Scaling innovations for reduced and redistributed women’s unpaid care work in smallholder livestock feed provision in rural Kenya and Ethiopia

Women in rural Kenya and Ethiopia shoulder a disproportionate share of unpaid care work in their households. This limits their ability to take part in income-generating activities such as livestock rearing. By testing social and technological innovations aimed at reducing and redistributing care work, researchers and practitioners are creating new evidence to inform care policies for the agricultural sector.

Women’s double workload

While women and girls are pivotal to managing small livestock, men generally control the income and benefit most from livestock sales. In addition to farm labour, women and girls do most of the unpaid care work in the household. While the importance of women’s labour in mixed livestock systems is widely recognized, studies of women’s time input into them are limited. This project aims to inform care policies for the agricultural sector by determining which innovations can reduce women’s unpaid care work and lead to an increased sense of empowerment.

Saving time and shifting norms

To shift gender norms toward more equitable division of unpaid care responsibilities, social and technological innovations are being tested in select communities in Kenya and Ethiopia. This includes labour-saving services and tools, such as village childcare, improved livestock fodder, and donkeys to transport fodder. The project will involve dialogues and trainings at the household and community levels to promote gender equality and collective decision-making. It is also engaging the private sector to generate evidence on how commercial models of fodder and childcare provision can support gender-equality goals.