Women's Empowerment and Livestock Vaccination: Evidence from Peste des Petits Ruminants Vaccination Interventions in Northern Ghana.

Immaculate Omondi,Isabelle Baltenweck,Nils Teufel,Eunice Kariuki,Alessandra Galiè,Agnes Loriba

doi:10.3390/ani12060717

Immaculate Omondi, Isabelle Baltenweck + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12060717

Copy DOI

Abstract

Simple SummarySmall ruminants (goat and sheep) are key livestock species in supporting women’s empowerment (WE) in low- and middle-income countries. Animal vaccines are essential for livestock productivity, hence an important means to support WE. WE is, in turn, important for animal vaccine adoption. Little is known, however, of how WE is associated with animal vaccination for women-controlled livestock assets (e.g., goats and sheep). Our analysis explores the link between domains of WE and knowledge of, access to, and use of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccines. Such knowledge can help inform the design of livestock vaccine systems that are better able to reach women and support their empowerment. Using a partial least squares structural equilibrium model (PLS-SEM), we analyzed data collected using the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) tool from goat keepers in Northern Ghana, which included a module on the PPR vaccine. We found a strong direct positive association between women and men’s knowledge about animal health and PPR vaccination and a strong indirect positive association between access to PPR vaccines and empowerment. Moreover, women and men goat keepers differed in the dimensions of empowerment that the PPR vaccine facets were strongly associated with—asset ownership and input into decisions concerning livestock was significant for women but not for men. Consequently, policy and actions towards enhancing women’s asset ownership, input into decisions about livestock production, knowledge of animal health and vaccines, and access to vaccines are important in designing effective and equitable livestock vaccine systems.Healthy livestock provide meaningful opportunities to enhance women’s empowerment (WE) in low- and middle-income countries. Animal vaccines are important to keep livestock healthy and productive. However, gender-based restrictions limit women’s access to animal health services, thereby affecting the potential of livestock to enhance their empowerment. While growing empirical evidence reveals that women-controlled livestock (e.g., small ruminants) have important implications for WE and support better household nutrition outcomes, little empirical evidence exists from rigorous analyses of the relationship between WE and animal vaccines for women-controlled livestock species. Our analysis explores the relationship between WE and involvement with PPR vaccination in Ghana. Data collected using the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) tool from 465 women and 92 men farmers (who keep goats) from northern Ghana, and analyzed using PLS-SEM, revealed a significant direct positive association between knowledge about animal health and PPR vaccines and a significant indirect positive association between access to PPR vaccines and empowerment. The empowerment of women goat farmers, as revealed by our model’s results for the relationship between empowerment and vaccine facets, was significantly represented by asset ownership and input into decisions concerning livestock. These study results reveal important considerations in designing effective and equitable livestock vaccine systems.

Highlights

Livestock, as a store of wealth as well as a source of income and nutritious food, can provide meaningful opportunities to support livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries, for rural women [1]
Gender-blind animal health interventions are incapable of addressing the gendered constraints embedded in livestock systems and will continue to fail to eradicate deadly diseases, including Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), in livestock kept by women in the affected countries [101]
Small ruminants are among the species that are considered key to support the empowerment of rural women because they can be purchased and controlled by women, can be used by women to accumulate wealth—in the absence of other financial institutions—and can be liquified if cash is needed to deal with an emergency

Summary

Introduction

As a store of wealth as well as a source of income and nutritious food, can provide meaningful opportunities to support livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries, for rural women [1]. Women-controlled livestock, in particular (often small species, such as small ruminants and poultry), have been shown to support the livelihoods of women, their empowerment and their households’ nutritional outcomes [2,3]. Targeting women through interventions that support livestock management can generate greater empowerment and reduce inequality gaps [4]. When engaging with the concept of empowerment, we adopted a definition of empowerment as a “multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives” [5]. It is the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. Access to, and use of animal vaccines is one of the elements of agricultural management for production and increasing productivity

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion