‘Women Self Help Groups Involved in Livestock Rearing’ – DeLPHE Project
Briefing and Discussion of Possible Areas of Collaboration
Hosted by the London International Development Centre
Seminar Report
Submitted by Dr Laura Hammond, Dept of Development Studies, SOAS
(lh4@soas.ac.uk)
On March 7, 2008, the LIDC hosted a seminar which brought together members
of a project examining ‘Women Self-Help Groups Involved in Livestock Rearing’
together with academics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the
Royal Veterinary College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. The research, funded by the British Council and DfID’s (Development
Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) project, led by Dr. S. Ramkumar of
the Rajiv Gandhi College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (RAGACOVAS) in
Puducherry, India (Dr Ramkumar unfortunately was not able to accompany the
team to the UK). Project partners include academics from the Women’s Studies
faculties at Bangalore University and Avinashilingam Women’s University, as well
as veterinarians from Kerala Agricultural University, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary
University, and RAGACOVAS, and social scientists from the University of
Reading and SOAS.
This research examines ways of improving poor landless women’s access to
veterinary information and the impact of their participation in a livestock (cattle)
fund on their livelihoods. It takes as a working hypothesis the notion that
improved access to information about animal health and dairy production will
have a beneficial effect on women’s income, and that their increased earning
power will have a positive impact on their degree of empowerment both inside
the family and within the wider community.
Dr D. Thammi Raju and Dr. K. C. Leelavathy gave a joint presentation on the
findings of the project so far. The project has already identified the livelihood
dynamics of participating women’s households. It has done this through a
modified wealth-ranking exercise borrowed from the Household Economy
Approach (see www.savethechildren.org.uk). This approach is based on
women’s perception of their own standing relative to others within the community.
The project is now in the second of three phases where ‘knowledge pathways’ –
avenues by which women access information pertaining to the health and
productivity of their cattle – are being identified. This information will be used to
develop information products that can be easily accessed and understood by
poor, mostly illiterate, women.
David Preston of the Royal Veterinary College and Oxford University’s Centre for
the Environment gave a short presentation on his work with Javier Guitian, also
of RVC, on a project which aims to empower communities to improve livestock
health and strengthen the household livelihoods of the poor in southern Bolivia.
This project, funded by the Wellcome Trust’s Livestock for Life programme, also
seeks to improve the ability of poor households to manage their livestock
resources
and
thus
improve
their
economic
wellbeing.
(See
http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/biodiverstiy/projects/fragenv/
and
http://www.jguitian.com/bolivia)
Discussion among the participants centred on the following issues and areas of
potential future collaboration with members of the LIDC group:
1. The impact of women’s involvement in the project and potential increases
in income on the incidence of domestic violence, and more generally on
changes in gender roles.
2. The potential impact of women’s involvement in the project on child health
and nutrition (a topic suggested by email by Charlotte Watts, LSHTM, who
was not able to attend).
3. The dynamics of Self Help Groups themselves – how they function, the
rules of inclusion/exclusion, what benefits women (or men, in other areas)
experience from them (if any), what failures or challenges have been
encountered.
4. Lessons to be learned from comparative research (for example, between
India and Bolivia, but a project could be envisioned which would include
several other countries, including at least one Muslim country).
5. Development of a syllabus for Gender and Livestock development (this is
in progress by the Puducherry team, but they would welcome
collaboration with interested parties).
The India team indicated that they would welcome expressions of interest in
further collaboration. The DeLPHE funding is quite limited, so in order to expand
the project to consider these issues formally, additional funding would be
needed. Collaboration on developing joint proposals and methodological
approaches to joint research would be of particular interest.
The organizers would like to thank LIDC for their support for this event and look
forward to any further discussions that might be held to take these ideas further.
Attendance:
Amelia Duffy-Tumasz, SOAS, 210795@soas.ac.uk
Prof. Chris Garforth, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of
Reading, c.j.garforth@reading.ac.uk
Dr. Laura Hammond, Dept of Development Studies, SOAS, lh4@soas.ac.uk
Dr. K C Leelavathy, Avinashilingam University for Women, Tamil Nadu, India
kcleel@yahoo.com
Dr. Nigel Poole, SOAS/LIDC, n.poole@soas.ac.uk
Dr. Colin Poulton, SOAS/LIDC, cp31@soas.ac.uk
David Preston, Oxford, d.a.preston@leeds.ac.uk
Dr. T S Rajeev, Kerala Agricultural University, rajeevdrvet@rediffmail.com
Dr. D Thammi Raju, Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, dtraju@yahoo.com
Dr. K K Seethamma, Bangalore University, seethammakk@rediffmail.com
Nick Short, Royal Veterinary College, nshort@rvc.ac.uk
Seema Vyas, London School
seema.vyas@lshtm.ac.uk
of
Hygiene
and
Tropical
Medicine,
Regrets but expressions of interest in further discussion from:
Dr. Nadje Al-Ali, Gender Studies Centre, SOAS, n.s.al-ali@soas.ac.uk
Dr. Andrew Dorward, SOAS, ad55@soas.ac.uk
Dr. Javier Guitian, RVC jguitian@rvc.ac.uk
Dr. Charlotte Watts, Gender Violence and Health Research Group, LSHTM,
Charlotte.watts@lshtm.ac.uk