure and control the
management of income and assets, they have gradually gained more respect and dignity not only at
home but also in their community.
On-going challenges
The main challenges still faced by women have to do with the control that men have over asset
acquisition and the management of both livestock and non-livestock assets. Despite the progress
achieved through the SDVC project, cultural norms persist which impede on women’s abilities to become
asset owners and decision-makers within their own households.
While the project has enabled poor femaleproducers to increase their income from dairy farming and to
take steps in acquiring and controlling assets such as cattle, challenges remain in making the majority of
women successful in gaining support from their husbands and families to acquire and control assets. For
men to accept that their wives and motherscan take charge of assets, a shift in traditional attitudes will
be required.
Looking Ahead
Based on experiences from the first phase of the project, the project incorporated gender awareness
interventions, as focusing exclusively on technical capacity building is not enough to enhance women's
participation in decision making, to increase their control over income, enable more equal labor
allocation and thus reduce the gender gap. The meaningful participation of women can be fully
achieved through building women's capacity, gender awareness building at household and community
level and through men's engagement and ensuring support from men.
Also based on the project experience so far, CARE is expanding the SDVC program to major milk
producing zones. This program has kept a special focus on empowering women. This focus on women’s
empowerment is based on the premises that:


Women are responsible for cattle management at the household level and therefore should be
the focal contact person for other dairy value chain actors. This will increase their income and
savings, their ability to procure and control assets andtheir individual mobility.
Femaleproducers’access to credit and other financial schemes that allow them to lease livestock
and pay back their loans from milk sales should be sought and made available.

Increasing men’s support for women’s engagementin livestock management and dairy value
chain activities is critical to women’s overall empowerment. Without men’s support and a
positive change in their attitudes, collective progress of women as producers and decisionmakers will be hampered.
Box 1: Female Producers of Abdullapur Hindu Para – Building a future from livestock management
An exemplary case of women being empowered through engagement in a livestock-centered activity, dairy production, is
demonstrated by the women of a producer group located in Abdullapur Hindu Para, a village located in Rangpur district of
north-west Bangladesh. Before SDVC started project activities in this village, almost all of the women from poor smallholder
households’ lives were dictated by men. The women did not have a voice or the confidence to speak up for their rights and
pursue income generating activities of their choosing. Any activities they were engaged in (if any) were homestead based.
As project participants,women learned and adopted improved practices in dairy care management and often increasedtheir
milk production. The women also took on other income generating activities such as growing and selling grass as cattle feed.
The women of this producer group sold their milk collectively and a portion of the weekly income from milk sales was saved
separately. The pooled savings were invested in collective activities such as the production and sale of Urea Molasses Blocks
and of Napier grass, which are nutritious feed for cattle. The income from milk sales and the other collective activities has
enabled the women to contribute significantly to their household incomes. Some of the women report that they have eased
the loan burden their families had and have invested in their children’s education and household needs. Improved cattle
management and income generation from milk sales has allowed these women to become earning members of their
communities, increasing the amount of respect and support they receive from their male counterparts.
According to the female producers, the dairy cattle (complemented with training on livestock management) were stepping
stones in allowing them to pursue further income generating activities. Provided they can continue savings, they intend to
invest in more productive assets such as dairy cows and other livestock items.
Female Producers of Abdullapur Hindu Para
Learn more about SDVC
To learn more about our work, see resources at http://edu.care.org


SDVC Project Summary
Innovation Briefs
 Building Trust, Accountability and Performance: The BangladeshParticipatory Performance Tracking Matrix
 Commercializing Dairy Inputs through the Rural Sales Program
References
ADB (2010).Country Gender Assessment Bangladesh.Mandaluyong City, Philippines. (Available at:
http://www2.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Country-Gender-Assessments/cga-women-bangladesh.pdf) (Accessed on 30/7/2012)
Sarwar, G., Islam, R. and Monzoor, S. 2007. Women’s rights to land in Bangladesh: roles, limitations and transformation. Dhaka, Bangladesh.
(Available at: http://www.unnayan.org/reports/Women_Land_Right_in_Bangladesh.pdf) (25/7/2012)
CARE – SDVC Project Documents