8th Multi-Stakeholder Partnership meeting of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL)

One hundred and twenty delegates from 34 different countries journeyed to Ulaabbaatar, Mongolia from 11^th – 15^th June for the meeting ‘Livestock on the move’.  This was an opportunity to connect with colleagues from a range of different livestock sectors and levels within these - from farmers to food processors, representative associations and academia.

As with many initiatives similar to the GASL, focus continues to be a challenge. The GASL has currently chosen to concentrate on four key themes that link directly with several of the Sustainable Development Goals:

• Food Security and Nutrition
• Animal Health and Welfare
• Livelihoods and Economic Growth
• Climate and Natural Resource use

Time was invested at the meeting exploring (and agreeing) specific programs under each of these for themes.  The outputs of this process will be incorporated into the GASL Action Plan for 2019-2021.

One of the most exciting deliverables from the current GASL work program is the soon-to-be-released report ‘Dairy Development’s impact on Poverty Reduction’.  This study assessed the evidence for a causal relationship between dairy development and poverty reduction/improved household welfare.

To arrive at the report’s conclusions the authors undertook a literature search of randomised controlled trials and observational studies to evaluate the potential impacts of dairying on poverty reduction and socio-economic development.

Findings include:

• The reviewed literature on the economic impacts of dairying on household and community welfare provides strong evidence that in specific settings dairy development makes a significant contribution to poverty reduction, both at household and aggregate community level
• These results and their consistency provide strong evidence that engagement in dairying was the cause rather than the result of higher household welfare

Once the report is released the DSF will make it available to kits members.

Apart from the broad ranging discussions and clear directional focus and consensus for the GASL being established, the meeting in Mongolia was an incredible experience from both livestock production and cultural perspectives.  The meeting clearly demonstrated the need to consider diversity in all sustainable livestock production development discussions.

We would like to thank the hosts and conference organisers for making the event such a valuable and educational experience.