GOAT POWER: Can top-down intensification of goat production for climate resilience empower women in Zambia?

This project investigates the Government of Zambia’s initiative to intensify climate resilient goat production by supporting the training and formation of women smallholders’ goat rearing cooperatives. Goats’ adaptability and resistance to extreme weather events make them especially important as tools to achieve poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of climate change. Women are often the main caretakers of goats. Through an innovative mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, the project critically evaluates the assumption that goat intensification programmes (GIPs) contribute to¨women farmers' empowerment. The project is divided into 4 sub-projects aimed at 1) measuring empowerment status between 300 participants and non-participants in GIPs using Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI); 2) a qualitative assessment of empowerment status of 60 participants and non-participants, and participants’ subjective perceptions of GIP impacts on empowerment; 3) evaluating the adequacy of using WELI to measure empowerment in relation to qualitative approaches; and 4) bringing together stakeholders to discuss how challenges to women’s empowerment in livestock intensification can be overcome, and how opportunities for gender transformative approaches can be upscaled and replicated across contexts.