Turbulent Times

The world’s poor must not pay the price for the collapse of financial markets. Without immediate action, millions will suffer (Oxfam 2009). Climate Change and the global economic crisis are negatively impacting on the resilience of agriculture and rural development in countries such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. Livestock Water Productivity (LWP) is becoming a major area of research which aims at increasing agricultural productivity through the use of less water for both livestock and crops as an adaptation and mitigation strategy to Climate Change. Via BMZ funded research, IWMI and ILRI are attempting to understand the gender implications of different interventions to increase livestock water productivity. This paper draws on research conducted in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and also the wealth of information emerging from the Multiple Use Systems Project. Some of the emerging results show that technological innovations are not gender neutral, as their design, timing and labor requirements have differential gender implications. Some technological interventions to increase livestock water productivity might result in more work for poor women and me