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Progress towards women's empowerment (WE) and gender equality is slow and uneven across the Global South. Livestock systems support the livelihoods of one billion poor people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), most of whom are women. While livestock and gender research has focused on addressing gender inequalities to build a better livestock sector, there is growing evidence that livestock development can contribute to WE and gender equality. The latter is the main topic of this scoping review. A total of 99 papers, corresponding to 102 studies, were included in the analysis. Results indicate that the gender approach strongly influences the effect of livestock interventions on WE, as much as the type of livestock intervention. Gender accommodative approaches were associated with more advances in WE than gender blind approaches, but there was no significant difference in the reported negative effects, challenging the prevailing assumption that gender-accommodative approaches 'do no harm'. Most asset transfer projects combined with extension had positive effects while those focusing on output markets negatively impacted WE. Gender accommodative approaches had negative or unclear impacts on women's labour and workloads. Use of these findings should help guide the design of livestock projects aiming to enhance gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Changing research design and methodologies regarding how researchers articulate with end-users of technology is an important consideration in developing sustainable agricultural practices. This paper analyzes a joint experiment as a multi-stakeholder process and contributes to understand how the way of organizing social learning affects stakeholders' ownership of process outcomes. Design/Methodology/Approach:A learning group composed of the different stakeholders of the oil palm seed system in Benin was set around a joint experiment. We use a detailed account of the group dynamics to understand the social process. Findings: The way the process is designed and conducted has a great effect on the ownership by the participants. Methodological steps taken in this research process showed its efficacy to produce quick and positive feedback mechanisms. Stakeholders' perspectives on what constitutes a quality oil palm seedling varied widely. Participants, mainly nursery holders, learned new production practices. Representatives of the research center learned a mismatch of recommendations with users' contexts. Field observations further to the process indicate changes in practices among stakeholders that would be sustainable. Practical Implications: Beyond focusing on outcomes, initiatives in multi-stakeholder processes should also document and analyze social processes in order to better understand the mechanisms by which such processes foster socio-technical change, as well as identify potential institutional barriers to such processes. Originality/Value: Through a detailed analysis of group dynamics, this paper addresses an important knowledge gap in participatory agricultural development.

Purpose: Within the context of the European-funded JOLISAA project (JOint Learning in and about Innovation Systems in African Agriculture), an inventory of agricultural innovation experiences was made in Benin, Kenya and South Africa. The objective was to assess multi-stakeholder agricultural innovation processes involving smallholders. Approach: Country-based teams used bibliographic searches, interviews with resource persons and field visits to identify cases. The inventory was developed iteratively according to a common analytical framework and guidelines inspired by the innovation system perspective. Findings and practical implications: The completed inventory includes 57 documented cases, covering a wide diversity of experiences, in terms of types, domains, scales and timelines of innovation. The inventory confirms the diversity of stakeholders involved in innovation, the diversity of innovation triggers and drivers, and the frequent occurrence of market-driven innovation. It also illustrates more original features: the typically long timeframes of innovation processes; the common occurrence of "innovation bundles"; and an often tight yet ambivalent relationship between innovation initiatives and externally funded projects. National teams faced several challenges during the inventory process, for example, in gaining a common understanding and making consistent use of key innovation-related concepts, and in accessing relevant information, as some case holders were reluctant to share their experience freely. Originality/value: The JOLISAA inventory contributes to illustrating that African agriculture is responding actively to the many challenges it faces. Documenting and sharing such a palpable dynamism may help to counter some of the pessimism and negative publicity that African agriculture usually attracts and to increase the motivation of many for making innovation happen across Africa. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)

With increasingly fragmented rangelands, restricted mobility and climatic stress, diversification has accelerated among East African pastoralists. Diversification is also promoted as a climate change adaptation strategy to reduce climatic exposure. Through a study of a Maasai communal land in southern Kenya, we analyze how pastoralists navigate changing access to key productive resources that are linked to diversification processes, social differentiation, and the reshaping of livelihood practices. By integrating an intersectional approach in access theory, we unpack a deeper level of context specific patterns of inclusion and exclusion embedded within evolving production relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]