Photo: A. Habtamu (ILRI)

Our work

SEBI-Livestock mobilises and improves data and evidence to help the livestock community make better investments that improve livelihoods for smallholders in low and middle-income countries

Why does livestock data matter?

In low-and middle-income countries, livestock offer a pathway out of poverty for hundreds of millions of people. Milk, meat, eggs and other animal products and services provide vital nutrition, income and security for families and their communities. But poor animal health and low productivity remain a challenge.

Vital data on disease and productivity is disparate and scarce, which means decision makers lack reliable information on which diseases to confront, where to target interventions, and which interventions work best in a given context. This data gap also prevents us from tracking progress on the ground, and makes it hard to see how livestock projects contribute to achieving global sustainable development goals. We need to close this gap and strengthen the evidence-base in order to sustainably transform the livestock sector.

SEBI-Livestock empowers decision-makers with better data and evidence

 

What we do: We put data and evidence at the centre of livestock decision-making in low-and middle-income countries.

Our Purpose: To enable smallholder livestock keepers to fulfil their potential through better-informed decisions and technologies.

Our Vision: A world where reliable data and evidence are available to support and drive sustainable transformation of the livestock sector

Uniting data science with veterinary expertise

SEBI-Livestock is uniquely positioned to close the livestock data gap, with expertise in veterinary science and data science, and our engagement with the global community of livestock data producers and users.

We consolidate and improve hard-to reach data and employ new techniques such as machine learning to acquire data.  Our focus is on enhancing access to the best available data, strengthening the generation of high-quality data, and turning data into useful evidence.

As a gender-intentional project, we will help close livestock and gender data gaps and contribute to the goal of increasing women’s empowerment in agriculture.

Proactive communication strategies underpin our work, to ensure data, information and evidence are tailored and shared effectively with our users.

Our activities are carried out through three interlinked areas of work:

Case study: Poulet du Faso

A winning combination of genetics, healthcare and a business mindset has shifted the backyard chicken production paradigm in Burkina Faso.
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Researchers inspect day-old sasso chicks in Tanzania. Photo: ILRI

Monitoring and learning for livestock development projects

SEBI-Livestock mobilises data and generates insights to inform livestock development investment decisions.
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LD4D community discussions

Connecting the community

The Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community of practice aims to drive better livestock decision making through improved data and analytics.
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